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.
209 km from Holzhausen an der Haide to Holzhausen an der Haide, about 3 h 23 of riding. The stops in between: Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach, Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a, Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 and back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 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 Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach.
Arzbach sits a few kilometres north of the Lahn, in the wooded Westerwald hills behind Bad Ems, and it is one of those places where the Roman Empire left a mark you have to squint to see. The fort and its civil settlement belonged to the Upper German-Raetian frontier, the Limes, which ran for hundreds of kilometres from the Rhine near Rheinbrohl all the way to the Danube. Here it was a ditch, a rampart and a timber palisade, studded with watchtowers within sight of one another. Nothing grand survives above ground in the village itself. What you get is the lie of the land: a ridge chosen because a sentry could see from it, and a settlement that grew beside the soldiers because soldiers need bread, boots and beer.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Between Rengsdorf and Anhausen the Westerwald is open farmland and beech woods, and a Roman frontier ran straight through it. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, started on the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran for hundreds of kilometres to the Danube, a line of timber towers, a palisade, and in places a ditch and bank. The code WP 1/39 a is not poetry, it is bookkeeping: the old German Reichs-Limeskommission numbered the frontier by section and then by watchtower, and archaeologists still use their numbers. Here, a section of the line survives as a low bank and shallow hollow in the grass, which you will walk past without noticing unless someone points it out.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81.
Kadenbach, Arzbach and Eitelborn are three small villages on the broad, wooded plateau of the Westerwald, a short way north of the Lahn valley, and the four watchtowers here sit in a short run along the Roman frontier. Numbers 1/78 to 1/81 belong to the first section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, running from the Rhine towards the Taunus. The frontier was a palisade with towers placed within sight of one another, and the signal system relied on fire at night and smoke or flag by day. In this area the Romans picked ridges and shoulders of hills so the view ran for miles over land that was then forest and scrub.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81, about halfway. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach comes up about 183 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 closes the day.
Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 → Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a → Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach → Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.