Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a and Dormagen

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a is where the day begins. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dormagen.

3. 3. Dormagen

   Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.

   Read the complete Dormagen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 165 km into the recorded legs you reach Dormagen. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.

4. 4. back through 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

   back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee, late in the day. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.

5. 5. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a. That is the ride.