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 189 km round trip from Idstein - roughly 3 h 29 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg, Signaltower Johannisberg, Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl and back through Signaltower Johannisberg. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 27 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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 Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg.
If you want to know what a Roman frontier fort actually looked like, this is the place. The Saalburg, on the ridge of the Taunus above Bad Homburg, is the only Limes fort in Germany rebuilt in full: walls, gates, towers, granary and the headquarters building, all standing again on their original foundations. The reconstruction was ordered by Kaiser Wilhelm II around 1900, who liked his Romans grand and imperial, and while archaeologists today debate some details, walking through the main gate is still a jolt.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Signaltower Johannisberg.
On a hill above Bad Nauheim, the Johannisberg, the Romans built a signal tower that could communicate with the frontier forts of the Wetterau, the fertile plain that bulges north of Frankfurt and was protected by a long loop of the Limes. The site, with a later medieval chapel and a modern observation tower, gives wide views over the plain and the Taunus hills, and it is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. On a clear day you can see the towers of Frankfurt on the horizon.
Read the complete Signaltower Johannisberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Signaltower Johannisberg. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl.
Out here on the eastern rim of the Wetterau, between Altenstadt, Hammersbach and the Büdingen forest, the Roman frontier did something unusual. Having come over the Taunus and swung north around the fertile plain, the Limes turned and ran almost due south towards the Main, enclosing the Wetterau like a hand cupped around something precious. The towers numbered WP 4/82 to 5/8, along with small fortlets, guarded this eastern flank, and their remains lie in fields and woodland edges where only a shallow bank or a marker stone gives them away.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl, about halfway. Next is back through Signaltower Johannisberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Signaltower Johannisberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Signaltower Johannisberg sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg comes up about 155 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* closes the day.
Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* → Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg → Signaltower Johannisberg is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Signaltower Johannisberg → Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl → back through Signaltower Johannisberg is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Signaltower Johannisberg → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Saalburg → Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.