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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 333 km round trip from Friedberg - roughly 5 h 44 in the saddle. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the, Watchtower WP 3/4*, Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a and Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Friedberg's castle stands on a basalt ridge above the Wetterau, a walled enclosure so large it is almost a town of its own, with a tall round tower, the Adolfsturm, rising above the trees. What most visitors walking through the castle gate do not know is that they are standing on a Roman fort. The legions chose this same ridge in the first century AD, and a fort with a civil settlement grew up here, linked by road to the Limes a few kilometres to the north and west.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the.
High in the Taunus hills northwest of Frankfurt, the Upper German Limes runs along the main ridge, and here, between Glashütten and Schmitten, a series of watchtower sites and the remains of a small fort follow the frontier through dense beech and spruce forest. The bank and ditch of the Limes are still clearly visible, winding over the hills like a long scar, and the area is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Nearby, on the Kleiner Feldberg, lie the remains of a Roman fort, and a few kilometres east, the Saalburg near Bad Homburg is a fully reconstructed fort with a museum, the best place in Germany to imagine life on the frontier.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/4*.
In the western Taunus, between Bad Schwalbach and Taunusstein, the forest is thick and the hills roll gently, and the Upper German Limes runs along the ridge here as a still visible bank and ditch. The site labelled Watchtower WP 3/4 is one of the many small posts along this section, and a few kilometres to the east, near Taunusstein-Orlen, the fort of Zugmantel guarded a crossing of the frontier on an old trade route into Germanic territory. These remains are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and a walk along the Limes trail through the forest here is peaceful and atmospheric.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 3/4*. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Up on the plateau of the Hintertaunus, north of the Rhine gorge, the Roman frontier crossed a quiet landscape of fields and forest near Singhofen, and a section of it between two watchtowers survives here as a faint bank and ditch running through the woods. This is the Upper German Limes, which ran for more than five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, marking the boundary between the Roman Empire and the free Germanic tribes from the second century until the Romans withdrew in the third. It was not a great wall like Hadrian's in Britain, but a line of watchtowers, forts and a timber palisade, later strengthened with a ditch and bank. Together with the Raetian Limes, it was listed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the.
The Upper Germanic Limes begins a few kilometres from here, at Rheinbrohl on the Rhine, and in its first miles it climbs straight up into the Westerwald. Watchtowers numbered WP 1/41 to 1/50 mark a short run of that frontier in the wooded hills behind Neuwied and Bendorf, near the villages of Stromberg, Anhausen and Heimbach-Weis. Do not expect towers. What remains is a low bank, a ditch you can trace through the beech trunks, and here and there the outline of a tower base marked by archaeologists.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/4*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 251 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 3/4*. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 333 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber → Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the → Watchtower WP 3/4* is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/4* → Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → back through Watchtower WP 3/4* is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/4* → back through Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the → Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.