Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22 and Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
203 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 28
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 Andernach it runs 203 km to Andernach; allow about 3 h 28 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 1/65, Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a, Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 and back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Scenic road chapters
Moselle Wine Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 29 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
29 km
Named road
Moselle Wine Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22
Above Leutesdorf, on the right bank of the Rhine between Neuwied and Bad Hönningen, the hills climb steeply from the river, covered with vineyards and forests, and the Roman frontier ran along their crest. Watchtowers WP 1/21 and 1/22 stood here in the early part of the Upper Germanic Limes, just a few kilometres from its starting point at Rheinbrohl, watching over the valley and the lands beyond. Today the tower sites are quiet spots in the woods, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/65.
2. Watchtower WP 1/65
Höhr-Grenzhausen is the capital of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' land, a corner of the Westerwald where the clay is so good that people have been making pots from it for five hundred years. The grey stoneware, fired at high temperature and decorated in cobalt blue, was exported across Europe in the form of jugs, tankards and bottles, and the workshops and kilns still fill the town. The German Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen is one of the best of its kind, with objects from medieval jugs to modern art.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 1/65 comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
3. Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a
Up on the plateau of the Hintertaunus, north of the Rhine gorge, the Roman frontier crossed a quiet landscape of fields and forest near Singhofen, and a section of it between two watchtowers survives here as a faint bank and ditch running through the woods. This is the Upper German Limes, which ran for more than five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, marking the boundary between the Roman Empire and the free Germanic tribes from the second century until the Romans withdrew in the third. It was not a great wall like Hadrian's in Britain, but a line of watchtowers, forts and a timber palisade, later strengthened with a ditch and bank. Together with the Raetian Limes, it was listed by UNESCO in 2005.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66.
4. Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66
The Westerwald is a low, rain-washed plateau of beech, meadow and clay pits, and the Roman Limes cut straight across it. This stretch, marked by the surveyors' numbers for two watchtowers, lies close to Höhr-Grenzhausen, where the Limes was a palisade and ditch with timber towers every few hundred metres, replaced later by stone. You will not find tall walls. What you find is a gentle bank in the woods, a mound where a tower stood, and a signpost telling you that soldiers once watched the horizon from this exact spot.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22 closes the day.
Leg by leg
Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22 to Watchtower WP 1/65
Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22 → Watchtower WP 1/65 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/65 to Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a
Watchtower WP 1/65 → Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a to Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 to back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a
Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a to back through Watchtower WP 1/65
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → back through Watchtower WP 1/65 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/65 to Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22
back through Watchtower WP 1/65 → Watchtowers WP 1/21 to 1/22 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.