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 278 km round trip from Wilburgstetten - roughly 4 h 45 in the saddle. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 13/46 to 13/49, Fort site of Oberhochstatt, Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 and Watchtowers WP 14/29 to 14/62 including fo. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 13/51 to 13/53.
In the Altmühl country around Gunzenhausen the Roman frontier is a wall rather than a fence. Far to the west it was a timber palisade, earth bank and ditch, but from the edge of the Swabian Alb eastward the Romans replaced it with something sturdier, a stone wall that runs for many kilometres across Bavaria, which locals later nicknamed the Devil's Wall, the Teufelsmauer, because it seemed too big to have been made by men. The watchtowers numbered 13/51 to 13/53 belong to that stone-wall stretch, and they were small square towers of stone or timber that stood just behind the line, with a view over the valley and the next tower in the chain.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 14/29 to 14/62 including fo.
Burgsalach is a quiet village of about twelve hundred people on the high limestone plateau of the Franconian Jura, and the old frontier of the Roman Empire ran right across it. This was the Raetian Limes, a different beast from the timber palisade further north. Here the Romans built in stone, and the remains of the wall, which locals long ascribed to the devil and called the Teufelsmauer, still show up as a low line in the fields and woods. The towers along it were numbered by archaeologists, which is why the label is a string of figures rather than a name.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/29 to 14/62 including fo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 14/29 to 14/62 including fo sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 comes up about 173 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 205 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 278 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 13/51 to 13/53 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 → Watchtowers WP 14/29 to 14/62 including fo is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 14/29 to 14/62 including fo → back through Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/51 to 13/53 → back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 32 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 39 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.