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 294 km round trip from Pleinfeld - roughly 5 h 18 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch, Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for, Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 and Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 36 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Near the Franconian town of Pleinfeld, the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the frontier of the province of Raetia, crossed a landscape of woods, fields and small rivers, and a watchtower stood here, one of hundreds along the line. Watchtower WP 14/28 is now a low mound or reconstructed foundation, but it is part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. The frontier here was a stone wall, known locally as the Teufelsmauer, the devil's wall, because medieval villagers could not believe that humans had built it.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 14/28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 14/28 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch.
In the fields near Wassertrüdingen, in the soft valley of the Wörnitz and the hills of Middle Franconia, lie the buried remains of a Roman fort that once held an auxiliary unit of several hundred soldiers. Unterschwaningen was one of the larger posts on the Raetian section of the frontier, built in the second century to guard the line and the road behind it. Around it, as at every fort, a civilian settlement grew up, with houses, workshops, bathhouses and a cemetery, and the place must have been noisy and smoky, the roar of a small frontier town. Today the area is mostly farmland, and the outlines are visible only from the air, in dry summers, when crop marks trace the walls.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for.
Near Rainau, not far from here, the Romans built a monumental gate in the Raetian Limes, a showpiece entrance probably connected with a visit by the emperor Caracalla in the early third century. Today the Limestor Dalkingen is protected under a glass and steel shelter, an impressive sight. The watchtowers numbered in this section, around Stödtlen, Wört and Tannhausen, were part of the same frontier, which ran here as a stone wall across the hilly country between the Ries crater and the Swabian Forest, toward the Danube.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
The Romans called it the edge of the world they cared about, and in the Rems valley east of Schwäbisch Gmünd you can still trace where they drew the line. A string of watchtower sites, numbered by archaeologists along the stretch between Mögglingen, Heuchlingen and Böbingen, marks the course of the Raetian Limes, the frontier that guarded the province of Raetia in the second and third centuries. Here the frontier was a stone wall, which later locals, puzzled by the long ruined bank, called the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th.
There is a stretch of the Roman frontier in southern Germany that runs almost perfectly straight for about eighty kilometres, from Walldürn in the Odenwald to near Welzheim in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, ignoring hills and valleys alike, as if the surveyors had simply drawn a line on a map. The watchtowers numbered WP 9/101 to 9/131 stand near the southern end of that line, in the forests around Kaisersbach and Welzheim, where the Limes finally turns.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 222 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 14/28.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 14/28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 294 km.
Watchtower WP 14/28 → Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch → Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th → back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch → Watchtower WP 14/28 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.