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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
313 km from Mainhardt to Mainhardt, about 5 h 24 of riding. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau, Fort Altheimer Strasse, Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur and Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens. The line favours views over speed.
The Swabian-Franconian Forest is a country of ridges and ravines northeast of Stuttgart, and the Mainhardt area lies on its northern edge, where the hills drop to wide clearings of meadow. The Romans pushed their frontier through here in the second century, building a line of watchtowers, small forts and a wooden palisade, and at Mainhardt they placed a larger fort, with smaller fortlets such as the one at Herrenwiesen along the frontier line. A fortlet was a compact post for a handful of soldiers who watched the forest, signalled to the next tower and checked travellers at the border.
Read the complete Fortlet Mainhardt-Herrenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Mainhardt-Herrenwiesen is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort Altheimer Strasse.
Walldürn is a small town on the eastern edge of the Odenwald, where the hills of the forest give way to the open plateau of the Bauland, and the Roman frontier ran right through it. The Upper Germanic Limes followed a straight line here, and the town had a fort and a bathhouse, whose remains have been excavated and partly reconstructed. Fort Altheimer Strasse, named after the road where it was found, was one of the smaller installations along the line, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Fort Altheimer Strasse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort Altheimer Strasse. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur.
For a stretch of about fifty kilometres the Romans let the River Main do the work of a wall. Between Miltenberg and Grosskrotzenburg, the frontier of the Upper Germanic Limes followed the river instead of running as a palisade across country, and a chain of forts sat along its west bank. Trennfurt, a village now part of Klingenberg am Main, was one of them: a fort with its civilian settlement, the vicus, where traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families lived. It is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and as with many Limes sites, most of what survives lies under fields and gardens rather than standing proud.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur, about halfway. 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 sits at 157 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur comes up about 200 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort Altheimer Strasse.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort Altheimer Strasse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 240 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort Altheimer Strasse. 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, late in the day. Next is Fortlet Mainhardt-Herrenwiesen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Mainhardt-Herrenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 313 km.
Fortlet Mainhardt-Herrenwiesen → Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau → Fort Altheimer Strasse is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort Altheimer Strasse → Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur → back through Fort Altheimer Strasse is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort Altheimer Strasse → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau → Fortlet Mainhardt-Herrenwiesen is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.