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 389 km round trip from Holzhausen an der Haide - roughly 4 h 58 in the saddle. It goes by way of Watchtower WP 3/23*, Fortlet Lochmühle, Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg and Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This part of the ride is 36 km of Fortlet Lochmühle → Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
61 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Holzhausen an der Haide is a small village on the high ground of the western Taunus, between the Rhine and the Lahn, and it has one of the better-preserved Roman fort sites along the Limes. The stone walls of Kastell Holzhausen still stand to a modest height in the fields just outside the village, outlining the fort's rectangle with its rounded corners and gates. Watchtower WP 2/31 belongs to the chain of towers that linked forts like this one along the frontier, and in this open landscape you can easily imagine the signals passing from hill to hill.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 2/31 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 3/23*.
On the wooded ridges near Idstein, the Taunus Limes crossed some of its highest and most remote ground, and Watchtower WP 3/23 is one of the many sites along this stretch. The asterisk in the official label suggests a site whose exact location is uncertain or reconstructed from survey work, which is common along the frontier, where many towers survive only as faint mounds in the forest. Still, walking the Limes trail here, with the bank and ditch running through the beech woods, gives a real sense of the Roman border.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/23* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/23* comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortlet Lochmühle.
The Lochmühle is a small fortlet on the Limes in the Taunus, near Wehrheim and the famous Saalburg, and it guarded a spot where the frontier crossed the valley of the Erlenbach stream. Fortlets like this were small outposts, housing a handful of soldiers who watched the border and controlled traffic, and they formed a link between the watchtowers and the larger forts. Its remains are modest, but the location, in a quiet valley surrounded by forest, has a peaceful charm. The name comes from a nearby mill, now a popular leisure park for families with play areas and farm animals.
Read the complete Fortlet Lochmühle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortlet Lochmühle. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
Arnsburg confuses people, and for good reason. The name belongs first to a Cistercian monastery in the Wetter valley near Lich, whose roofless Gothic church stands in a meadow as one of the most romantic ruins in Hesse. But on the wooded hill nearby lies an older layer: a Roman fort on the Limes, sometimes called the Alteburg, with its civil settlement, and the frontier itself running past on its way around the northern edge of the Wetterau.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Great forts are rare on the Limes; most of the frontier was watchtowers, small timber and later stone posts within sight of each other, each with a handful of men and a fire for signalling. The towers numbered 5/15 and 5/16 stood near Großkrotzenburg, at the point where the land frontier coming down from the Wetterau met the Main, and from here southward the river itself became the border as far as Miltenberg. Little of them remains to see, but the location tells the story: the Romans used water where they could and built palisades only where they had to.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 sits at 165 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg comes up about 250 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fortlet Lochmühle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Lochmühle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 287 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fortlet Lochmühle. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/23*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/23* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 3/23*, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 2/31.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 389 km.
Watchtower WP 2/31 → Watchtower WP 3/23* is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/23* → Fortlet Lochmühle is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Lochmühle → Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg → back through Fortlet Lochmühle is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet Lochmühle → back through Watchtower WP 3/23* is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/23* → Watchtower WP 2/31 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.