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 Bad Ems it runs 164 km to Bad Ems; allow about 3 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the, Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the and back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the. 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.
Dausenau is the village that leans, or at least its church tower does. The tower of St Kastor, in the Lahn valley just a couple of kilometres from this watchtower site, tilts noticeably, giving the half-timbered lanes below it a slightly drunken air that tourists enjoy. The tower stands beside a gate of the old town wall, and the village is a pretty, slightly sleepy place where the Lahn bends through steep wooded slopes. The Roman tower number on the label belongs to the Limes that ran up and over the hills above the valley, and the site lies on the heights rather than in the village itself.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/93 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/93 is where the day begins. Next is Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
Between Bingen and Koblenz, the Rhine cuts a deep, winding gorge through the slate hills of the Rhenish Massif, and for centuries this has been one of the great landscapes of Europe: steep slopes covered with vineyards, castles on every crag, villages of half-timbered houses along the river, and barges gliding past. The Upper Middle Rhine Valley was listed by UNESCO in 2002, and Sankt Goarshausen sits at its heart, at the foot of the most famous rock on the river.
Read the complete Upper Middle Rhine Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Upper Middle Rhine Valley comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the.
West of the Taunus ridge, where the high country rolls down toward the Rhine gorge and the Lahn, the line of the Upper German Limes runs through farmland and forest near the villages of Holzhausen an der Haide, Katzenelnbogen and Nastätten. Archaeologists have catalogued the sites of the watchtowers along this stretch, numbered WP 2/35 to 2/48, and near Holzhausen are the remains of a stone fort, well preserved and easily visited, with its walls and gate outlines clear in the grass. The Limes here consisted of a palisade of wooden stakes, later backed by a ditch and bank, with watchtowers at regular intervals and forts a few kilometres behind. It formed the frontier of the Roman Empire for more than a century and a half.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the.
In the hills of the Taunus north of Wiesbaden, the Roman frontier ran along the ridges through dense forest, and between watchtowers 3/15 and 3/19 near Idstein, its line can still be traced on the ground. The Romans built an earth bank and ditch, topped with a wooden palisade, with stone watchtowers at regular intervals, close enough to see each other and signal along the line. In the forest, the bank and ditch survive as a long, low ridge and hollow, and the foundations of watchtowers appear as low mounds, sometimes with a few stones visible. The Upper Germanic and Raetian Limes, more than five hundred kilometres long, has been a World Heritage site since 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Upper Middle Rhine Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley comes up about 135 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 1/93.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/93 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/93 closes the day.
Watchtower WP 1/93 → Upper Middle Rhine Valley is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Upper Middle Rhine Valley → Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the → Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the → back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the → back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley → Watchtower WP 1/93 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.