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.
157 km from Melsbach to Melsbach, about 2 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtower WP 1/73, Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort, Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just and back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Just north of Neuwied, the Westerwald begins to climb out of the Rhine valley, and the Roman frontier ran up through the woods from its starting point on the river, rising and falling over the low ridges. The Limes here is the Upper German section in its earliest stretch, where watchtowers 1/32 to 1/34 stood close together on the hillside above the Wied, a small river that runs through a pretty, wooded valley to join the Rhine. Melsbach, a village of two thousand people next to the point, lies in this valley, and the surrounding hills are a mix of beech forest, meadow and the fields of the Neuwied basin.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/73.
The Roman frontier in Germany starts at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and climbs into the hills of the Westerwald, and Watchtower WP 1/73, near Hillscheid, belongs to that first stretch. The numbers tell you where you are: section one, tower seventy-three. All that survives is a low mound in the woods, but in the second and third centuries it was a stone tower with a view over the frontier line and, behind it, the palisade and ditch that ran across the landscape. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes has been part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire since 2005, and this is where it all begins.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/73 comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort.
In the Taunus and Westerwald country of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Limes crosses hills so wooded that it is easy to miss. The numbering here records three watchtower positions and a fort, and from the start of the sequence you can follow the frontier as a line of mounds through forest and field.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Bad Schwalbach is a spa town that never quite lost its nineteenth-century manners: a long, leafy valley, a Kurpark with pavilions, and iron-rich springs that once drew the fashionable from across Europe to take the waters. Just above it, on the high ground of the Taunus, the Roman frontier ran through the forests, and the stretch catalogued as watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 passes within a few kilometres of the town. Here the Upper German Limes followed the ridge, with wooden and later stone towers set at intervals within sight of one another, a palisade in front, and a ditch and bank added later. In the beech woods you can still trace the low line of the bank in places, a quiet scar running through the trees for kilometre after kilometre.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/73.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 1/73 comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 → Watchtower WP 1/73 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/73 → Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort → Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort → back through Watchtower WP 1/73 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/73 → Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.