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 Hengstdal it runs 263 km to Hengstdal; allow about 3 h 32 of riding. The stops in between: Xanten-Fürstenberg, Neuss-Koenenlager and back through Xanten-Fürstenberg. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. Open plateau country, wide and exposed.
Kopse Hof is the name given to this northern corner of the plateau, and the first thing to say is that the Roman layer is under your feet, not in front of you. For the last few decades Dutch archaeologists have dug across this ridge ahead of every new street and housing block, and what they found was astonishing: ditches, postholes, the outlines of timber barracks, pits and graves, pottery, coins, tools and shoe soles preserved in the wet. A city sits on top of a legionary camp, and the modern streets of Nijmegen run over the old Roman roads.
Read the complete Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North is where the day begins. Next is Xanten-Fürstenberg.
The Fürstenberg is a low hill on the edge of the Lower Rhine plain, just south of Xanten, and two thousand years ago it was one of the most important military bases in the Roman Empire. Here the Romans built Vetera, a legionary fortress that housed up to two legions and served as a springboard for campaigns into Germania under Augustus. In AD 69 and 70, during the Batavian revolt, Vetera was besieged, starved into surrender and destroyed, and a new fortress was built nearby. The site on the Fürstenberg is part of the Lower German Limes, the Roman frontier along the Rhine from the Alps to the North Sea, which was added to the World Heritage list in 2021. On the ground there is little to see, mostly fields and woods, but the elevated position, with views over the river plain, explains why the Romans chose it.
Read the complete Xanten-Fürstenberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xanten-Fürstenberg comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Neuss-Koenenlager.
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.
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach Neuss-Koenenlager. Next is back through Xanten-Fürstenberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xanten-Fürstenberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Xanten-Fürstenberg, late in the day. Next is Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North. That is the ride.
Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North → Xanten-Fürstenberg is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xanten-Fürstenberg → Neuss-Koenenlager is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Neuss-Koenenlager → back through Xanten-Fürstenberg is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Xanten-Fürstenberg → Nijmegen-Kops Plateau | Kopse Hof North is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.