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 343 km round trip from Bendorf - roughly 5 h 42 in the saddle. It goes by way of Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe, Watchtower SP 3/5*, Building remains southwest of Saalburg and Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald. The line favours views over speed.
For about 39 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
36 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
This stretch of the Limes sits close to Bendorf and Stromberg, on the plateau above the Rhine near Koblenz, and the watchtowers numbered here, five in all, follow the line as it climbs from the river. The frontier was a controlled boundary: a palisade or bank, a ditch, and a series of towers within sight of each other, with a patrol path behind. Traces survive as low banks in forest and field, and some positions have been marked or partly reconstructed, which makes this a good place to understand how the system worked.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe.
Marienfels is a small village in the hills of the western Taunus, between the Rhine and the Lahn, and it sits on the site of a Roman fort and its civilian settlement, part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. The frontier wall ran through these hills, and the fort housed a garrison that guarded the frontier and the roads that crossed it. Little remains above ground, but excavations have revealed the outline of the fort and the settlement, with houses, baths and workshops.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower SP 3/5*.
Taunusstein did not exist as a town until 1971, when ten villages on the high plateau north of Wiesbaden were merged into one municipality, and so it has no old centre, just a cluster of former villages, each with its church, its half-timbered houses and its fields. One of them, Wehen, gave its name to the football club SV Wehen Wiesbaden, which started here before moving to the city. The Roman frontier ran along the edge of this plateau, and watchtower SP 3/5, close to the line, is one of the many small sites that mark it in the forest between Taunusstein and Idstein.
Read the complete Watchtower SP 3/5* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower SP 3/5*. Next is Building remains southwest of Saalburg.
If you want to know what a Roman fort on the German frontier really looked like, the Saalburg is the place, and these building remains lie in the forest just southwest of it, part of the civilian and military landscape that grew up around the fort. The Saalburg itself was rebuilt at the beginning of the twentieth century on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was fascinated by Roman history and keen to present the German empire as the heir of Rome. The walls, gates, headquarters building and granaries were reconstructed on the original foundations, based on the archaeology of the time, and today the fort houses a museum full of finds from the frontier, along with workshops, a Roman garden and regular events with reenactors.
Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Building remains southwest of Saalburg, about halfway. Next is Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald.
The Roman frontier in Germany, the Limes, ran for over five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, a line of palisades, ditches, walls, watchtowers and forts that marked the edge of the empire. In the Wetterau, north of Frankfurt, the Limes swung east in a great bulge to enclose this fertile plain, which the Romans valued for its farmland. In the woods near Wölfersheim stood a signal tower, one of the many small posts along the line, and today its remains are part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg comes up about 218 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower SP 3/5*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower SP 3/5* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 263 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower SP 3/5*. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 343 km.
Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 → Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe → Watchtower SP 3/5* is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower SP 3/5* → Building remains southwest of Saalburg is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Building remains southwest of Saalburg → Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald → back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg → back through Watchtower SP 3/5* is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower SP 3/5* → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe → Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.