CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
197 km from Bendorf to Bendorf, about 3 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a, Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof, Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at and back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Upper Germanic Limes does not start with a bang. Near Bendorf, on the slopes where the Westerwald drops toward the Rhine at the Neuwied basin, it is a matter of reading the woods: a low bank here, a shallow ditch there, and the spot where a Roman watchtower once stood, numbered by archaeologists as WP 1/51. The towers were placed within sight of each other, timber at first and later stone, so that a signal could pass along the frontier faster than any rider. Standing here among the beech trees you are close to the northern end of a border that ran more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/51 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/51 is where the day begins. 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 comes up 29 km in. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
There is very little to see at first glance here, which is exactly what makes the place oddly moving. South of Bonn, in the edge of the Kottenforst near the Heiderhof quarter of Bad Godesberg and the town of Wachtberg, the forest floor hides the faint outlines of Roman practice camps. Legionaries stationed at the fortress of Bonna on the Rhine marched out here to train at the hard, boring work that won the empire its wars: digging ditches, throwing up earth ramparts and laying out a camp to the standard plan in a few hours. A handful of these training camps in the Kottenforst are part of the Lower German Limes, the Roman frontier along the Rhine recognised by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
59 km in you reach Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. Next is Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at.
Clemens August of Bavaria, prince-elector and archbishop of Cologne in the eighteenth century, loved two things above all: hunting with falcons and building in the latest style. At Brühl, just south of Cologne, he created two of the finest rococo buildings in Germany. Augustusburg Palace, his summer residence, has a staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann that is one of the masterpieces of the period, a whirl of marble, stucco and frescoes, and a formal French garden that stretches toward the forest. Falkenlust, a smaller hunting lodge at the end of a long avenue, was built for falconry, with a delightful interior decorated with tiles and lacquerwork. The two castles were listed by UNESCO in 1984.
Read the complete Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof sits at 117 km, about halfway. Next is back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a comes up 147 km in. Next is Watchtower WP 1/51.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/51 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/51 closes the day.
Watchtower WP 1/51 → Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a → Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at → back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a → Watchtower WP 1/51 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.