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.
184 km from Ober-Mörlen to Ober-Mörlen, about 2 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57, Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl, Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 and back through Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl. 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 27 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Elvis Presley spent his military service in Friedberg, a few kilometres from here, from 1958 to 1960, and lived in a rented house in the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where fans still leave messages on the wall outside and a square in the town bears his name. But nearly two thousand years earlier, other soldiers served in this region. The Roman frontier of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a World Heritage site, ran along the edge of the Taunus hills here, and at Langenhain, near Ober-Mörlen, the Romans built a fort with a civil settlement beside it, where traders, craftsmen and the families of soldiers lived. Today, the site is mostly fields and meadows, with information boards to help you imagine the walls, gates and buildings that once stood here.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57.
The Wetterau is the broad, fertile plain north of Frankfurt, between the Taunus and the Vogelsberg, and the Romans considered it so valuable that they bent their frontier around it to include it in the empire. The Limes ran along the northern edge of the plain, and the watchtowers numbered WP 4/53 to 4/57, near the town of Lich, stood on this section, part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes listed by UNESCO in 2005. Like most watchtowers, they survive only as mounds or traces in the fields and forest, but the line of the frontier can be followed on foot or by bicycle.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl.
Out here on the eastern rim of the Wetterau, between Altenstadt, Hammersbach and the Büdingen forest, the Roman frontier did something unusual. Having come over the Taunus and swung north around the fertile plain, the Limes turned and ran almost due south towards the Main, enclosing the Wetterau like a hand cupped around something precious. The towers numbered WP 4/82 to 5/8, along with small fortlets, guarded this eastern flank, and their remains lie in fields and woodland edges where only a shallow bank or a marker stone gives them away.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Great forts are rare on the Limes; most of the frontier was watchtowers, small timber and later stone posts within sight of each other, each with a handful of men and a fire for signalling. The towers numbered 5/15 and 5/16 stood near Großkrotzenburg, at the point where the land frontier coming down from the Wetterau met the Main, and from here southward the river itself became the border as far as Miltenberg. Little of them remains to see, but the location tells the story: the Romans used water where they could and built palisades only where they had to.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl sits at 120 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 comes up about 158 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha closes the day.
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha → Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 → Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → back through Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl → back through Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/53 to 4/57 → Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.