CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Arzbach it runs 177 km to Arzbach; allow about 3 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30, Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci, Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 and back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Arzbach sits a few kilometres north of the Lahn, in the wooded Westerwald hills behind Bad Ems, and it is one of those places where the Roman Empire left a mark you have to squint to see. The fort and its civil settlement belonged to the Upper German-Raetian frontier, the Limes, which ran for hundreds of kilometres from the Rhine near Rheinbrohl all the way to the Danube. Here it was a ditch, a rampart and a timber palisade, studded with watchtowers within sight of one another. Nothing grand survives above ground in the village itself. What you get is the lie of the land: a ridge chosen because a sentry could see from it, and a settlement that grew beside the soldiers because soldiers need bread, boots and beer.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach is where the day begins. Next is Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30.
Kastell Holzhausen is one of the best-preserved Roman forts along the German Limes, and it lies in a forest clearing near the village of Holzhausen an der Haide in the western Taunus, where the remains of its stone walls, gates and corner towers still stand to a height of a metre or more. The fort housed an auxiliary cohort of several hundred soldiers in the second and third centuries, and it guarded a section of the frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, along with a chain of watchtowers spaced at regular intervals along the line. The watchtowers numbered WP 2/26 to 2/30, part of the UNESCO listing, stood on this section between the fort and its neighbours.
Read the complete Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
The Taunus is the green upland that keeps Frankfurt's weekend riders sane, and running right across it is the line of the Roman frontier. The stretch of watchtowers numbered 3/1 to 3/14 lies near Taunusstein, north of Wiesbaden, where the Upper Germanic Limes crossed the ridge, and it includes the remains of forts and their civilian settlements. One of the best known nearby is the fort of Zugmantel, near the hamlet of Orlen, where the outline of the fort, the palisade line and reconstructed watchtowers give a real sense of the frontier. The whole line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44.
The Taunus is the low, forested mountain range that closes in the north of the Frankfurt basin, and the Romans put their frontier along and over it. Here, near Glashütten, the line passes through high woodland at roughly four hundred metres above sea level, in an area that is cold and often foggy in winter. Towers 3/41 to 3/44 belong to the third section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the one that UNESCO recognised in 2005 together with the rest of the frontier. The Romans cleared a swathe through the forest, set up a palisade, and watched the open ground to the north, where tribes of the Chatti lived. The name Glashütten itself recalls glassmaking, once common in these forests because wood, sand and potash were all to hand.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 comes up about 148 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach closes the day.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach → Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 → Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 → Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.