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.
338 km from Neuwied to Neuwied, about 5 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort, Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just, Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 and Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Roman frontier in Germany, the Limes, begins at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl, and a few kilometres upstream the town of Neuwied sits on the river, its district of Heddesdorf lying on the site of a Roman auxiliary fort. The fort was one of a chain of garrison posts in the Neuwied basin, a wide, fertile bowl of the Rhine valley with a mild climate, and the soldiers who lived here controlled the river crossing and the road toward the frontier. A civil settlement, a vicus, grew beside the fort, with traders, craftsmen and families. Nothing stands today above ground, because the fort lies under houses and streets, and what survives is documented in the finds in the local museum, in markers and in the street plan.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.
Between the Lahn and the Rhine, the Roman frontier crossed a high, wooded plateau known locally as the Einrich, and the watchtowers from 2/7 to 2/13 stood on this stretch, near the village of Dachsenhausen. In the forest, the earth bank and ditch can still be followed, and small forts, built to house the soldiers who manned the towers, have left their outlines in the ground. Here, as elsewhere in Germany, the Limes belongs to the frontiers of the Roman Empire on the World Heritage list, but the forest is quiet, and you may walk the line for an hour without meeting anyone.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Bad Schwalbach is a spa town that never quite lost its nineteenth-century manners: a long, leafy valley, a Kurpark with pavilions, and iron-rich springs that once drew the fashionable from across Europe to take the waters. Just above it, on the high ground of the Taunus, the Roman frontier ran through the forests, and the stretch catalogued as watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 passes within a few kilometres of the town. Here the Upper German Limes followed the ridge, with wooden and later stone towers set at intervals within sight of one another, a palisade in front, and a ditch and bank added later. In the beech woods you can still trace the low line of the bank in places, a quiet scar running through the trees for kilometre after kilometre.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just. 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 Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the.
Near Butzbach the Wetterau starts to break against the Taunus, and the Roman frontier passes through that transition with a long series of numbered watchtowers, in this case 4/20 to 4/36. It is a longer run than most, and it reflects how carefully the Romans watched this side of the line, where the open plain makes a natural highway for anyone coming from the north. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, crosses farmland here, and in places the old rampart survives as a low bank in a meadow edge or a stretch of forest.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 comes up about 224 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 267 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 338 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo → Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort → Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the → back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort → Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.