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 Bayenthal it runs 220 km to Bayenthal; allow about 3 h 54 of riding. It goes by way of Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1, Iversheim, Fortlet Rheinbohl and back through Iversheim. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 26 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Roman navy is not the first thing most people associate with Cologne, but for almost two centuries the Rhine fleet, the Classis Germanica, had its main base here at Alteburg, just south of the Roman city. The fort sat on a terrace above the river in what is now the leafy district of Marienburg, near Bayenthal, and from here warships patrolled the Rhine, carried supplies and soldiers, and kept watch on the frontier. The site belongs to the Lower Germanic Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021, though today it lies mostly under villas, streets and gardens, with only traces and information boards to show where it stood.
Read the complete Köln-Alteburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Köln-Alteburg is where the day begins. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
The Kottenforst looks like an ordinary Rhineland woodland of oak, beech and hornbeam, with walkers, joggers and the odd horse rider, but in the second half of the first century and beyond it was a training ground for the Roman army. In clearings of the forest, the legion stationed at Bonna, today's Bonn, built a series of temporary camps as exercises, digging ditches and raising ramparts to practise the rapid construction they would need in the field. The remains of these camps, faint earthworks under the trees, are included in the Lower Germanic Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021. Am Weissen Stein is one of the northern groups.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Iversheim.
Iversheim is a village in the valley of the Erft, at the northern edge of the Eifel, just downstream from the old spa town of Bad Münstereifel. It is known for one thing: a Roman lime-burning works, one of the best preserved in Europe. The Romans built a series of kilns here to burn limestone from the surrounding hills into quicklime, which was used to make mortar for the forts, towns and roads of the province of Lower Germany. The kilns were worked by detachments of soldiers from the Rhine legions, as inscriptions found on the site show.
Read the complete Iversheim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Iversheim. Next is Fortlet Rheinbohl.
Rheinbrohl is where Germany's longest Roman frontier begins. The Upper Germanic Limes, a line of watchtowers, palisades and forts, starts at the Rhine here and runs east and south for some five hundred kilometres across Germany. At the Rheinbohl fortlet you can see the lines of a small Roman post, a few dozen soldiers who watched the river approach and the crossing over to the left bank. It is a modest place in terms of stonework, but the idea is wonderfully clear: an empire decided that this is where it ended, and put a post on the end of it.
Read the complete Fortlet Rheinbohl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet Rheinbohl, about halfway. Next is back through Iversheim.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Iversheim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Iversheim sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 comes up about 198 km into the recorded legs. Next is Köln-Alteburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Köln-Alteburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Köln-Alteburg closes the day.
Köln-Alteburg → Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → Iversheim is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Iversheim → Fortlet Rheinbohl is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Rheinbohl → back through Iversheim is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Iversheim → back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → Köln-Alteburg is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.