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 289 km round trip from Eichstätt - roughly 4 h 30 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei, Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 79 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Above the village of Pfünz, on a spur of white Jura limestone looking down into the Altmühl valley, the Romans built a fort they called Vetoniana. Today a reconstructed gate and a stretch of wall stand on the hilltop, and from up there you understand the choice at once: the valley floor curls below you, the river meanders slowly, and anyone moving along it would have been seen hours before they arrived.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei.
The name Heidenheim, the heathen's home, is old and has nothing to do with the famous city of the same name in Württemberg. This one is a small village on the Hahnenkamm ridge in Middle Franconia, with a big church for its size, and it takes you to a corner of Bavaria where the Roman frontier cuts through gentle farmland. Close to Gnotzheim, a fort and a civil settlement once stood here on the Raetian Limes, the Roman border that ran across southern Germany. Soldiers lived inside the walls while merchants, craftsmen and families huddled outside, and today the site is mostly a quiet field with the odd information board.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68.
The Roman frontier wall known as the Limes ran for more than five hundred kilometres across what is now southern Germany, from the Rhine to the Danube, and near Aalen it passed through the Kocher valley and over the hills of the Ostalb. Along its length, watchtowers were built at regular intervals, numbered by archaeologists in sequence: WP 12/60 to 12/68 are a group of tower sites near Hüttlingen, mostly now visible as low mounds or reconstructed foundations. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes was inscribed by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz. That is the ride.
Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz → Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei → Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Gnotzhei → Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.