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 Klingenberg am Main it runs 286 km to Klingenberg am Main; allow about 4 h 48 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 7/37, Fortlet Lehnenwiesen, Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn and Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For a stretch of about fifty kilometres the Romans let the River Main do the work of a wall. Between Miltenberg and Grosskrotzenburg, the frontier of the Upper Germanic Limes followed the river instead of running as a palisade across country, and a chain of forts sat along its west bank. Trennfurt, a village now part of Klingenberg am Main, was one of them: a fort with its civilian settlement, the vicus, where traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families lived. It is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and as with many Limes sites, most of what survives lies under fields and gardens rather than standing proud.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is where the day begins. 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.
Watchtower WP 7/37 comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortlet Lehnenwiesen. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn.
Walldürn sits on the high, rolling plateau where the Odenwald meets the Bauland, a gentle landscape of fields, woods and small towns in the northeast of Baden-Württemberg. The Romans came here in the second century AD, when the Upper German Limes was pushed forward to a new line running almost straight through the countryside, and they built a small fort at Walldürn with a civil settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. The remains of a bath house have been excavated and conserved, and the line of the frontier, with its watchtowers and palisade, runs nearby. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, more than five hundred kilometres long, became a UNESCO site in 2005.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2.
The Jagst is a small, winding river in northern Württemberg, and between Jagsthausen and Möckmühl it runs through a valley of orchards, wooded slopes and half-timbered villages. The Roman frontier ran along this side of the river, and watchtowers 8/44 to 9/2 sit on the high ground above. They belong to the Upper German-Raetian Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2005, which here ran in a remarkably straight line for many kilometres, a feat of surveying that still impresses. The Romans needed to hold a rim of high ground and chose a line that ignored the little hills, which is why the old frontier looks like a ruler line across the map.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn comes up about 181 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fortlet Lehnenwiesen. 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.
back through Watchtower WP 7/37, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 286 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur → Watchtower WP 7/37 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 7/37 → Fortlet Lehnenwiesen is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Lehnenwiesen → Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn → Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn → back through Fortlet Lehnenwiesen is 35 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 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 7/37 → Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.