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.
102 km from Bad Ems to Bad Ems, about 1 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a, Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 and back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a. The line favours views over speed.
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.
In the hills above the Lahn, in the Westerwald near Arzbach, the Roman frontier made a long, curving loop through a country of oak and beech forest, and watchtower 1/88 was one of the posts on its line. This district was thick with towers, and several neighbouring numbers lie within a few kilometres. The Romans placed them wherever the ground gave a good view, usually on a rise or a ridge, so that from one you could see the smoke or lamp of the next.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/88 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/88 is where the day begins. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is a town that makes things out of mud. The Westerwald plateau here sits on one of Europe's finest deposits of stoneware clay, and for centuries potters have dug it, thrown it and fired it in salt-glaze kilns to make grey-and-blue jugs, tankards and storage jars. The area is called the Kannenbäckerland, the land of the jug bakers, and its pots were shipped down the Rhine and across the world. The Westerwald Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen tells the story, and several workshops in town still sell hand-made pieces. Take a mug home and you will be surprised how heavy it is.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34.
Just north of Neuwied, the Westerwald begins to climb out of the Rhine valley, and the Roman frontier ran up through the woods from its starting point on the river, rising and falling over the low ridges. The Limes here is the Upper German section in its earliest stretch, where watchtowers 1/32 to 1/34 stood close together on the hillside above the Wied, a small river that runs through a pretty, wooded valley to join the Rhine. Melsbach, a village of two thousand people next to the point, lies in this valley, and the surrounding hills are a mix of beech forest, meadow and the fields of the Neuwied basin.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 1/88.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/88 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Watchtower WP 1/88. That is the ride.
Watchtower WP 1/88 → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a → Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/60 a → Watchtower WP 1/88 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.