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 160 km round trip from Neuwied - roughly 2 h 57 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76, 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.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 28 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Pumice is the clue to this corner of the Rhineland. About thirteen thousand years ago the Laacher See volcano blew itself apart not far upstream, and the ash and pumice it threw out settled across the Neuwied basin, where it was dug, pressed into building blocks and carted off for centuries. Up on the hills above the basin, near Melsbach and Rengsdorf, the Romans chose the high ground for a pair of small watchtowers, one of which carries an extra letter in its number because archaeologists found a second structure next to it. They were part of the Upper Germanic Limes, which begins at the Rhine only a few kilometres away.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76.
Between Hillscheid, Neuhäusel and Kadenbach the land lifts into a low, rolling plateau of fields, beech copses and small clay pits, and the watchtowers 1/74 to 1/76 mark a tight cluster of Roman posts on the frontier. On paper it looks like a long list, but on the ground it is a gentle, almost domestic country where cows graze behind electric fences and church towers rise over village roofs. The frontier here was part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005, and a map of the area shows a sequence of numbered towers a few hundred metres apart, each one in sight of the next.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 comes up about 28 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 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 comes up about 132 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a → Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 → Watchtowers WP 2/17 to 2/19 including fort is 30 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 Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/74 to 1/76 → Watchtowers WP 1/35 and 1/35a is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.