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 Florstadt it runs 362 km to Florstadt; allow about 5 h 31 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, Messel Pit Fossil Site, Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur and Watchtower WP 7/37. 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 40 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Great forts are rare on the Limes; most of the frontier was watchtowers, small timber and later stone posts within sight of each other, each with a handful of men and a fire for signalling. The towers numbered 5/15 and 5/16 stood near Großkrotzenburg, at the point where the land frontier coming down from the Wetterau met the Main, and from here southward the river itself became the border as far as Miltenberg. Little of them remains to see, but the location tells the story: the Romans used water where they could and built palisades only where they had to.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Messel Pit Fossil Site.
Forty-seven million years ago, in a warm, subtropical world, a deep volcanic lake lay where the forest near Messel now stands, a few kilometres northeast of Darmstadt. The lake's depths were starved of oxygen, and animals that fell or sank into it were preserved in fine layers of mud with extraordinary detail: not just skeletons, but skin, feathers, fur, the contents of stomachs and even the colours of beetles' wings. Over time the mud turned into oil shale, which was mined here from the nineteenth century until 1971. After mining ended, there were plans to turn the pit into a rubbish dump; scientists and local people fought the plan, and in 1995 the pit became Germany's first natural World Heritage site.
Read the complete Messel Pit Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Messel Pit Fossil Site. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur.
Obernburg stands on the Main, in the bend where the river leaves the Spessart forest and turns north, and for a time in the second century it was the frontier of the Roman world. The Odenwald Limes, the earlier version of the frontier, ran along the hills to the south and reached the river near here, and a fort was built on the bank to guard the crossing. A civil settlement grew beside it, and finds from both are shown in the town's small Roman museum, which stands on the site and has a collection of tombstones, tools and pottery.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 7/37.
The Romans liked straight lines, and nowhere more than here. On the edge of Walldürn, in the hilly country between the Odenwald and the Tauber valley, runs the course of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the frontier wall that marked the edge of the Roman Empire across what is now southern Germany. Watchtower WP 7/37 is one of hundreds of small posts that lined it, each within sight of the next, so that signals could be passed along the frontier. The Limes here famously runs almost dead straight for many kilometres, regardless of hills and valleys, a statement of Roman confidence and surveying skill.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 7/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 7/37 sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur comes up about 229 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Messel Pit Fossil Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Messel Pit Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 274 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Messel Pit Fossil Site. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, late in the day. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
The route ends here after 362 km.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Messel Pit Fossil Site is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Messel Pit Fossil Site → Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur → Watchtower WP 7/37 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 7/37 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Obernbur → back through Messel Pit Fossil Site is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Messel Pit Fossil Site → back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.