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.
186 km from Xanten to Xanten, about 3 h 16 of riding. On the way it passes Kleve-Reichswald | East, Elst-Grote Kerk, Tiel Inundation Canal and back through Elst-Grote Kerk. 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.
The Romans got to Xanten first, and the forest roads of Hochwald 6 lead you to the town they left behind. About seven kilometres from the point, on the Rhine plain, lies the site of Colonia Ulpia Traiana, a Roman city founded in the early second century under Trajan. Most of it was later quarried for building stone, which is why the Archaeological Park today can rebuild the amphitheatre, a gate and some of the city walls on their original footprints, and why you can stand in a reconstructed temple and imagine the Rhine frontier at its busiest.
Read the complete Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6 is where the day begins. Next is Kleve-Reichswald | East.
South of Kleve, near the Dutch border, the Reichswald is one of the largest forests in the Lower Rhine region, a mix of oak, beech and pine on a low ridge of sand and gravel left behind by the glaciers of the Ice Age. On its edge, the Romans built military installations as part of the Lower German Limes, the frontier along the Rhine, and the remains in the Reichswald, including traces of camps, are part of the World Heritage site listed by UNESCO in 2021. There is little to see above ground, but the forest itself is a quiet, beautiful place to walk.
Read the complete Kleve-Reichswald | East write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kleve-Reichswald | East comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Elst-Grote Kerk.
Elst is a commuter town in the Betuwe, the flat river island between the Rhine and the Waal, halfway between Arnhem and Nijmegen. At first glance there is nothing remarkable about its big brick church on the market square. The surprise lies underneath it. Excavations in the twentieth century found the remains of two Roman temples beneath the floor, built one after another on the same spot, dedicated to a local god adopted into the Roman world. The site belongs to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, and the foundations can be seen in the church cellar when it is open.
Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Elst-Grote Kerk. Next is Tiel Inundation Canal.
Tiel is a river town on the Waal, the main branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands, in the middle of the Betuwe, a region of orchards, dykes and meadows between the Waal and the Lower Rhine. Just outside the town, a wide, straight channel runs through the fields, crossed by bridges and lined by dykes. This is the Tiel inundation canal, built in the late nineteenth century as part of the New Dutch Waterline, the defensive system of controlled flooding that protected the heart of Holland, and it is now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Read the complete Tiel Inundation Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tiel Inundation Canal, about halfway. Next is back through Elst-Grote Kerk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Elst-Grote Kerk sits at 134 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kleve-Reichswald | East.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kleve-Reichswald | East write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | East comes up about 161 km into the recorded legs. Next is Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6 closes the day.
Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6 → Kleve-Reichswald | East is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kleve-Reichswald | East → Elst-Grote Kerk is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Elst-Grote Kerk → Tiel Inundation Canal is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tiel Inundation Canal → back through Elst-Grote Kerk is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Elst-Grote Kerk → back through Kleve-Reichswald | East is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | East → Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 6 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.