Why this ride
From Bad Ems it runs 105 km to Bad Ems; allow about 1 h 31 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 1/61, Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 and back through Watchtower WP 1/61. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 and Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 105 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 31
- 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.
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 1/89 to 1/92
Bad Ems is the sort of town that makes you straighten your collar. It lies in the narrow, wooded valley of the Lahn river, where hot springs have been used since Roman times, and in the nineteenth century it became one of the great spa towns of Europe. Kings, tsars and writers came to take the waters, among them Kaiser Wilhelm I, who was at Ems in July 1870 when a diplomatic telegram was edited by Bismarck and helped trigger the Franco-Prussian War. The Kurhaus, the colonnades and the grand hotels along the river still show what the town was like in those days.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/61.
2. Watchtower WP 1/61
Höhr-Grenzhausen is clay country, and that decides almost everything about this part of the Westerwald. The hills hold a thick seam of fine, high-quality stoneware clay, and for centuries the area has been known as the Kannenbäckerland, the land of the jug makers. Grey salt-glazed pottery with blue decoration, called Westerwald stoneware, was exported across Europe from here, and workshops and a ceramics museum still keep the trade alive. It is a surprising backdrop for a Roman watchtower, but the Romans were here first, and WP 1/61 is one of the numbered posts of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/61 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 1/61 comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34.
3. Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/61.
4. back through Watchtower WP 1/61
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/61 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Watchtower WP 1/61, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92.
5. Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 to Watchtower WP 1/61
Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 → Watchtower WP 1/61 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/61 to Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34
Watchtower WP 1/61 → Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 to back through Watchtower WP 1/61
Watchtowers WP 1/32 to 1/34 → back through Watchtower WP 1/61 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/61 to Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92
back through Watchtower WP 1/61 → Watchtowers WP 1/89 to 1/92 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.