Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee and Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee

   The Kottenforst is a big, flat, rather mysterious forest on the plateau south-west of Bonn, crossed by long, dead-straight avenues laid out by the Electors of Cologne in the eighteenth century as hunting rides. The Bellerbuschallee is one of them, and walking or riding along it you pass oak and beech, wet hollows and the occasional deer. Under the trees, though, lie traces much older than the Electors: the low ramparts of Roman practice camps, where legionaries from Bonn learned to dig defences quickly. These camps form part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage listing inscribed in 2021.

   Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 1/51.

3. 3. Watchtower WP 1/51

   The Upper Germanic Limes does not start with a bang. Near Bendorf, on the slopes where the Westerwald drops toward the Rhine at the Neuwied basin, it is a matter of reading the woods: a low bank here, a shallow ditch there, and the spot where a Roman watchtower once stood, numbered by archaeologists as WP 1/51. The towers were placed within sight of each other, timber at first and later stone, so that a signal could pass along the frontier faster than any rider. Standing here among the beech trees you are close to the northern end of a border that ran more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/51 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 1/51. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.

4. 4. Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6

   WP 2/5 and 2/6 sound like spare parts, but they are the numbers archaeologists gave to two watchtower positions on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the fortified frontier Rome drew across southern Germany. Here, in the hills above the Lahn near Bad Ems, the line ran up from the Rhine and over the high ground, and every few hundred metres a tower stood with a view to the next. Today most of what survives are low mounds, traces of the bank and ditch, and in some places a reconstructed tower to give you scale. The whole frontier became part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire in 2005.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/51.

5. 5. back through Watchtower WP 1/51

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/51 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Watchtower WP 1/51 sits at 111 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2.

6. 6. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Watchtowers WP 1/1 to 1/2 comes up about 145 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.

7. 7. Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee closes the day.