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.
From Stödtlen it runs 295 km to Stödtlen; allow about 6 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo, Watchtower WP 14/28, Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch and Fort site and civil settlement of Weissenb. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 39 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Near Rainau, not far from here, the Romans built a monumental gate in the Raetian Limes, a showpiece entrance probably connected with a visit by the emperor Caracalla in the early third century. Today the Limestor Dalkingen is protected under a glass and steel shelter, an impressive sight. The watchtowers numbered in this section, around Stödtlen, Wört and Tannhausen, were part of the same frontier, which ran here as a stone wall across the hilly country between the Ries crater and the Swabian Forest, toward the Danube.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo.
The Raetian Limes ran across southern Franconia as a stone wall, and between Wassertrüdingen and Gunzenhausen it climbed over low hills and crossed the valleys of small rivers, with watchtowers at regular intervals. The group from WP 13/16 to 13/36 includes the sites of several towers and a fortlet, now visible as low mounds and foundations, sometimes with reconstructions, and they are part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. In the woods and fields, a line of stones or a slight bank may mark the course of the wall.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 14/28.
Near the Franconian town of Pleinfeld, the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the frontier of the province of Raetia, crossed a landscape of woods, fields and small rivers, and a watchtower stood here, one of hundreds along the line. Watchtower WP 14/28 is now a low mound or reconstructed foundation, but it is part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing. The frontier here was a stone wall, known locally as the Teufelsmauer, the devil's wall, because medieval villagers could not believe that humans had built it.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 14/28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 14/28. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch.
In the fields near Wassertrüdingen, in the soft valley of the Wörnitz and the hills of Middle Franconia, lie the buried remains of a Roman fort that once held an auxiliary unit of several hundred soldiers. Unterschwaningen was one of the larger posts on the Raetian section of the frontier, built in the second century to guard the line and the road behind it. Around it, as at every fort, a civilian settlement grew up, with houses, workshops, bathhouses and a cemetery, and the place must have been noisy and smoky, the roar of a small frontier town. Today the area is mostly farmland, and the outlines are visible only from the air, in dry summers, when crop marks trace the walls.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch, about halfway. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Weissenb.
Under the modern town of Weißenburg, in Franconia, lie the remains of a Roman fort called Biriciana, and it holds one of the best finds of the frontier. The fort was built in the second century to guard the line of the Raetian Limes, and a civil settlement grew up next to it, and in the third century it had a bathhouse that is the best preserved Roman bath north of the Alps. The walls of the baths still stand to a good height, with the heating system, the changing rooms and the pools, and a modern building protects them. Next to the baths is a museum, which holds a hoard of silver and bronze objects found in 1979 during building work, including statuettes of gods that were buried in a pit, probably to hide them.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Weissenb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Weissenb sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch comes up about 183 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 14/28.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 14/28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 14/28. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 295 km.
Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo → Watchtower WP 14/28 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 14/28 → Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch → Fort site and civil settlement of Weissenb is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Weissenb → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Untersch → back through Watchtower WP 14/28 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 14/28 → back through Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/16 to 13/36 including fo → Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.