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.
243 km from Neuss to Neuss, about 3 h 46 of riding. On the way it passes Alpen-Drüpt, Fort Pannerden and back through Alpen-Drüpt. It crosses from Germany into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On the southern edge of Neuss, in a residential area near the Rhine, lies one of the most important Roman military sites in Germany, though you would hardly know it from the surface. This was Novaesium, a legionary fortress that housed thousands of soldiers for much of the first century, and it is known as the Koenenlager after Constantin Koenen, the local archaeologist who excavated it systematically in the late nineteenth century. His work revealed the layout of an entire legionary camp, with headquarters, barracks, granaries and a hospital, and it became a model for Roman military archaeology. The site is part of the Lower German Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Neuss-Koenenlager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Neuss-Koenenlager is where the day begins. Next is Alpen-Drüpt.
On the flat farmland of the Lower Rhine, between Alpen and Rheinberg, there is little to catch the eye: fields of maize and potatoes, poplars along ditches, brick farmhouses and the occasional windmill. Yet this was once the edge of the Roman world. The Rhine formed the frontier of the empire, and along its banks the Romans built legionary fortresses, forts, watchtowers and temporary camps. Alpen-Drüpt is one of the sites included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021; like many on the list, it survives mainly below ground, known from aerial photographs and excavations rather than standing ruins.
Read the complete Alpen-Drüpt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alpen-Drüpt comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort Pannerden.
Right where the Rhine enters the Netherlands and splits in two, the Dutch put a fort. Fort Pannerden was built around 1870 at the point where the river divides into the Waal, flowing west toward Nijmegen and Rotterdam, and the Pannerdens Kanaal, which feeds the Nederrijn and the IJssel. Control the split, and you control how much water goes where, which in a country defended by deliberate flooding mattered enormously. The fort, a low, heavy brick and earth structure surrounded by a moat, guarded the dykes and sluices that could send water into the defensive lines further west. It is counted among the Dutch Water Defence Lines listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Fort Pannerden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort Pannerden. Next is back through Alpen-Drüpt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alpen-Drüpt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Alpen-Drüpt, late in the day. Next is Neuss-Koenenlager.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Neuss-Koenenlager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Neuss-Koenenlager. That is the ride.
Neuss-Koenenlager → Alpen-Drüpt is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alpen-Drüpt → Fort Pannerden is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fort Pannerden → back through Alpen-Drüpt is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Alpen-Drüpt → Neuss-Koenenlager is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.