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 411 km to Alfter; allow about 4 h 50 of riding. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo, Porta Nigra and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A forest closer to a city than most people realise, the Kottenforst spreads over a low ridge between Bonn and the Eifel foothills, and the Dürrenbruch is one of the quiet corners of its northern half. The old prince-electors of Cologne used it as a hunting ground, cutting long straight rides through the trees that radiate like the spokes of a wheel, which is why the forest feels strangely geometrical when you look at a map. Today it is a Bonn-area refuge of beech, oak and hornbeam, cut by cycle paths and walking trails.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo.
The Roman frontier in Germany, the Limes, begins at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl, and a few kilometres upstream the town of Neuwied sits on the river, its district of Heddesdorf lying on the site of a Roman auxiliary fort. The fort was one of a chain of garrison posts in the Neuwied basin, a wide, fertile bowl of the Rhine valley with a mild climate, and the soldiers who lived here controlled the river crossing and the road toward the frontier. A civil settlement, a vicus, grew beside the fort, with traders, craftsmen and families. Nothing stands today above ground, because the fort lies under houses and streets, and what survives is documented in the finds in the local museum, in markers and in the street plan.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Porta Nigra.
The Porta Nigra is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps, and it has been standing, in one form or another, for roughly eighteen centuries. Built in the second century from huge blocks of sandstone cut so precisely that they were held together with iron clamps instead of mortar, it once formed the northern entrance to Augusta Treverorum, the Roman city on the Moselle. The stone has weathered to a dark grey, almost black, which gave rise to the medieval name, the black gate, though the Romans themselves would have seen a pale, honey-coloured building.
Read the complete Porta Nigra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 205 km into the recorded legs you reach Porta Nigra. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1. That is the ride.
Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 → Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo → Porta Nigra is 133 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Porta Nigra → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo is 133 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Heddesdo → Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.