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 301 km round trip from Echzell - roughly 5 h 19 in the saddle. The stops in between: Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456, Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the, Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 and Watchtower WP 1/62. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
35 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 39 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Echzell is a village of a few thousand people in the Wetterau, the broad, fertile basin north-east of Frankfurt, where loess soil has been farmed since the Stone Age and the horizon rarely rises above a gentle swell. The Romans liked it for exactly that reason. They built a fort at Echzell in the later first century as part of their push into the Wetterau, and a civil settlement grew up around it in the usual way, with traders, craftsmen and families outside the gates. The fort later became part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005. Almost nothing of the walls stands now, and the outline lies mostly under fields and houses, so the Echzell stop is about reading a landscape rather than visiting a monument.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell is where the day begins. Next is Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456.
The Saalburg is the Roman fort that Germany rebuilt. On the crest of the Taunus north of Bad Homburg, where the Limes crossed a pass, archaeologists excavated the remains of a fort in the nineteenth century, and between 1897 and 1907, with the enthusiastic support of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was reconstructed with walls, gates, barracks and a headquarters building. Today it is a museum and archaeological park, and the civil settlement, or vicus, that grew up outside the fort lies east of the B 456 road. It is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the.
In the hills of the Taunus north of Wiesbaden, the Roman frontier ran along the ridges through dense forest, and between watchtowers 3/15 and 3/19 near Idstein, its line can still be traced on the ground. The Romans built an earth bank and ditch, topped with a wooden palisade, with stone watchtowers at regular intervals, close enough to see each other and signal along the line. In the forest, the bank and ditch survive as a long, low ridge and hollow, and the foundations of watchtowers appear as low mounds, sometimes with a few stones visible. The Upper Germanic and Raetian Limes, more than five hundred kilometres long, has been a World Heritage site since 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22.
A few kilometres west of Miehlen, the Limes crosses the Einrich, a high, open plateau of fields and meadows between the Rhine and the Lahn, and the stretch with watchtowers 2/20 to 2/22, near Singhofen and Holzhausen an der Haide, is one of the quietest parts of the whole frontier. Nearby, the fort of Holzhausen is one of the best-preserved Roman forts on the Limes, with its stone walls, gates and corner towers clearly visible in the forest, a rare sight on a frontier where most remains have vanished into the fields. The whole line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 1/62.
Höhr-Grenzhausen smells faintly of kilns if you catch it on the right day. This small town on the western edge of the Westerwald, a few kilometres north-east of Koblenz, sits at the heart of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' country, where potters have been turning the local grey clay into salt-glazed stoneware for centuries. The Roman frontier passed right through here too, and watchtower WP 1/62 was one of the posts on the Upper Germanic Limes as it ran across these hills, now part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/62 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/62 sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 comes up about 190 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 227 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the. Next is back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456, late in the day. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 301 km.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell → Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 → Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the → Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 → Watchtower WP 1/62 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/62 → back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/20 to 2/22 → back through Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the → back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 → Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.