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.
A 305 km round trip from Murrhardt - roughly 5 h 11 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh, Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B, Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 and Watchtowers WP 14/1 to 14/27 including the. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 35 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
A Roman cohort fort once stood where Murrhardt's streets now run, on the Upper Germanic Limes as it cut south through the forest toward Welzheim, and a civilian settlement of traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families grew up around it. Some remains have been found under the town, and the local museum tells the story. The Romans left, but the site remained attractive, and in the early Middle Ages a monastery was founded here, associated with Saint Walterich, a hermit whose small chapel, the Walterichskapelle, is a jewel of late Romanesque architecture.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Murrhard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Murrhard is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh.
On the southern edge of Schwäbisch Gmünd, near the Schirenhof farm, the outline of a Roman fort and the foundations of its bath house lie in the grass, with walls and hypocaust heating systems laid out for visitors to see. The fort guarded the point where the Upper Germanic Limes met the Raetian Limes, the two great frontier lines of Roman Germany, and a civilian settlement grew up around it. The site is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and it is one of the more rewarding Limes stops in Baden-Württemberg, with visible remains and a lovely setting above the town.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B.
Out here on the eastern edge of Württemberg, where the Jagst valley widens into rolling farmland below the Ellwangen hills, the Romans drew a line across the map and then built it in stone. The fort at Rainau-Buch, which the ride labels Reinau-B, sat just behind the Raetian Limes, the frontier that ran from the Rhine toward the Danube. What you find today is a grassy rectangle with low reconstructed wall footings, the outline of a bath house, and the traces of the civilian village that grew up outside the gate, where traders, families and off-duty soldiers lived the way garrison towns always do.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12.
Along the Wörnitz valley in western Middle Franconia, near the village of Weiltingen, the line of the Raetian Limes cuts across the countryside, and the places where Roman watchtowers once stood are numbered by archaeologists in a dry sequence: WP 13/6, 13/7, and so on. In Raetia, the frontier was not a palisade, as in Upper Germany, but a stone wall about three metres high, and local people called its remains the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, believing that only the devil could have built something so long and straight. Today, you may see a low bank in a field or a line of trees following the old route, and in some places the foundations of towers have been marked or reconstructed.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 14/1 to 14/27 including the.
Here the frontier changes character. West of the Franconian lakes the Romans built the Raetian Limes not as a palisade but, in its final form, as a stone wall, a metre or so thick and perhaps three high, running across Middle Franconia toward the Danube. Medieval villagers who found its rubble in their fields had no idea who had built it and called it the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, which tells you how thoroughly the empire had been forgotten. The watchtowers numbered in this section sat along that wall in the farmland around Pfofeld and Gunzenhausen, close to where the line crosses the Altmühl valley.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/1 to 14/27 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 14/1 to 14/27 including the sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 comes up about 192 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 224 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Murrhard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Murrhard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 305 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Murrhard → Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh → Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B → Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 → Watchtowers WP 14/1 to 14/27 including the is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 14/1 to 14/27 including the → back through Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh → Fort site and civil settlement of Murrhard is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.