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 322 km to Stödtlen; allow about 6 h 27 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 Pfünz and Watchtowers WP 15/27 to 15/47. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Pfünz.
Above the village of Pfünz, on a spur of white Jura limestone looking down into the Altmühl valley, the Romans built a fort they called Vetoniana. Today a reconstructed gate and a stretch of wall stand on the hilltop, and from up there you understand the choice at once: the valley floor curls below you, the river meanders slowly, and anyone moving along it would have been seen hours before they arrived.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 15/27 to 15/47.
Up in the hills above the Altmühl valley, west of Neustadt an der Donau and the Danube, the old Raetian frontier crossed some of its prettiest country. The numbers 15/27 to 15/47 cover a long stretch of the line, and because that line follows the ridges and plateau edges, the landscape is a mixture of fields, juniper-dotted limestone slopes and sheltered woods. The Altmühl itself is a slow river that has cut a deep, winding valley through Jurassic limestone, and the whole district is a nature park, known for fossils from the quarries at Solnhofen.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/27 to 15/47 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 15/27 to 15/47 sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz comes up about 205 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 246 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 322 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 Pfünz is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz → Watchtowers WP 15/27 to 15/47 is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 15/27 to 15/47 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Pfünz → back through Watchtower WP 14/28 is 41 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 37 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.