Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal and Watchtowers WP 12/39
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
237 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 56
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 237 km round trip from Maulbronn - roughly 3 h 56 in the saddle. It goes by way of Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung, Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim, Watchtowers WP 12/39 and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal
Hermann Hesse arrived in Maulbronn in 1891 as a fourteen-year-old seminary student, and left after seven months, having run away across the fields and been found in the cold. The boy became a writer, and the old Cistercian monastery turned up in his novels as the place where a young person's spirit is crushed or set free. The Hilsenbeuertal is one of the quiet valleys on the edge of town, and the upper pond there is a good place to think about all this, because it is still and shaded and has no interest in your opinion.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal is where the day begins. Next is Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung.
2. Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung
In 1927, on a hillside overlooking Stuttgart, a group of the most radical architects in Europe built an entire housing estate in a few months as an exhibition of what modern living could look like. The Weissenhof Estate, organised by the Deutscher Werkbund under the direction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, brought together Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun, J.J.P. Oud and others, and their flat-roofed, white-walled houses became a manifesto for the International Style.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim-.
3. Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim-
Welzheim sits up in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, a rolling upland of spruce, beech, deep stream valleys and old sawmills east of Stuttgart, and the Romans chose it for the same reason the forest still feels remote today: it was the edge. The Upper German-Raetian Limes ran dead straight through these woods, and Welzheim had not one fort but two, an east and a west fort, with a civilian settlement of traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families packed around them. The east fort has a reconstructed gate and a small archaeological park that gives you a good sense of scale, and the whole frontier line is part of a UNESCO site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim-. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/39.
4. Watchtowers WP 12/39
Iggingen is a small village on the plateau above the Rems valley, a few kilometres east of Schwäbisch Gmünd, and like many villages in this part of Württemberg it has a Roman frontier running through its fields. The site labelled Watchtower WP 12/39 sits on the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the edge of Roman Raetia, and from here the line runs eastwards towards Aalen, the largest Roman cavalry fort north of the Alps, now home to an excellent Limes museum.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal closes the day.
Leg by leg
Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal to Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung
Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal → Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung to Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim-
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung → Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim- is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim- to Watchtowers WP 12/39
Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim- → Watchtowers WP 12/39 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/39 to back through Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim-
Watchtowers WP 12/39 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim- is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim- to back through Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Welheim- → back through Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung to Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal
back through Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung → Upper pond Hilsenbeuertal is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.