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 Butzbach it runs 258 km to Butzbach; allow about 3 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe and back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Between the hills of the Taunus and the soft farmland of the Wetterau, the Roman frontier ran in a long, mostly straight line for most of the second and third centuries. This is Hesse, and the numbering that gives the place its odd label, watchtowers 4/36 and 4/37, refers to the standard system archaeologists use to count the Limes watchposts section by section. The point lies near Butzbach, a town of twenty-five thousand people where the frontier crossed the Wetterau and the local fort once held a cavalry unit. The section in question consists of the earth traces, a low bank and a ditch, that the Romans built in front of their wooden palisade, with towers spaced at regular intervals behind.
Read the complete Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Great forts are rare on the Limes; most of the frontier was watchtowers, small timber and later stone posts within sight of each other, each with a handful of men and a fire for signalling. The towers numbered 5/15 and 5/16 stood near Großkrotzenburg, at the point where the land frontier coming down from the Wetterau met the Main, and from here southward the river itself became the border as far as Miltenberg. Little of them remains to see, but the location tells the story: the Romans used water where they could and built palisades only where they had to.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe.
Miltenberg is one of those German towns that seem almost too pretty to be real, with half-timbered houses leaning over the cobbled streets, a market square sloping down toward the river, a castle on the hill above and the Main flowing slowly past. The Romans were here first. Two forts guarded this point on the frontier, one near the old town and another to the east, where the Limes left the river and ran overland through the Odenwald, and the sites, with their civilian settlements, are part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. A museum in the town displays finds from the forts.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 129 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, late in the day. Next is Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37. That is the ride.
Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe → back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.