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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Seligenstadt it runs 312 km to Seligenstadt; allow about 5 h 23 of riding. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur, Watchtower WP 7/37, Fortlet Lehnenwiesen and Building remains south of the watchtower W. The line favours views over speed.
Seligenstadt is one of those Main valley towns where every era has left something on the table. The Romans came first: here the frontier of the Upper German-Raetian Limes ran along the river itself, and a fort with a civilian settlement around it guarded the Main crossing. The fort site lies under the old town, so you are walking over it rather than looking at it, but the logic of the place is obvious when you stand by the water. The river was the border, the road and the supply line all at once.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur.
Obernburg stands on the Main, in the bend where the river leaves the Spessart forest and turns north, and for a time in the second century it was the frontier of the Roman world. The Odenwald Limes, the earlier version of the frontier, ran along the hills to the south and reached the river near here, and a fort was built on the bank to guard the crossing. A civil settlement grew beside it, and finds from both are shown in the town's small Roman museum, which stands on the site and has a collection of tombstones, tools and pottery.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 7/37.
The Romans liked straight lines, and nowhere more than here. On the edge of Walldürn, in the hilly country between the Odenwald and the Tauber valley, runs the course of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the frontier wall that marked the edge of the Roman Empire across what is now southern Germany. Watchtower WP 7/37 is one of hundreds of small posts that lined it, each within sight of the next, so that signals could be passed along the frontier. The Limes here famously runs almost dead straight for many kilometres, regardless of hills and valleys, a statement of Roman confidence and surveying skill.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 7/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 7/37. Next is Fortlet Lehnenwiesen.
Götz von Berlichingen, the knight with the iron hand, was born in Jagsthausen around 1480, and he is remembered for a rude phrase he supposedly shouted at an enemy, made famous by Goethe in his play about the knight. Jagsthausen's castle, where Götz grew up, hosts an open-air theatre festival every summer, and the iron hand, a prosthesis he wore after losing his right hand in battle, is displayed there. A few kilometres away, in the fields near Widdern, the fortlet of Lehnenwiesen was a small Roman post on the Upper Germanic Limes, part of the chain of forts and watchtowers that ran through this landscape.
Read the complete Fortlet Lehnenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Lehnenwiesen, about halfway. Next is Building remains south of the watchtower W.
Mainhardt sits high in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, between Heilbronn and Schwäbisch Hall, on a wooded plateau that the Romans chose for one of the forts guarding their frontier. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes runs through here on its long, ruler-straight stretch heading south towards Welzheim, and along it stood watchtowers every few hundred metres, with small buildings nearby for the soldiers who manned them. The remains south of one of these towers are modest, low foundations in a clearing or under the forest floor, but they are part of the World Heritage frontier that runs for more than five hundred kilometres across Germany. The village has a small Roman museum that explains the fort and its garrison.
Read the complete Building remains south of the watchtower W write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Building remains south of the watchtower W sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortlet Lehnenwiesen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Lehnenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortlet Lehnenwiesen comes up about 197 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 7/37.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 7/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 233 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 7/37. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 312 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur → Watchtower WP 7/37 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 7/37 → Fortlet Lehnenwiesen is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Lehnenwiesen → Building remains south of the watchtower W is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Building remains south of the watchtower W → back through Fortlet Lehnenwiesen is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet Lehnenwiesen → back through Watchtower WP 7/37 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 7/37 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.