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 Idstein it runs 318 km to Idstein; allow about 4 h 40 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the, Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof and back through Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the. The line favours views over speed.
The Taunus does not shout. It is a rounded, forested upland north of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, and the Roman frontier crossed it on its way from the Rhine to the Main. These numbered watchtowers near Idstein belong to the Upper Germanic frontier, which in this part of Hesse ran through woods and clearings along the high ground. Archaeologists have recorded the tower positions along the line, and the asterisks in the label are their way of marking sites that are uncertain or only partly known. In practice you find woodland, a trail and the faint trace of an old bank.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the.
Roman soldiers on this part of the frontier spent most of their time watching, and the towers that you can trace in the woods near Hillscheid are the evidence. Four tower positions follow one another here, each within sight of the next so that a fire or a flag could pass a message along the line in minutes, and a fortlet and the remains of a fort and civil settlement lie nearby, forming a small military zone around the Limes. This was the first stretch of the Upper Germanic frontier after it left the Rhine, so every day brought traders, patrols and tax collectors through the gap.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
There is very little to see at first glance here, which is exactly what makes the place oddly moving. South of Bonn, in the edge of the Kottenforst near the Heiderhof quarter of Bad Godesberg and the town of Wachtberg, the forest floor hides the faint outlines of Roman practice camps. Legionaries stationed at the fortress of Bonna on the Rhine marched out here to train at the hard, boring work that won the empire its wars: digging ditches, throwing up earth ramparts and laying out a camp to the standard plan in a few hours. A handful of these training camps in the Kottenforst are part of the Lower German Limes, the Roman frontier along the Rhine recognised by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 166 km into the recorded legs you reach Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*. That is the ride.
Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* → Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the → Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → back through Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/69 to 1/72 including the → Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.