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 231 km round trip from Roßdorf - roughly 3 h 16 in the saddle. It goes by way of Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge, Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor and Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 24 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Forty-seven million years ago, in a warm, subtropical world, a deep volcanic lake lay where the forest near Messel now stands, a few kilometres northeast of Darmstadt. The lake's depths were starved of oxygen, and animals that fell or sank into it were preserved in fine layers of mud with extraordinary detail: not just skeletons, but skin, feathers, fur, the contents of stomachs and even the colours of beetles' wings. Over time the mud turned into oil shale, which was mined here from the nineteenth century until 1971. After mining ended, there were plans to turn the pit into a rubbish dump; scientists and local people fought the plan, and in 1995 the pit became Germany's first natural World Heritage site.
Read the complete Messel Pit Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Messel Pit Fossil Site is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Seligenstadt is one of those Main valley towns where every era has left something on the table. The Romans came first: here the frontier of the Upper German-Raetian Limes ran along the river itself, and a fort with a civilian settlement around it guarded the Main crossing. The fort site lies under the old town, so you are walking over it rather than looking at it, but the logic of the place is obvious when you stand by the water. The river was the border, the road and the supply line all at once.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge.
East of Frankfurt, on the low ground where the Kinzig valley opens toward Hanau, the Romans pushed their frontier forward in the late first century AD. Rückingen, today a part of Erlensee, was the site of a fort with a civil settlement around it, part of the Wetterau section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Limes here ran south toward the Main, and the forts guarded crossings and roads leading into the Roman province. As with most of the frontier in this area, there is little to see above ground, but the line of the Limes is marked and explained along cycle and walking routes.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
The Wetterau is a broad, fertile basin north of Frankfurt, a land of rich loess soils, wheat fields, orchards and old villages, and the Romans wanted it badly. Their frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, bulged out here to take in the whole basin, looping around it in a wide arc. At Ober-Florstadt stood a fort with a civilian settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. Today little is visible, but the site is part of the World Heritage frontier, and information boards help to picture the scene.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor, about halfway. Next is Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald.
The Roman frontier in Germany, the Limes, ran for over five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, a line of palisades, ditches, walls, watchtowers and forts that marked the edge of the empire. In the Wetterau, north of Frankfurt, the Limes swung east in a great bulge to enclose this fertile plain, which the Romans valued for its farmland. In the woods near Wölfersheim stood a signal tower, one of the many small posts along the line, and today its remains are part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald sits at 90 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor comes up about 140 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 173 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, late in the day. Next is Messel Pit Fossil Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Messel Pit Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 231 km.
Messel Pit Fossil Site → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald → back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Rückinge → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Messel Pit Fossil Site is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.