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.
342 km from Höhr-Grenzhausen to Höhr-Grenzhausen, about 5 h 51 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10, Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach, Köln-Alteburg and Monheim-Haus Bürgel. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 44 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
38 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
There is no spectacle at this section of the Limes, and that is exactly its character. It lies in the hills of the lower Westerwald, between Hillscheid, Höhr-Grenzhausen and little Simmern, about the point where the Roman frontier crossed from the Rhine side towards the Lahn. The Romans marked it with watchtowers, numbered by archaeologists in a long sequence from the Rhine eastwards, and this is watchtower position 1/67 on the first section of the frontier. Between them ran a palisade and a ditch. Today you meet it as a faint line in the woods, a bump in a field, a reconstruction here and there, and a sign with a map.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a 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 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach.
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.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach. Next is Köln-Alteburg.
The Roman navy is not the first thing most people associate with Cologne, but for almost two centuries the Rhine fleet, the Classis Germanica, had its main base here at Alteburg, just south of the Roman city. The fort sat on a terrace above the river in what is now the leafy district of Marienburg, near Bayenthal, and from here warships patrolled the Rhine, carried supplies and soldiers, and kept watch on the frontier. The site belongs to the Lower Germanic Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021, though today it lies mostly under villas, streets and gardens, with only traces and information boards to show where it stood.
Read the complete Köln-Alteburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Köln-Alteburg, about halfway. Next is Monheim-Haus Bürgel.
Haus Bürgel is a manor farm that sits on top of a Roman fort, quite literally. The walls of a late Roman fortification, built in the fourth century to guard the Rhine frontier, form part of the foundations and outer walls of the medieval and later farm buildings, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021. Between Monheim and Düsseldorf-Urdenbach, it lies in a broad meadow landscape on the right bank of the Rhine.
Read the complete Monheim-Haus Bürgel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monheim-Haus Bürgel sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Köln-Alteburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Köln-Alteburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Köln-Alteburg comes up about 215 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 248 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach. 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 Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 342 km.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a → Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach → Köln-Alteburg is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Köln-Alteburg → Monheim-Haus Bürgel is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monheim-Haus Bürgel → back through Köln-Alteburg is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Köln-Alteburg → back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach → back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.