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 174 km round trip from Bad Ems - roughly 3 h 20 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fortlet of Pfarrhofen, Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci, Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 and back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Bad Ems is a small spa town in the winding valley of the Lahn, where the river cuts a deep trench through the hills of the Taunus and Westerwald. Its warm springs were known to the Romans, and it gained fame in the nineteenth century, when the Russian tsar, the Prussian king and the whole of European society came to take the cure. In July 1870 King Wilhelm of Prussia was walking on the promenade when the French ambassador approached him, and the telegram that described the encounter, edited by Bismarck for the press, helped push France into the war that led to German unification. The Ems Dispatch, as it is called, is one of the famous editorial acts in diplomatic history.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/84 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/84 is where the day begins. Next is Fortlet of Pfarrhofen.
In the second century, the Roman frontier in Germany ran across the hills of the Taunus north of the Rhine as a line of wooden palisades, ditches, earth banks, watchtowers and forts, stretching over five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, as it is called, is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, listed by UNESCO in 2005, and the fortlet of Pfarrhofen, near Holzhausen an der Haide in the western Taunus, is one of the many small installations along its course. A fortlet was a small fort with a garrison of a few dozen men, guarding a road crossing or a section of the frontier between larger forts.
Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
The Taunus is the green upland that keeps Frankfurt's weekend riders sane, and running right across it is the line of the Roman frontier. The stretch of watchtowers numbered 3/1 to 3/14 lies near Taunusstein, north of Wiesbaden, where the Upper Germanic Limes crossed the ridge, and it includes the remains of forts and their civilian settlements. One of the best known nearby is the fort of Zugmantel, near the hamlet of Orlen, where the outline of the fort, the palisade line and reconstructed watchtowers give a real sense of the frontier. The whole line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44.
The Taunus is the low, forested mountain range that closes in the north of the Frankfurt basin, and the Romans put their frontier along and over it. Here, near Glashütten, the line passes through high woodland at roughly four hundred metres above sea level, in an area that is cold and often foggy in winter. Towers 3/41 to 3/44 belong to the third section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the one that UNESCO recognised in 2005 together with the rest of the frontier. The Romans cleared a swathe through the forest, set up a palisade, and watched the open ground to the north, where tribes of the Chatti lived. The name Glashütten itself recalls glassmaking, once common in these forests because wood, sand and potash were all to hand.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen comes up about 147 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 1/84.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/84 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/84 closes the day.
Watchtower WP 1/84 → Fortlet of Pfarrhofen is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen → Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen → Watchtower WP 1/84 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.