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.
From Neuwied it runs 159 km to Neuwied; allow about 2 h 49 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 1/73, Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort, Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just and back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 27 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Roman frontier in Germany was not a wall in the way that Hadrian's was in Britain. It was a line of wooden towers, small forts and a ditch and palisade, running for hundreds of kilometres from the Rhine near Neuwied to the Danube, and the stretch here, near Melsbach, is where it began. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, as it is formally called, is a World Heritage Site, and the numbered watchtowers, of which this is one, were the eyes of the frontier.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/31 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/73.
The Roman frontier in Germany starts at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and climbs into the hills of the Westerwald, and Watchtower WP 1/73, near Hillscheid, belongs to that first stretch. The numbers tell you where you are: section one, tower seventy-three. All that survives is a low mound in the woods, but in the second and third centuries it was a stone tower with a view over the frontier line and, behind it, the palisade and ditch that ran across the landscape. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes has been part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire since 2005, and this is where it all begins.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/73 comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort.
In the Taunus and Westerwald country of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Limes crosses hills so wooded that it is easy to miss. The numbering here records three watchtower positions and a fort, and from the start of the sequence you can follow the frontier as a line of mounds through forest and field.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Bad Schwalbach is a spa town that never quite lost its nineteenth-century manners: a long, leafy valley, a Kurpark with pavilions, and iron-rich springs that once drew the fashionable from across Europe to take the waters. Just above it, on the high ground of the Taunus, the Roman frontier ran through the forests, and the stretch catalogued as watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 passes within a few kilometres of the town. Here the Upper German Limes followed the ridge, with wooden and later stone towers set at intervals within sight of one another, a palisade in front, and a ditch and bank added later. In the beech woods you can still trace the low line of the bank in places, a quiet scar running through the trees for kilometre after kilometre.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/73.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 1/73 comes up about 132 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 1/31.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/31 closes the day.
Watchtower WP 1/31 → Watchtower WP 1/73 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/73 → Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort → Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort → back through Watchtower WP 1/73 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/73 → Watchtower WP 1/31 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.