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 193 km round trip from Echzell - roughly 2 h 34 in the saddle. On the way it passes Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37, Fortlet Lochmühle, Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP and back through Fortlet Lochmühle. The line favours views over speed.
The ride follows Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 → Fortlet Lochmühle for 27 km.
A Roman watchtower on the Limes was, in essence, a lookout with a roof. The stone ones were about five metres square and perhaps ten metres high, with a ground floor for storage, an upper room for a handful of soldiers, and a wooden gallery with a window or a balcony from which a lamp, a horn or a flag could be used to signal. Where the tower stood, a small patch of ground was cleared, with a ditch around it, and the garrison lived in the tower itself or in a nearby hut. Number 4/81 stands in Hesse, in the Wetterau, between Echzell and the village of Hungen, in a landscape of farmland and low volcanic hills.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 4/81 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 4/81 is where the day begins. Next is Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37.
Between the hills of the Taunus and the soft farmland of the Wetterau, the Roman frontier ran in a long, mostly straight line for most of the second and third centuries. This is Hesse, and the numbering that gives the place its odd label, watchtowers 4/36 and 4/37, refers to the standard system archaeologists use to count the Limes watchposts section by section. The point lies near Butzbach, a town of twenty-five thousand people where the frontier crossed the Wetterau and the local fort once held a cavalry unit. The section in question consists of the earth traces, a low bank and a ditch, that the Romans built in front of their wooden palisade, with towers spaced at regular intervals behind.
Read the complete Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 comes up about 37 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 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortlet Lochmühle. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP.
On the western side of the Taunus, the hills are lower and the forest gives way more often to farmland, with villages in the folds of the valleys. Idstein, a small town with a remarkable old centre, sits on this side, with Waldems and Glashütten nearby. Through the woods above them ran the Roman frontier, and the stretch of watchtowers numbered WP 3/24 to 3/40 followed the ridges here, part of the Upper Germanic Limes and of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP, about halfway. 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.
back through Fortlet Lochmühle sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 comes up about 156 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 4/81.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 4/81 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 4/81 closes the day.
Watchtower WP 4/81 → Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 → Fortlet Lochmühle is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Lochmühle → Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → back through Fortlet Lochmühle is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet Lochmühle → back through Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between WP 4/36 and 4/37 → Watchtower WP 4/81 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.