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 304 km round trip from Höhr-Grenzhausen - roughly 4 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a, Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar, Köln-Deutz and Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 35 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 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 about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar.
The southern Kottenforst is the Bonn locals' own backyard, and on a fine Sunday it feels like it. Tracks and rides cross the woodland in all directions, and the people on them are walkers, joggers, riders and families on bicycles rather than motorbikes. The name on the label, with its mention of a pond-like hollow called Maar, hints at the wet, clay-lined depressions that dot this plateau and hold water after rain. Underneath lie old Roman remains too, including part of the Eifel aqueduct that carried water toward Cologne, though you will see it only if you know where to look.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar. Next is Köln-Deutz.
Opposite the great cathedral of Cologne, on the right bank of the Rhine, stands Deutz, which began as a Roman fort named Divitia. Around the year 310 the emperor Constantine had a fortress built here, connected to Colonia Agrippinensis on the opposite bank by a stone bridge, one of the first permanent bridges across the Rhine. The fort was about a hundred and fifty metres square, with massive walls and towers, and it gave the Romans a bridgehead on the edge of the Germanic lands. Sections of the walls have been excavated and can be seen in the area, and the fort belongs to the Lower Germanic Limes.
Read the complete Köln-Deutz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Köln-Deutz, about halfway. Next is Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell.
The Rhine was the northern frontier of the Roman Empire for centuries, and the string of forts, towers and camps along its western bank is now recognised as the Lower Germanic Limes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
Read the complete Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Köln-Deutz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Köln-Deutz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Köln-Deutz comes up about 192 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 230 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar. 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, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 304 km.
Watchtower WP 1/65 → Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a → Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar → Köln-Deutz is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Köln-Deutz → Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell → back through Köln-Deutz is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Köln-Deutz → back through Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Oben der Krayermaar → back through Limes section between watchtowers WP 1/2 a is 39 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 1/65 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.