CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
82 km from Bad Schwalbach to Bad Schwalbach, about 1 h 23 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 2/31, Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort and back through Watchtower WP 2/31. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 20 km this is Rhine Romantic 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 Watchtower WP 2/31.
Holzhausen an der Haide is a small village on the high ground of the western Taunus, between the Rhine and the Lahn, and it has one of the better-preserved Roman fort sites along the Limes. The stone walls of Kastell Holzhausen still stand to a modest height in the fields just outside the village, outlining the fort's rectangle with its rounded corners and gates. Watchtower WP 2/31 belongs to the chain of towers that linked forts like this one along the frontier, and in this open landscape you can easily imagine the signals passing from hill to hill.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 2/31 comes up 19 km in. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.
Between the Lahn and the Rhine, the Roman frontier crossed a high, wooded plateau known locally as the Einrich, and the watchtowers from 2/7 to 2/13 stood on this stretch, near the village of Dachsenhausen. In the forest, the earth bank and ditch can still be followed, and small forts, built to house the soldiers who manned the towers, have left their outlines in the ground. Here, as elsewhere in Germany, the Limes belongs to the frontiers of the Roman Empire on the World Heritage list, but the forest is quiet, and you may walk the line for an hour without meeting anyone.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
38 km in you reach Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort. Next is back through Watchtower WP 2/31.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 2/31, late in the day. 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.
Back at Fortlet Adolfseck. That is the ride.
Fortlet Adolfseck → Watchtower WP 2/31 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 2/31 → Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort → back through Watchtower WP 2/31 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 2/31 → Fortlet Adolfseck is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.