CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
320 km from Ingolstadt to Ingolstadt, about 5 h 29 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo, fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh, Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho and Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 37 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
North of the Danube, on the edge of the Franconian Jura, the Romans built a string of forts behind the Raetian frontier to guard the river valley and the roads leading to it. Kösching, today a market town near Ingolstadt, was the site of one of them, an auxiliary fort with a civilian settlement around it, home to craftsmen, traders and the families of soldiers. Little is visible today, as the modern town has grown over it, but the site is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. The Danube valley was a busy corridor in Roman times, and remains so today.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Kösching write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Kösching is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo.
Between Greding and Eichstätt, the Raetian Limes runs across the high Franconian Jura plateau, and the names on the map, WP 14/63 to 14/78, are archaeologists' shorthand for a sequence of Roman watchtower sites along this section of the frontier. The Raetian Limes was the wall part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Here, the Romans built a stone wall rather than the timber palisade used further west. Locals later called the remains the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, believing nothing human could have built it.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo comes up 38 km in. Next is fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh.
The Romans called it Iciniacum, and for a century and a half it was home to a cavalry unit guarding the Raetian frontier in what is now Middle Franconia. The fort at Theilenhofen, near Gunzenhausen in Bavaria, lay just behind the Limes, the frontier wall that here was built of stone, running across the landscape from the Danube toward the Main. Today there is little above ground, but information panels by the site and the line of the fort traced in the fields help visitors picture it. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
76 km in you reach fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho.
There is nothing to climb at Ruffenhofen, and that is the clever part. The Roman fort here, on gently rising ground above the Wörnitz near Weiltingen and Wittelshofen, has never been rebuilt in stone. Instead, the outline of the walls, gates and the buildings of the settlement around it has been traced across the fields with hedges, trees and mown strips, so the whole place reads like a plan drawn in plants. From the little viewing hill you can see the shape of a garrison that has been underground for seventeen centuries.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho, about halfway. 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.
Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho comes up 190 km in. Next is back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
228 km in you reach back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Kösching.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Kösching write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 320 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Kösching → Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo → fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh → Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho → Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho → back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh → back through Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo → Fort site and civil settlement of Kösching is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.