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 191 km round trip from Bad Schwalbach - roughly 3 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f, Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81, Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a and back through Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 31 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the western Taunus, between Bad Schwalbach and Taunusstein, the forest is thick and the hills roll gently, and the Upper German Limes runs along the ridge here as a still visible bank and ditch. The site labelled Watchtower WP 3/4 is one of the many small posts along this section, and a few kilometres to the east, near Taunusstein-Orlen, the fort of Zugmantel guarded a crossing of the frontier on an old trade route into Germanic territory. These remains are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and a walk along the Limes trail through the forest here is peaceful and atmospheric.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/4* is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f.
North of the Taunus ridge, the Limes crossed a high, open plateau between the Rhine and the Lahn, and the stretch with watchtowers 2/23 to 2/26 runs through the farmland and woods near Miehlen and Singhofen in the Rhein-Lahn district. The remains here are subtle, mostly low banks and the traces of towers in fields and forest edges, but the line of the frontier is marked by the long-distance Limes trail and information boards. This is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, a stretch of the line that few visitors ever see.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81.
Kadenbach, Arzbach and Eitelborn are three small villages on the broad, wooded plateau of the Westerwald, a short way north of the Lahn valley, and the four watchtowers here sit in a short run along the Roman frontier. Numbers 1/78 to 1/81 belong to the first section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, running from the Rhine towards the Taunus. The frontier was a palisade with towers placed within sight of one another, and the signal system relied on fire at night and smoke or flag by day. In this area the Romans picked ridges and shoulders of hills so the view ran for miles over land that was then forest and scrub.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.
Between Rengsdorf and Anhausen the Westerwald is open farmland and beech woods, and a Roman frontier ran straight through it. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, started on the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran for hundreds of kilometres to the Danube, a line of timber towers, a palisade, and in places a ditch and bank. The code WP 1/39 a is not poetry, it is bookkeeping: the old German Reichs-Limeskommission numbered the frontier by section and then by watchtower, and archaeologists still use their numbers. Here, a section of the line survives as a low bank and shallow hollow in the grass, which you will walk past without noticing unless someone points it out.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f comes up about 166 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/4*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/4* closes the day.
Watchtower WP 3/4* → Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f → Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 → Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a → back through Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/78 to 1/81 → back through Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP WP 2/23 to 2/26 including f → Watchtower WP 3/4* is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.