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 177 km to Wassertrüdingen; allow about 3 h 17 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15, Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85, Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 and back through Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Romantische Strasse, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15.
Dinkelsbühl looks like a stage set, and the people who live there have worked hard to keep it that way. The old town, with its ring of walls, towers and gates, its half-timbered houses and the huge Gothic church of St George, survived the wars and the bombing that destroyed so many German towns, and it is one of the best preserved medieval towns on the Romantic Road. Each July the Kinderzeche, a festival that recalls the story of local children who saved the town during the Thirty Years' War, fills the streets with costumes and music.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85.
In the forests near Ellwangen the Roman frontier changes character. Here the Upper Germanic Limes, with its timber palisade and ditch, meets the Raetian Limes, which the Romans eventually built as a stone wall, and the stretch of watchtowers numbered 12/69 to 12/85 runs through the farmland and woods east of the Jagst. Archaeologists number the towers with slashes and digits, which makes them sound like spare parts, but each one was a small stone or timber post with a few soldiers watching the border, passing signals along the line. Together they form part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
The Romans called it the edge of the world they cared about, and in the Rems valley east of Schwäbisch Gmünd you can still trace where they drew the line. A string of watchtower sites, numbered by archaeologists along the stretch between Mögglingen, Heuchlingen and Böbingen, marks the course of the Raetian Limes, the frontier that guarded the province of Raetia in the second and third centuries. Here the frontier was a stone wall, which later locals, puzzled by the long ruined bank, called the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 sits at 111 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 comes up about 152 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 → Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 → Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 → Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → back through Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 → back through Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/13 to 13/15 → Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.