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 375 km round trip from Walldürn - roughly 5 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur, Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor and Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 48 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Romans liked straight lines, and nowhere more than here. On the edge of Walldürn, in the hilly country between the Odenwald and the Tauber valley, runs the course of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the frontier wall that marked the edge of the Roman Empire across what is now southern Germany. Watchtower WP 7/37 is one of hundreds of small posts that lined it, each within sight of the next, so that signals could be passed along the frontier. The Limes here famously runs almost dead straight for many kilometres, regardless of hills and valleys, a statement of Roman confidence and surveying skill.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 7/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 7/37 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur.
For a stretch of about fifty kilometres the Romans let the River Main do the work of a wall. Between Miltenberg and Grosskrotzenburg, the frontier of the Upper Germanic Limes followed the river instead of running as a palisade across country, and a chain of forts sat along its west bank. Trennfurt, a village now part of Klingenberg am Main, was one of them: a fort with its civilian settlement, the vicus, where traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families lived. It is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and as with many Limes sites, most of what survives lies under fields and gardens rather than standing proud.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Seligenstadt is one of those Main valley towns where every era has left something on the table. The Romans came first: here the frontier of the Upper German-Raetian Limes ran along the river itself, and a fort with a civilian settlement around it guarded the Main crossing. The fort site lies under the old town, so you are walking over it rather than looking at it, but the logic of the place is obvious when you stand by the water. The river was the border, the road and the supply line all at once.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
The Wetterau is a broad, fertile basin north of Frankfurt, a land of rich loess soils, wheat fields, orchards and old villages, and the Romans wanted it badly. Their frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, bulged out here to take in the whole basin, looping around it in a wide arc. At Ober-Florstadt stood a fort with a civilian settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. Today little is visible, but the site is part of the World Heritage frontier, and information boards help to picture the scene.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor, about halfway. 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 sits at 178 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor comes up about 253 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 301 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 7/37.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 7/37 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 375 km.
Watchtower WP 7/37 → Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Trennfur → Watchtower WP 7/37 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.