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.
A 228 km round trip from Holzhausen an der Haide - roughly 3 h 30 in the saddle. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86, Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a, Remagen and back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a. 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 49 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the second century, the Roman frontier in Germany ran across the hills of the Taunus north of the Rhine as a line of wooden palisades, ditches, earth banks, watchtowers and forts, stretching over five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, as it is called, is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, listed by UNESCO in 2005, and the fortlet of Pfarrhofen, near Holzhausen an der Haide in the western Taunus, is one of the many small installations along its course. A fortlet was a small fort with a garrison of a few dozen men, guarding a road crossing or a section of the frontier between larger forts.
Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86.
The Limes was a long wall, in effect, that stretched for about 550 kilometres across Germany, from the Rhine near Koblenz to the Danube near Regensburg. It was built in stages from the first century AD, starting as a line of wooden watchtowers and a cleared strip through the forest, and then gaining a ditch, a palisade and, in places, a wall. The watchtowers were numbered by the German scholars who surveyed the line in the late nineteenth century, hence the codes such as WP 1/83, which mean watchpost number 83 in section 1. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes was listed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Between Rengsdorf and Anhausen the Westerwald is open farmland and beech woods, and a Roman frontier ran straight through it. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, started on the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran for hundreds of kilometres to the Danube, a line of timber towers, a palisade, and in places a ditch and bank. The code WP 1/39 a is not poetry, it is bookkeeping: the old German Reichs-Limeskommission numbered the frontier by section and then by watchtower, and archaeologists still use their numbers. Here, a section of the line survives as a low bank and shallow hollow in the grass, which you will walk past without noticing unless someone points it out.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a. Next is Remagen.
On 7 March 1945, soldiers of the US 9th Armored Division reached Remagen and found the Ludendorff railway bridge across the Rhine still standing, despite German attempts to blow it. They rushed across, and for the first time the Allies had a foothold on the far bank of the great river. Ten days later the damaged bridge collapsed, but by then pontoons had been built and the war in the west had entered its last chapter. What remains today are the black stone towers on both banks, and those on the Remagen side house a small peace museum telling the story with honesty and without glorification.
Read the complete Remagen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Remagen, about halfway. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a sits at 113 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 comes up about 201 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortlet of Pfarrhofen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen closes the day.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen → Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a → Remagen is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Remagen → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a → back through Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/83 to 1/86 → Fortlet of Pfarrhofen is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.