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 Wachtberg it runs 335 km to Wachtberg; allow about 6 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10, Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe, Watchtower WP 2/31 and Watchtower WP 3/23*. 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 36 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
South of Bonn, between the Rhine and the Eifel foothills, the Kottenforst is a big forest that most people drive around and few really enter. For centuries it was a hunting forest of the Electors of Cologne, who ran straight rides through the trees for their parties, and some of those long avenues survive as forest tracks. Oak and beech dominate, with ponds and damp hollows where the Villiper Bach, a small stream, begins its journey toward the Rhine. In spring the floor is carpeted with wood anemones, and in autumn the leaf litter smells sharp and sweet.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10.
Rheinbrohl is where the Roman frontier of Upper Germany began. Here, on the east bank of the Rhine between Bonn and Koblenz, the Limes left the river and struck off inland, running across hills and valleys for more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube near Regensburg. The first watchtowers, numbered 1/1 onwards, stood in the hills above the town, and the stretch from 1/3 to 1/10 climbs from the Rhine valley into the forests of the Westerwald. The Römerwelt museum in Rheinbrohl, at the start of the Limes, brings Roman frontier life to life with reconstructions, hands-on exhibits and a reconstructed watchtower nearby.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe.
On the heights above the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Koblenz, the suburb of Niederberg sits on top of a Roman fort. It is one of the forts of the Upper Germanic Limes, which ran through the hills here a few kilometres back from the river, and the label refers to the fort site and the civilian settlement that grew up around it, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Not much is visible today, as the area is built over, but the location explains a great deal.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe. Next is Watchtower WP 2/31.
Holzhausen an der Haide is a small village on the high ground of the western Taunus, between the Rhine and the Lahn, and it has one of the better-preserved Roman fort sites along the Limes. The stone walls of Kastell Holzhausen still stand to a modest height in the fields just outside the village, outlining the fort's rectangle with its rounded corners and gates. Watchtower WP 2/31 belongs to the chain of towers that linked forts like this one along the frontier, and in this open landscape you can easily imagine the signals passing from hill to hill.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 2/31, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 3/23*.
On the wooded ridges near Idstein, the Taunus Limes crossed some of its highest and most remote ground, and Watchtower WP 3/23 is one of the many sites along this stretch. The asterisk in the official label suggests a site whose exact location is uncertain or reconstructed from survey work, which is common along the frontier, where many towers survive only as faint mounds in the forest. Still, walking the Limes trail here, with the bank and ditch running through the beech woods, gives a real sense of the Roman border.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/23* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/23* sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 2/31.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 2/31 comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 248 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 335 km.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach → Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe → Watchtower WP 2/31 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 2/31 → Watchtower WP 3/23* is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/23* → back through Watchtower WP 2/31 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 2/31 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe → back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.