Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29 and Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
294 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 41
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 Neuwied it runs 294 km to Neuwied; allow about 5 h 41 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtower WP 1/88, Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se, Watchtower WP 3/38* and Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
Moselle Wine Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 36 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
36 km
Named road
Moselle Wine Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29
The Rhine at Neuwied is wide and brown and always busy with barges, and the flat basin around it was shaped by a catastrophe. About thirteen thousand years ago the Laacher See volcano, a little to the west, erupted with tremendous force and blanketed the area in pumice and ash, and the same tephra layer can still be found in sediments across much of Europe. Today the basin is orchards, vegetable fields and quarries for pumice and tuff, a quiet and fertile ground that gives no hint of its violent origin.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/88.
2. Watchtower WP 1/88
In the hills above the Lahn, in the Westerwald near Arzbach, the Roman frontier made a long, curving loop through a country of oak and beech forest, and watchtower 1/88 was one of the posts on its line. This district was thick with towers, and several neighbouring numbers lie within a few kilometres. The Romans placed them wherever the ground gave a good view, usually on a rise or a ridge, so that from one you could see the smoke or lamp of the next.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 1/88 comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se.
3. Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se
The western Taunus is wonderfully empty. Away from the commuter belt around Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, the hills north of Bad Schwalbach turn into a quiet patchwork of forest, small meadows and villages in the Heidenrod municipality, and right through the middle runs the Limes. Today you find grassy outlines, a few markers and the bank and ditch disappearing into the beech woods.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se. Next is Watchtower WP 3/38*.
4. Watchtower WP 3/38*
The Taunus is a range of wooded hills north-west of Frankfurt, rising to 878 metres at the Großer Feldberg, and it has long been the city's playground, with forests, spa towns and winding roads. Through these hills ran the Upper Germanic Limes, the Roman frontier that stretched for over five hundred kilometres across Germany, and one of its watchtowers, numbered WP 3/38, stood near the village of Glashütten, close to Waldems and Königstein im Taunus.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 3/38*, about halfway. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha.
5. Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha
Elvis Presley spent his military service in Friedberg, a few kilometres from here, from 1958 to 1960, and lived in a rented house in the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where fans still leave messages on the wall outside and a square in the town bears his name. But nearly two thousand years earlier, other soldiers served in this region. The Roman frontier of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a World Heritage site, ran along the edge of the Taunus hills here, and at Langenhain, near Ober-Mörlen, the Romans built a fort with a civil settlement beside it, where traders, craftsmen and the families of soldiers lived. Today, the site is mostly fields and meadows, with information boards to help you imagine the walls, gates and buildings that once stood here.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 294 km.
Leg by leg
Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29 to Watchtower WP 1/88
Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29 → Watchtower WP 1/88 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/88 to Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se
Watchtower WP 1/88 → Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se to Watchtower WP 3/38*
Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se → Watchtower WP 3/38* is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/38* to Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha
Watchtower WP 3/38* → Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha to back through Watchtower WP 3/38*
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha → back through Watchtower WP 3/38* is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/38* to back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se
back through Watchtower WP 3/38* → back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se to back through Watchtower WP 1/88
back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se → back through Watchtower WP 1/88 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/88 to Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29
back through Watchtower WP 1/88 → Watchtowers WP 1/27 to 1/29 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.