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 Altstadt Nord it runs 308 km to Altstadt Nord; allow about 5 h 45 of riding. The stops in between: Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3, Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2, Watchtower WP 1/64 and Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f. 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 33 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Under Cologne's town hall there is a Roman palace, and you can walk through it. The Praetorium was the residence of the governor of the province of Lower Germany, a large building complex on the edge of the Rhine that dates from the first century and grew over the next few hundred years. The city, called Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, was founded in the first century AD and named for Agrippina, the mother of the emperor Nero, who was born in a camp nearby. The remains of the palace were found during rebuilding after the Second World War, and the cellars and corridors are now open as an archaeological site.
Read the complete Köln-Praetorium write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Köln-Praetorium is where the day begins. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3.
The Kottenforst is a big woodland on a ridge west of Bonn, and for centuries it belonged to the prince-electors of Cologne, who used it as a hunting ground. Long straight rides, cut through the forest in the eighteenth century, radiate from hunting lodges, and they are still visible as avenues of beech and oak. The Elector Clemens August, who built the baroque palaces of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at nearby Bruhl, loved falconry, and the forest was part of that world. The palaces are UNESCO World Heritage, and they are a short ride away.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2.
This is where it all begins, or ends, depending on which way you are walking. At Rheinbrohl, on the east bank of the Rhine between Bonn and Koblenz, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes left the river and struck out across country, running more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube near Regensburg. The first watchtowers, numbered 1/1 and 1/2, stood here near the river, and the line can be followed into the hills from the edge of the village. The whole frontier is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and Rheinbrohl has a modern museum, the RömerWelt, which brings the frontier to life with reconstructions, exhibits and hands-on activities.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2. Next is Watchtower WP 1/64.
Höhr-Grenzhausen smells of clay and fire. The town, in the Westerwald hills north east of Koblenz, is the heart of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' land, where potters have been making salt-glazed stoneware for centuries, with its characteristic grey body and cobalt blue decoration. Westerwald stoneware jugs, mugs and pots were exported across Europe and beyond, and the craft is still alive today, with workshops, a ceramics museum and a college for ceramic design. The Roman frontier ran right past the town, and the site of watchtower WP 1/64, near Höhr-Grenzhausen, is one of the many traces of the Upper German Limes, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/64 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/64, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f.
North of the Taunus ridge, the Limes crossed a high, open plateau between the Rhine and the Lahn, and the stretch with watchtowers 2/23 to 2/26 runs through the farmland and woods near Miehlen and Singhofen in the Rhein-Lahn district. The remains here are subtle, mostly low banks and the traces of towers in fields and forest edges, but the line of the frontier is marked by the long-distance Limes trail and information boards. This is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, a stretch of the line that few visitors ever see.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/64.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/64 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 1/64 comes up about 196 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 231 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2. Next is back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3, late in the day. Next is Köln-Praetorium.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Köln-Praetorium write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 308 km.
Köln-Praetorium → Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 → Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 → Watchtower WP 1/64 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/64 → Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f → back through Watchtower WP 1/64 is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/64 → back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 → back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 3 → Köln-Praetorium is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.