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 349 km round trip from Erlenbach am Main - roughly 4 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Ruine Altenmuster and Speyer Cathedral. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 53 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
For a stretch of about fifty kilometres, the Roman frontier of Upper Germany did not need a wall at all. Between Großkrotzenburg and Miltenberg, the Main river itself served as the border, and the Romans lined its western bank with forts and watchtowers to watch over the water and the forested hills of the Spessart on the other side. Wörth am Main had one of these forts, with a civil settlement where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. Very little remains above ground, but this wet frontier is inscribed as part of the Upper German Limes, and standing on the riverbank you can see why the Romans thought the river was enough.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Wörth write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Wörth is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
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 comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt.
On a low hill above Darmstadt, at the very end of the nineteenth century, the young Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse decided to gather artists and let them build a new way of living. The Mathildenhöhe became an artists' colony from 1899, and its buildings are some of the best Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau, anywhere. UNESCO listed the ensemble in 2021. Joseph Maria Olbrich designed most of the first generation, including the exhibition hall and the tall Wedding Tower, with its fingers of brick at the top, finished in 1908 as a gift for the Grand Duke's marriage.
Read the complete Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt. Next is Ruine Altenmuster.
Lorsch Abbey, founded in the eighth century, became one of the most powerful monasteries of the Carolingian empire, with vast estates, a famous library and the patronage of Charlemagne himself. Its first home, however, was not on the site of the later abbey, but a short distance away, on an island in the Weschnitz river, a place known as Altenmünster, the old minster. The ruins of that first foundation, a few low walls in a meadow, are a quiet counterpoint to the abbey's most famous building, the Torhalle, a gatehouse with a façade of red and white stone panels, one of the few surviving examples of Carolingian architecture. The abbey and Altenmünster together have been on the UNESCO list since 1991.
Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ruine Altenmuster, about halfway. Next is Speyer Cathedral.
Some buildings impress you with height, others with mass. Speyer Cathedral does it with both, rising from the left bank of the Rhine with six towers and a long, rhythmic nave of red sandstone. It was begun around 1030 by the emperor Conrad II, the first of the Salian dynasty, and is generally considered the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world. Its crypt, a forest of sturdy columns and striped arches, holds the tombs of several emperors and kings, which tells you how central this town once was to the Holy Roman Empire.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Speyer Cathedral sits at 165 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ruine Altenmuster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ruine Altenmuster comes up about 241 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 273 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt. Next is back through 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.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Wörth.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Wörth write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 349 km.
Fort site and civil settlement of Wörth → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt → Ruine Altenmuster is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ruine Altenmuster → Speyer Cathedral is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Speyer Cathedral → back through Ruine Altenmuster is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ruine Altenmuster → back through Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Fort site and civil settlement of Wörth is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.