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 Bad Schwalbach it runs 162 km to Bad Schwalbach; allow about 2 h 52 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22, Watchtower WP 1/77, Watchtowers WP 1/37 to 1/38 and back through Watchtower WP 1/77. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 28 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Aar is a small river that winds north from the Taunus towards the Lahn, through a narrow, wooded valley that has served as a route through the hills since ancient times. Where the Roman frontier crossed the valley near Adolfseck, today a district of Bad Schwalbach, the Romans built a fortlet to control the crossing, a small, square fortification with a garrison of a few dozen soldiers. The remains have been excavated and are marked on the ground, and the stretch of frontier nearby is part of the World Heritage frontiers of the Roman Empire. Above the valley, the ruins of a medieval castle, also called Adolfseck, add another layer of history.
Read the complete Fortlet Adolfseck write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Adolfseck is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22.
A few kilometres west of Miehlen, the Limes crosses the Einrich, a high, open plateau of fields and meadows between the Rhine and the Lahn, and the stretch with watchtowers 2/20 to 2/22, near Singhofen and Holzhausen an der Haide, is one of the quietest parts of the whole frontier. Nearby, the fort of Holzhausen is one of the best-preserved Roman forts on the Limes, with its stone walls, gates and corner towers clearly visible in the forest, a rare sight on a frontier where most remains have vanished into the fields. The whole line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 1/77.
In the hills of the Westerwald, east of Koblenz, the Roman frontier ran from the Rhine up across the high ground towards the Taunus, and archaeologists have numbered every tower site along it. Watchtower WP 1/77, near the villages of Kadenbach and Arzbach, is one of them, now marked by a low mound or reconstructed foundations in the woods. The frontier here was a palisade of timber and later an earth bank and ditch, with towers every few hundred metres, and the whole system is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/77 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 1/77. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/37 to 1/38.
Two numbered watchtower sites on the Roman frontier sit here in the Westerwald countryside above the Rhine, near the villages of Melsbach and Rengsdorf. The paired label is archaeologists' shorthand, because the Upper Germanic Limes was a chain of towers placed within sight of one another, a few hundred metres apart. These two were part of the line that ran from the Rhine near Rheinbrohl across the hills of Rhineland-Palatinate and on towards the Taunus, and the whole frontier is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 2005 as part of the larger Roman Limes complex.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/37 to 1/38 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/37 to 1/38, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/77.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/77 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 1/77 sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 comes up about 137 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortlet Adolfseck.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Adolfseck write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Adolfseck closes the day.
Fortlet Adolfseck → Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 → Watchtower WP 1/77 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/77 → Watchtowers WP 1/37 to 1/38 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/37 to 1/38 → back through Watchtower WP 1/77 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/77 → back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 → Fortlet Adolfseck is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.