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 358 km to Butzbach; allow about 5 h 56 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 3/49*, Watchtower WP 3/4*, Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a and Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the. 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 47 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Watchtower WP 3/49*.
High in the Taunus, the wooded hills northwest of Frankfurt, the Roman Limes followed the ridge line, and its watchtowers looked out over the forests to the north. Watchtower WP 3/49, near Schmitten and Glashütten, is one of hundreds of such posts recorded along the frontier, and today its remains lie in the woods, a low mound or a scatter of stones. The Limes path, a long-distance walking trail, follows the line through the forest, and walkers can trace the ditch and bank of the old frontier for kilometres. The whole line is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage site.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/49* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/49* comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/4*.
In the western Taunus, between Bad Schwalbach and Taunusstein, the forest is thick and the hills roll gently, and the Upper German Limes runs along the ridge here as a still visible bank and ditch. The site labelled Watchtower WP 3/4 is one of the many small posts along this section, and a few kilometres to the east, near Taunusstein-Orlen, the fort of Zugmantel guarded a crossing of the frontier on an old trade route into Germanic territory. These remains are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and a walk along the Limes trail through the forest here is peaceful and atmospheric.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 3/4*. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Up on the plateau of the Hintertaunus, north of the Rhine gorge, the Roman frontier crossed a quiet landscape of fields and forest near Singhofen, and a section of it between two watchtowers survives here as a faint bank and ditch running through the woods. This is the Upper German Limes, which ran for more than five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, marking the boundary between the Roman Empire and the free Germanic tribes from the second century until the Romans withdrew in the third. It was not a great wall like Hadrian's in Britain, but a line of watchtowers, forts and a timber palisade, later strengthened with a ditch and bank. Together with the Raetian Limes, it was listed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the.
The Upper Germanic Limes begins a few kilometres from here, at Rheinbrohl on the Rhine, and in its first miles it climbs straight up into the Westerwald. Watchtowers numbered WP 1/41 to 1/50 mark a short run of that frontier in the wooded hills behind Neuwied and Bendorf, near the villages of Stromberg, Anhausen and Heimbach-Weis. Do not expect towers. What remains is a low bank, a ditch you can trace through the beech trunks, and here and there the outline of a tower base marked by archaeologists.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/4*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 263 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 3/4*. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/49*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/49* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 3/49*, 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.
The route ends here after 358 km.
Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 → Watchtower WP 3/49* is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/49* → Watchtower WP 3/4* is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/4* → Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/41 to 1/50 including the → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → back through Watchtower WP 3/4* is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/4* → back through Watchtower WP 3/49* is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/49* → Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.