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.
165 km from Weiltingen to Weiltingen, about 2 h 55 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for, Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B, Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 and Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 18 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Along the Wörnitz valley in western Middle Franconia, near the village of Weiltingen, the line of the Raetian Limes cuts across the countryside, and the places where Roman watchtowers once stood are numbered by archaeologists in a dry sequence: WP 13/6, 13/7, and so on. In Raetia, the frontier was not a palisade, as in Upper Germany, but a stone wall about three metres high, and local people called its remains the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, believing that only the devil could have built something so long and straight. Today, you may see a low bank in a field or a line of trees following the old route, and in some places the foundations of towers have been marked or reconstructed.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for.
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 comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B.
Out here on the eastern edge of Württemberg, where the Jagst valley widens into rolling farmland below the Ellwangen hills, the Romans drew a line across the map and then built it in stone. The fort at Rainau-Buch, which the ride labels Reinau-B, sat just behind the Raetian Limes, the frontier that ran from the Rhine toward the Danube. What you find today is a grassy rectangle with low reconstructed wall footings, the outline of a bath house, and the traces of the civilian village that grew up outside the gate, where traders, families and off-duty soldiers lived the way garrison towns always do.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
The Romans called it the edge of the world they cared about, and in the Rems valley east of Schwäbisch Gmünd you can still trace where they drew the line. A string of watchtower sites, numbered by archaeologists along the stretch between Mögglingen, Heuchlingen and Böbingen, marks the course of the Raetian Limes, the frontier that guarded the province of Raetia in the second and third centuries. Here the frontier was a stone wall, which later locals, puzzled by the long ruined bank, called the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59, about halfway. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh.
On the southern edge of Schwäbisch Gmünd, near the Schirenhof farm, the outline of a Roman fort and the foundations of its bath house lie in the grass, with walls and hypocaust heating systems laid out for visitors to see. The fort guarded the point where the Upper Germanic Limes met the Raetian Limes, the two great frontier lines of Roman Germany, and a civilian settlement grew up around it. The site is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and it is one of the more rewarding Limes stops in Baden-Württemberg, with visible remains and a lovely setting above the town.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh sits at 76 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 comes up about 104 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B. Next is back through 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 165 km.
Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 → Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B → Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Schirenh → back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B → back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.