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.
A 302 km round trip from Wilburgstetten - roughly 5 h 13 in the saddle. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49, Fort site of Oberhochstatt, Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 and Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In the fields near Wilburgstetten, in the west of Franconia, a low ridge runs across the landscape, overgrown with grass and bushes. It looks like nothing much, but it is the remains of the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the frontier of the Roman province of Raetia in the second and third centuries. Unlike the Upper German Limes to the north west, which was mostly a palisade and ditch, the Raetian section was eventually built as a continuous stone wall, more than a hundred and sixty kilometres long. Local people later called it the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, believing it could only have been built by supernatural forces. The section between watchtowers here is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Limessection between Watchtowers WP 13/5 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between Watchtowers WP 13/5 a is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49.
The numbers here, 13/46 to 13/49, belong to a surveyor's grid, but the line they follow is the old Raetian frontier, which the Romans built across Bavaria in the second century. East of the town of Gunzenhausen it was turned from a simple timber palisade into a proper stone wall, a rarity in the Roman north. The locals later called this wall the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, because they could not imagine human hands had built something so straight and so long. Folk stories said that the devil had built it overnight, and that he had run out of time just before dawn.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site of Oberhochstatt.
Not every Roman fort on the frontier was a great stone fortress. Some were small, temporary or quickly abandoned, and the fort site of Oberhochstatt, on the high plateau above Weißenburg in Bavaria, seems to have been one of these, a modest garrison post on the Raetian Limes. There is little to see today beyond a field, perhaps an information board and the outline of the defences in the grass. But the landscape around is full of Roman history, and the town of Weißenburg, a short ride away, is one of the best places in Germany to experience it.
Read the complete Fort site of Oberhochstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site of Oberhochstatt. Next is Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7.
In Bavaria, the Roman frontier changed character. Instead of the wooden palisade used in the Upper German section, the Raetian Limes was eventually built as a stone wall, known locally as the Devil's Wall, because medieval people could not imagine anyone but the devil building something so long. The stretch between Watchtowers 15/1 and 15/7 crosses the hills around the Altmühl valley, near Kipfenberg and Kinding, and the line of the wall can still be traced in places as a low ridge in the forest. It is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7, about halfway. Next is Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld.
Eining is the spot where the Danube Limes and the Raetian Limes meet, or more accurately the place where the wall and ditch ran down to the river and gave way to the water as a frontier. The Romans built a fort here called Abusina, on the south bank, with walls that can still be traced in the fields and a small museum nearby. For soldiers posted to the edge of the empire it must have felt like standing at the end of the world, with the river wide and cold in front of them and Germania on the far bank. The name Unterfeld refers to the lower field beside the fort, a plain, practical label for an ordinary piece of land.
Read the complete Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 comes up about 200 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site of Oberhochstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49, late in the day. Next is Limessection between Watchtowers WP 13/5 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between Watchtowers WP 13/5 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 302 km.
Limessection between Watchtowers WP 13/5 a → Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 → Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site of Oberhochstatt → Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 → Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld → back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 → back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt → back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49 → Limessection between Watchtowers WP 13/5 a is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.