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 Wassertrüdingen it runs 247 km to Wassertrüdingen; allow about 4 h 10 of riding. The stops in between: Fort site of Oberhochstatt, Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7, Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld and back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The name Heidenheim, the heathen's home, is old and has nothing to do with the famous city of the same name in Württemberg. This one is a small village on the Hahnenkamm ridge in Middle Franconia, with a big church for its size, and it takes you to a corner of Bavaria where the Roman frontier cuts through gentle farmland. Close to Gnotzheim, a fort and a civil settlement once stood here on the Raetian Limes, the Roman border that ran across southern Germany. Soldiers lived inside the walls while merchants, craftsmen and families huddled outside, and today the site is mostly a quiet field with the odd information board.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei is where the day begins. Next is Fort site of Oberhochstatt.
Not every Roman fort on the frontier was a great stone fortress. Some were small, temporary or quickly abandoned, and the fort site of Oberhochstatt, on the high plateau above Weißenburg in Bavaria, seems to have been one of these, a modest garrison post on the Raetian Limes. There is little to see today beyond a field, perhaps an information board and the outline of the defences in the grass. But the landscape around is full of Roman history, and the town of Weißenburg, a short ride away, is one of the best places in Germany to experience it.
Read the complete Fort site of Oberhochstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site of Oberhochstatt comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7.
In Bavaria, the Roman frontier changed character. Instead of the wooden palisade used in the Upper German section, the Raetian Limes was eventually built as a stone wall, known locally as the Devil's Wall, because medieval people could not imagine anyone but the devil building something so long. The stretch between Watchtowers 15/1 and 15/7 crosses the hills around the Altmühl valley, near Kipfenberg and Kinding, and the line of the wall can still be traced in places as a low ridge in the forest. It is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7. Next is Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld.
Eining is the spot where the Danube Limes and the Raetian Limes meet, or more accurately the place where the wall and ditch ran down to the river and gave way to the water as a frontier. The Romans built a fort here called Abusina, on the south bank, with walls that can still be traced in the fields and a small museum nearby. For soldiers posted to the edge of the empire it must have felt like standing at the end of the world, with the river wide and cold in front of them and Germania on the far bank. The name Unterfeld refers to the lower field beside the fort, a plain, practical label for an ordinary piece of land.
Read the complete Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site of Oberhochstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei closes the day.
Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei → Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site of Oberhochstatt → Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 → Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld → back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 → back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt → Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.