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 Roßdorf it runs 440 km to Roßdorf; allow about 6 h 49 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor, Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci and Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 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 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 47 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. Next is Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
The Taunus is the green upland that keeps Frankfurt's weekend riders sane, and running right across it is the line of the Roman frontier. The stretch of watchtowers numbered 3/1 to 3/14 lies near Taunusstein, north of Wiesbaden, where the Upper Germanic Limes crossed the ridge, and it includes the remains of forts and their civilian settlements. One of the best known nearby is the fort of Zugmantel, near the hamlet of Orlen, where the outline of the fort, the palisade line and reconstructed watchtowers give a real sense of the frontier. The whole line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16.
Imagine standing in a small timber or stone tower on a cold winter night, looking out over the dark forest for signs of movement, with a fire ready to signal to the next tower along the line. That was the life of the soldiers who manned the watchtowers of the Roman frontier, and the remains of three of them, numbered 2/14 to 2/16 by archaeologists, lie in the woods between Singhofen and Miehlen, on the plateau above the Rhine and the Lahn. Their foundations survive as low mounds and traces in the ground, and the line of the frontier, the ditch and bank, can be followed between them. They are part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, one of the components of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 sits at 180 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci comes up about 259 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 355 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. 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 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 440 km.
Messel Pit Fossil Site → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 → back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Messel Pit Fossil Site is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.