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.
From Mainhardt it runs 192 km to Mainhardt; allow about 3 h 15 of riding. On the way it passes Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par, Watchtowers WP 12/39, Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B and back through Watchtowers WP 12/39. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Mainhardt is a small town in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, a long ridge of wooded hills east of Stuttgart and north of Schwäbisch Hall, and the Romans chose to drop their frontier straight through here. The Upper Germanic Limes runs dead straight for many kilometres in this region, up and down hills without regard to the terrain, because the surveyors drew the line first and let the army follow it. At Mainhardt there was a fort with a garrison of auxiliary soldiers, and the outline can be traced in the ground east of the town. The numbers on the label refer to the watchtowers, small timber and then stone posts that stood at intervals along the line within sight of one another.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a is where the day begins. Next is Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par.
In the Swabian Forest east of Stuttgart, the Roman frontier ran as straight as a ruler for some eighty kilometres, ignoring hills and valleys in a way that still puzzles historians. Welzheim lies on this straight stretch of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, and the town had two Roman forts, the west and east forts, with a civil settlement around them. The northern part of the settlement near the east fort is one of the components of the Limes World Heritage Site, and the Ostkastell has been turned into an archaeological park with a reconstructed gate.
Read the complete Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/39.
Iggingen is a small village on the plateau above the Rems valley, a few kilometres east of Schwäbisch Gmünd, and like many villages in this part of Württemberg it has a Roman frontier running through its fields. The site labelled Watchtower WP 12/39 sits on the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the edge of Roman Raetia, and from here the line runs eastwards towards Aalen, the largest Roman cavalry fort north of the Alps, now home to an excellent Limes museum.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/39 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/39. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B.
Out here on the eastern edge of Württemberg, where the Jagst valley widens into rolling farmland below the Ellwangen hills, the Romans drew a line across the map and then built it in stone. The fort at Rainau-Buch, which the ride labels Reinau-B, sat just behind the Raetian Limes, the frontier that ran from the Rhine toward the Danube. What you find today is a grassy rectangle with low reconstructed wall footings, the outline of a bath house, and the traces of the civilian village that grew up outside the gate, where traders, families and off-duty soldiers lived the way garrison towns always do.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/39.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/39 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/39 sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par comes up about 156 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a closes the day.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a → Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par → Watchtowers WP 12/39 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/39 → Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B → back through Watchtowers WP 12/39 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/39 → back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par → Limessection between watchtowers WP 9/68 a is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.