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.
102 km from Bad Ems to Bad Ems, about 1 h 26 of riding. The stops in between: Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a, Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 and back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 29 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Along this part of the Limes, between Arzbach, Dausenau and Kadenbach, the Roman frontier cuts across the hills above the Lahn valley, and the numbered watchtower positions, here around the 1/24 to 1/26 group, give the section its identity. A watchtower was small, a stone base with a timber upper room, and signalled by fire or horn to its neighbours. The point of it all was surveillance rather than defence; if trouble came, the troops in the forts behind would be told. Standing at one of these positions now, in forest rather than the open ground the Romans cleared, you have to remind yourself that the trees are a later gift.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an is where the day begins. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is a town that makes things out of mud. The Westerwald plateau here sits on one of Europe's finest deposits of stoneware clay, and for centuries potters have dug it, thrown it and fired it in salt-glaze kilns to make grey-and-blue jugs, tankards and storage jars. The area is called the Kannenbäckerland, the land of the jug bakers, and its pots were shipped down the Rhine and across the world. The Westerwald Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen tells the story, and several workshops in town still sell hand-made pieces. Take a mug home and you will be surprised how heavy it is.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34.
Just north of Neuwied, the Westerwald begins to climb out of the Rhine valley, and the Roman frontier ran up through the woods from its starting point on the river, rising and falling over the low ridges. The Limes here is the Upper German section in its earliest stretch, where watchtowers 1/32 to 1/34 stood close together on the hillside above the Wied, a small river that runs through a pretty, wooded valley to join the Rhine. Melsbach, a village of two thousand people next to the point, lies in this valley, and the surrounding hills are a mix of beech forest, meadow and the fields of the Neuwied basin.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a, late in the day. Next is Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an. That is the ride.
Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a → Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a → Limessection between watchtower WP 1/87 an is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.