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 244 km round trip from Gunzenhausen - roughly 4 h 12 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fort site of Oberhochstatt, Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7, Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld and back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7. The line favours views over speed.
South of Gunzenhausen the old frontier of the Roman Empire ran across the countryside in a ruler-straight line, and the numbered watchtowers are the markers for that line. This is the Raetian Limes, the stretch that, from the second century onward, was built from timber and then stone to protect the province of Raetia from the Germanic tribes to the north. The numbers 13/41 to 13/45 simply describe a cluster of tower sites on the surveyor's map. Most of them have been reduced by farming and time to low mounds and gentle banks in the fields, so what you actually find is landscape rather than masonry.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site of Oberhochstatt.
Not every Roman fort on the frontier was a great stone fortress. Some were small, temporary or quickly abandoned, and the fort site of Oberhochstatt, on the high plateau above Weißenburg in Bavaria, seems to have been one of these, a modest garrison post on the Raetian Limes. There is little to see today beyond a field, perhaps an information board and the outline of the defences in the grass. But the landscape around is full of Roman history, and the town of Weißenburg, a short ride away, is one of the best places in Germany to experience it.
Read the complete Fort site of Oberhochstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site of Oberhochstatt comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7.
In Bavaria, the Roman frontier changed character. Instead of the wooden palisade used in the Upper German section, the Raetian Limes was eventually built as a stone wall, known locally as the Devil's Wall, because medieval people could not imagine anyone but the devil building something so long. The stretch between Watchtowers 15/1 and 15/7 crosses the hills around the Altmühl valley, near Kipfenberg and Kinding, and the line of the wall can still be traced in places as a low ridge in the forest. It is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7. Next is Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld.
Eining is the spot where the Danube Limes and the Raetian Limes meet, or more accurately the place where the wall and ditch ran down to the river and gave way to the water as a frontier. The Romans built a fort here called Abusina, on the south bank, with walls that can still be traced in the fields and a small museum nearby. For soldiers posted to the edge of the empire it must have felt like standing at the end of the world, with the river wide and cold in front of them and Germania on the far bank. The name Unterfeld refers to the lower field beside the fort, a plain, practical label for an ordinary piece of land.
Read the complete Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 sits at 153 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site of Oberhochstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt comes up about 206 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 → Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site of Oberhochstatt → Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 → Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site of Eining-Unterfeld → back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 15/1 to 15/7 → back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site of Oberhochstatt → Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.