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 Melsbach it runs 159 km to Melsbach; allow about 2 h 56 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76, Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort, Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just and back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort. 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 27 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
North of Neuwied, the hills of the Westerwald rise steeply from the Rhine, and through their forests ran the Roman frontier known as the Upper German-Raetian Limes. The section between the watchtowers numbered WP 1/34 and its neighbours lies near Melsbach and Rengsdorf, and it is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2005 for this stretch. The Limes began on the Rhine at Rheinbrohl, a little downstream, and ran for over 500 kilometres to the Danube, a line of wooden palisades, ditches, ramparts and watchtowers.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76.
Between Hillscheid, Neuhäusel and Kadenbach the land lifts into a low, rolling plateau of fields, beech copses and small clay pits, and the watchtowers 1/74 to 1/76 mark a tight cluster of Roman posts on the frontier. On paper it looks like a long list, but on the ground it is a gentle, almost domestic country where cows graze behind electric fences and church towers rise over village roofs. The frontier here was part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005, and a map of the area shows a sequence of numbered towers a few hundred metres apart, each one in sight of the next.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort.
In the Taunus and Westerwald country of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Limes crosses hills so wooded that it is easy to miss. The numbering here records three watchtower positions and a fort, and from the start of the sequence you can follow the frontier as a line of mounds through forest and field.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Bad Schwalbach is a spa town that never quite lost its nineteenth-century manners: a long, leafy valley, a Kurpark with pavilions, and iron-rich springs that once drew the fashionable from across Europe to take the waters. Just above it, on the high ground of the Taunus, the Roman frontier ran through the forests, and the stretch catalogued as watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 passes within a few kilometres of the town. Here the Upper German Limes followed the ridge, with wooden and later stone towers set at intervals within sight of one another, a palisade in front, and a ditch and bank added later. In the beech woods you can still trace the low line of the bank in places, a quiet scar running through the trees for kilometre after kilometre.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34 closes the day.
Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34 → Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 → Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort → Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort → back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 → Limessection between watchtowers WP/ 1/34 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.