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.
An 86 km round trip from Höhr-Grenzhausen - roughly 1 h 40 in the saddle. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6, Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f and back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6. 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 24 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 2/5 to 2/6.
WP 2/5 and 2/6 sound like spare parts, but they are the numbers archaeologists gave to two watchtower positions on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the fortified frontier Rome drew across southern Germany. Here, in the hills above the Lahn near Bad Ems, the line ran up from the Rhine and over the high ground, and every few hundred metres a tower stood with a view to the next. Today most of what survives are low mounds, traces of the bank and ditch, and in some places a reconstructed tower to give you scale. The whole frontier became part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire in 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f.
North of the Taunus ridge, the Limes crossed a high, open plateau between the Rhine and the Lahn, and the stretch with watchtowers 2/23 to 2/26 runs through the farmland and woods near Miehlen and Singhofen in the Rhein-Lahn district. The remains here are subtle, mostly low banks and the traces of towers in fields and forest edges, but the line of the frontier is marked by the long-distance Limes trail and information boards. This is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, a stretch of the line that few visitors ever see.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 43 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6, 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.
Back at Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a. That is the ride.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a → Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 → Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f → back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/67 a is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.