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 173 km round trip from Wittelshofen - roughly 3 h 10 in the saddle. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49, Watchtower WP 14/28, Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo and back through Watchtower WP 14/28. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49.
The numbers here, 13/46 to 13/49, belong to a surveyor's grid, but the line they follow is the old Raetian frontier, which the Romans built across Bavaria in the second century. East of the town of Gunzenhausen it was turned from a simple timber palisade into a proper stone wall, a rarity in the Roman north. The locals later called this wall the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, because they could not imagine human hands had built something so straight and so long. Folk stories said that the devil had built it overnight, and that he had run out of time just before dawn.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 14/28.
Near the Franconian town of Pleinfeld, the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the frontier of the province of Raetia, crossed a landscape of woods, fields and small rivers, and a watchtower stood here, one of hundreds along the line. Watchtower WP 14/28 is now a low mound or reconstructed foundation, but it is part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. The frontier here was a stone wall, known locally as the Teufelsmauer, the devil's wall, because medieval villagers could not believe that humans had built it.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 14/28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 14/28. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 14/28.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 14/28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 14/28 sits at 112 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 comes up about 147 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho closes the day.
Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho → Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 → Watchtower WP 14/28 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 14/28 → Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo → back through Watchtower WP 14/28 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 14/28 → back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 → Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.