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.
A 290 km round trip from Holzhausen an der Haide - roughly 5 h 22 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66, Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10, Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe and Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 36 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe.
On the heights above the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Koblenz, the suburb of Niederberg sits on top of a Roman fort. It is one of the forts of the Upper Germanic Limes, which ran through the hills here a few kilometres back from the river, and the label refers to the fort site and the civilian settlement that grew up around it, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Not much is visible today, as the area is built over, but the location explains a great deal.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe, about halfway. Next is Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a.
Two thousand years ago, the frontier of the Roman Empire in Germany began right here. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a line of watchtowers, forts, palisades and ditches stretching more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube, started on the right bank of the Rhine at Rheinbrohl, and the watchtowers numbered WP 1/1 and onwards marched away from the river into the wooded hills. This little section between Rheinbrohl and Bad Hönningen is the very beginning of the line, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a sits at 138 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe comes up about 175 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 209 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 290 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 → Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe → Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Niederbe → back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 34 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 41 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.