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.
322 km from Holzhausen an der Haide to Holzhausen an der Haide, about 5 h 35 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66, Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10, Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach and Köln-Alteburg. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 36 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
38 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Kastell Holzhausen is one of the best-preserved Roman forts along the German Limes, and it lies in a forest clearing near the village of Holzhausen an der Haide in the western Taunus, where the remains of its stone walls, gates and corner towers still stand to a height of a metre or more. The fort housed an auxiliary cohort of several hundred soldiers in the second and third centuries, and it guarded a section of the frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, along with a chain of watchtowers spaced at regular intervals along the line. The watchtowers numbered WP 2/26 to 2/30, part of the UNESCO listing, stood on this section between the fort and its neighbours.
Read the complete Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66.
The Westerwald is a low, rain-washed plateau of beech, meadow and clay pits, and the Roman Limes cut straight across it. This stretch, marked by the surveyors' numbers for two watchtowers, lies close to Höhr-Grenzhausen, where the Limes was a palisade and ditch with timber towers every few hundred metres, replaced later by stone. You will not find tall walls. What you find is a gentle bank in the woods, a mound where a tower stood, and a signpost telling you that soldiers once watched the horizon from this exact spot.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10.
Rheinbrohl is where the Roman frontier of Upper Germany began. Here, on the east bank of the Rhine between Bonn and Koblenz, the Limes left the river and struck off inland, running across hills and valleys for more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube near Regensburg. The first watchtowers, numbered 1/1 onwards, stood in the hills above the town, and the stretch from 1/3 to 1/10 climbs from the Rhine valley into the forests of the Westerwald. The Römerwelt museum in Rheinbrohl, at the start of the Limes, brings Roman frontier life to life with reconstructions, hands-on exhibits and a reconstructed watchtower nearby.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach.
South of Bonn, between the Rhine and the Eifel foothills, the Kottenforst is a big forest that most people drive around and few really enter. For centuries it was a hunting forest of the Electors of Cologne, who ran straight rides through the trees for their parties, and some of those long avenues survive as forest tracks. Oak and beech dominate, with ponds and damp hollows where the Villiper Bach, a small stream, begins its journey toward the Rhine. In spring the floor is carpeted with wood anemones, and in autumn the leaf litter smells sharp and sweet.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach, about halfway. Next is Köln-Alteburg.
The Roman navy is not the first thing most people associate with Cologne, but for almost two centuries the Rhine fleet, the Classis Germanica, had its main base here at Alteburg, just south of the Roman city. The fort sat on a terrace above the river in what is now the leafy district of Marienburg, near Bayenthal, and from here warships patrolled the Rhine, carried supplies and soldiers, and kept watch on the frontier. The site belongs to the Lower Germanic Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021, though today it lies mostly under villas, streets and gardens, with only traces and information boards to show where it stood.
Read the complete Köln-Alteburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Köln-Alteburg sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach comes up about 193 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 245 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66, late in the day. Next is Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 322 km.
Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 → Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 → Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach → Köln-Alteburg is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Köln-Alteburg → back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach → back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 → Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.