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 Buchen in Odenwald it runs 251 km to Buchen in Odenwald; allow about 3 h 13 of riding. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb, Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 62 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb.
For one stretch of the Roman frontier in Germany, the soldiers did not need to build a wall at all. Between Großkrotzenburg and Miltenberg, the Main river itself served as the border, the so-called wet Limes, guarded by a chain of forts along its western bank. Niedernberg, a village on the river just below Aschaffenburg, was one of them, with a fort and a civilian settlement beside it. Little survives above ground today; the remains lie beneath fields and houses. But the Main still flows past, broad and slow, and it is easy to picture patrol boats and soldiers watching the far bank. The site is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
The Wetterau is a broad, fertile basin north of Frankfurt, a land of rich loess soils, wheat fields, orchards and old villages, and the Romans wanted it badly. Their frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, bulged out here to take in the whole basin, looping around it in a wide arc. At Ober-Florstadt stood a fort with a civilian settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. Today little is visible, but the site is part of the World Heritage frontier, and information boards help to picture the scene.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb, 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.
Back at Fortlet Holderbusch. That is the ride.
Fortlet Holderbusch → Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb → Fortlet Holderbusch is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.