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 Miehlen it runs 177 km to Miehlen; allow about 3 h 09 of riding. The stops in between: Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a, Watchtower WP 1/61, Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems and Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 21 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Marienfels is a small village in the hills of the western Taunus, between the Rhine and the Lahn, and it sits on the site of a Roman fort and its civilian settlement, part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. The frontier wall ran through these hills, and the fort housed a garrison that guarded the frontier and the roads that crossed it. Little remains above ground, but excavations have revealed the outline of the fort and the settlement, with houses, baths and workshops.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe is where the day begins. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a.
Bad Ems sits in a narrow, wooded bend of the Lahn river, where the valley is so steep that the town seems poured into the gap. It has been a spa since the Middle Ages, and by the nineteenth century it was one of the most fashionable in Europe. Kings, tsars and composers came to take the thermal waters, and the town is filled with grand hotels, a colonnaded Kurhaus and a Russian Orthodox church built for the Tsarist visitors. Dostoevsky came to take the cure in the 1870s, and in 1870 an incident in the park gave the town a place in history books.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 1/61.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is clay country, and that decides almost everything about this part of the Westerwald. The hills hold a thick seam of fine, high-quality stoneware clay, and for centuries the area has been known as the Kannenbäckerland, the land of the jug makers. Grey salt-glazed pottery with blue decoration, called Westerwald stoneware, was exported across Europe from here, and workshops and a ceramics museum still keep the trade alive. It is a surprising backdrop for a Roman watchtower, but the Romans were here first, and WP 1/61 is one of the numbered posts of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/61 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 1/61. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems.
Rome built in stone here, and then the town grew on top of it. Bad Ems stands where the Lahn winds through a tight gorge, and the fort and the civil settlement beside it formed a small frontier community, with soldiers, traders and families living in the shadow of the Limes. The Roman fort is now buried beneath the modern town, so the site is more an idea than a sight, but the Limes trail in the woods above makes the story easy to follow, and the town museum helps with the details.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems, about halfway. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is a town that makes things out of mud. The Westerwald plateau here sits on one of Europe's finest deposits of stoneware clay, and for centuries potters have dug it, thrown it and fired it in salt-glaze kilns to make grey-and-blue jugs, tankards and storage jars. The area is called the Kannenbäckerland, the land of the jug bakers, and its pots were shipped down the Rhine and across the world. The Westerwald Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen tells the story, and several workshops in town still sell hand-made pieces. Take a mug home and you will be surprised how heavy it is.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a sits at 66 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems comes up about 110 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/61.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/61 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 1/61. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 177 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a → Watchtower WP 1/61 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/61 → Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Bad Ems → back through Watchtower WP 1/61 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/61 → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/93 a → Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.