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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 312 km round trip from Buchen in Odenwald - roughly 5 h 43 in the saddle. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13, Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the, Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau and Building remains south of the watchtower W. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Holderbusch is a small piece of woodland above the Odenwald plateau, close to Buchen, where the Romans placed a fortlet on the Odenwald Limes about the middle of the second century. This part of the Upper Germanic frontier was, for much of its length, a simple palisade and ditch, running in an astonishingly straight line across hills and valleys from the Main to the Neckar. A fortlet was a small post, a few dozen soldiers behind a bank and ditch, and from here the watchtowers on each side could be reached on foot within minutes. The ground is marked by gentle swellings in the forest floor and a path with explanatory signs, and the walk takes less than half an hour.
Read the complete Fortlet Holderbusch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Holderbusch is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13.
Götz von Berlichingen, the knight with the iron hand, was born at Jagsthausen castle in about 1480, and he would probably be amused to know that he is best remembered today for a rude phrase. In Goethe's play about him, Götz tells an imperial messenger exactly what the emperor can do, a line that every German knows. The castle still stands in the village, now a hotel, and in summer the Burgfestspiele, an open-air theatre festival, stages the play in the castle courtyard. Long before Götz, the Romans were here too: a fort stood at Jagsthausen on the line of the Upper Germanic Limes, and in the hills around, a series of watchtowers, numbered by archaeologists as WP 9/2 to 9/13, kept watch along the frontier.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the.
Mainhardt sits on a ridge in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, and the Roman frontier ran right through it, on its way south in one of the longest straight lines ever drawn across European landscape. Here, the Upper Germanic Limes runs for some eighty kilometres from Walldürn to near Welzheim almost perfectly straight, ignoring hills and valleys, as if surveyors had laid a ruler on the map. The watchtowers numbered in this section stood along that line in the forest, and Mainhardt had a fort, whose site is marked in the village, with a small museum.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau.
Jagsthausen is a village of around fifteen hundred people in the Jagst valley of northern Württemberg, and it punches far above its weight in history. The Romans built a fort here on the Upper German-Raetian Limes, with a civilian settlement and a bath house, part of the UNESCO-listed frontier. But the village is better known for a later resident: Götz von Berlichingen, the knight with the iron hand, who was born in the castle here around 1480. He lost his right hand in battle and had a mechanical one made, led peasants in the war of 1525, and became the hero of a play by Goethe that contains a famously rude line that Germans still quote.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau, 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 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau comes up about 191 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 232 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13, late in the day. Next is Fortlet Holderbusch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Holderbusch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 312 km.
Fortlet Holderbusch → Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 → Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the → Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau → Building remains south of the watchtower W is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Building remains south of the watchtower W → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau → back through Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the → back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 → Fortlet Holderbusch is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.