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 Alfter it runs 303 km to Alfter; allow about 5 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2, Watchtower WP 1/64, Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a and Watchtower WP 1/65. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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.
Bornheim is asparagus country, and if you ride past the Kottenforst in late spring you will see why. The sandy soil on the Rhine terraces just south of Cologne suits the white spears perfectly, and from roughly April to the end of June the farm stands along the roads sell them by the kilo, along with strawberries that follow soon afterwards. This is the Vorgebirge, a low ridge between the Rhine plain and the Eifel foothills, long used for market gardening and orchards, and the Weißer Stein stop sits in the woodland at its edge.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 is where the day begins. 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.
Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 1/64. Next is Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a.
Two thousand years ago, the frontier of the Roman Empire in Germany began right here. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a line of watchtowers, forts, palisades and ditches stretching more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube, started on the right bank of the Rhine at Rheinbrohl, and the watchtowers numbered WP 1/1 and onwards marched away from the river into the wooded hills. This little section between Rheinbrohl and Bad Hönningen is the very beginning of the line, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 1/65.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is the capital of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' land, a corner of the Westerwald where the clay is so good that people have been making pots from it for five hundred years. The grey stoneware, fired at high temperature and decorated in cobalt blue, was exported across Europe in the form of jugs, tankards and bottles, and the workshops and kilns still fill the town. The German Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen is one of the best of its kind, with objects from medieval jugs to modern art.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/65 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/65 sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a comes up about 189 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 222 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 1/64. 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 303 km.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 → Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 is 45 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 → Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a → Watchtower WP 1/65 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/65 → back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a → back through Watchtower WP 1/64 is 33 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 → Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.