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 Neuwied it runs 347 km to Neuwied; allow about 5 h 56 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort, Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just, Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 and Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the. 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 43 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Between Rengsdorf and Anhausen the Westerwald is open farmland and beech woods, and a Roman frontier ran straight through it. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, started on the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran for hundreds of kilometres to the Danube, a line of timber towers, a palisade, and in places a ditch and bank. The code WP 1/39 a is not poetry, it is bookkeeping: the old German Reichs-Limeskommission numbered the frontier by section and then by watchtower, and archaeologists still use their numbers. Here, a section of the line survives as a low bank and shallow hollow in the grass, which you will walk past without noticing unless someone points it out.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.
Between the Lahn and the Rhine, the Roman frontier crossed a high, wooded plateau known locally as the Einrich, and the watchtowers from 2/7 to 2/13 stood on this stretch, near the village of Dachsenhausen. In the forest, the earth bank and ditch can still be followed, and small forts, built to house the soldiers who manned the towers, have left their outlines in the ground. Here, as elsewhere in Germany, the Limes belongs to the frontiers of the Roman Empire on the World Heritage list, but the forest is quiet, and you may walk the line for an hour without meeting anyone.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44.
The Taunus is the low, forested mountain range that closes in the north of the Frankfurt basin, and the Romans put their frontier along and over it. Here, near Glashütten, the line passes through high woodland at roughly four hundred metres above sea level, in an area that is cold and often foggy in winter. Towers 3/41 to 3/44 belong to the third section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the one that UNESCO recognised in 2005 together with the rest of the frontier. The Romans cleared a swathe through the forest, set up a palisade, and watched the open ground to the north, where tribes of the Chatti lived. The name Glashütten itself recalls glassmaking, once common in these forests because wood, sand and potash were all to hand.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the.
Near Butzbach the Wetterau starts to break against the Taunus, and the Roman frontier passes through that transition with a long series of numbered watchtowers, in this case 4/20 to 4/36. It is a longer run than most, and it reflects how carefully the Romans watched this side of the line, where the open plain makes a natural highway for anyone coming from the north. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, crosses farmland here, and in places the old rampart survives as a low bank in a meadow edge or a stretch of forest.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 comes up about 229 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
about 272 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort, late in the day. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 347 km.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a → Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort → Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/20 to 4/36 including the → back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.