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 102 km to Neuwied; allow about 1 h 47 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtower WP 1/65, Watchtowers WP 2/2 to 2/4 and back through Watchtower WP 1/65. 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 29 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
This single tower, WP 1/39, belongs to a stretch of the Upper German-Raetian Limes that runs close to Rengsdorf and Melsbach, on a gently rolling shoulder of the Westerwald. Unlike many of its neighbours it has been marked and reconstructed in a way that lets you see how it might have looked, with a timber tower over a stone base, and a cleared line of sight in each direction. The towers were usually just a few metres square, with a lookout floor on top and a ladder you could pull up. A handful of soldiers at most would have lived in one, which gives you a sense of scale: it was a sentry post, not a castle.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/39 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/39 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/65.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is the capital of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' land, a corner of the Westerwald where the clay is so good that people have been making pots from it for five hundred years. The grey stoneware, fired at high temperature and decorated in cobalt blue, was exported across Europe in the form of jugs, tankards and bottles, and the workshops and kilns still fill the town. The German Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen is one of the best of its kind, with objects from medieval jugs to modern art.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/65 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/65 comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/2 to 2/4.
Bad Ems sits in a narrow bend of the Lahn river, and the hills above it are steep, wooded and cut by short valleys. The watchtowers listed here, from WP 2/2 to 2/4, belong to the second section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the Roman frontier that UNESCO added to its list in 2005. In this stretch the line climbed away from the Rhine and cut over the high ground of the Taunus and Westerwald fringes, and the Romans placed their towers where the view was best. What you see now are mostly foundations and low mounds, with a few reconstructed pieces nearby, so bring imagination and leave the high expectations at home.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/2 to 2/4 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/2 to 2/4. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/65.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/65 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 1/65, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 1/39.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/39 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Watchtower WP 1/39. That is the ride.
Watchtower WP 1/39 → Watchtower WP 1/65 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/65 → Watchtowers WP 2/2 to 2/4 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/2 to 2/4 → back through Watchtower WP 1/65 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/65 → Watchtower WP 1/39 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.