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.
184 km from Weiltingen to Weiltingen, about 3 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45, Watchtower WP 14/28, Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo and back through Watchtower WP 14/28. The line favours views over speed.
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 13/41 to 13/45.
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 comes up about 26 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 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 14/28. Next is Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo.
Between Greding and Eichstätt, the Raetian Limes runs across the high Franconian Jura plateau, and the names on the map, WP 14/63 to 14/78, are archaeologists' shorthand for a sequence of Roman watchtower sites along this section of the frontier. The Raetian Limes was the wall part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Here, the Romans built a stone wall rather than the timber palisade used further west. Locals later called the remains the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, believing nothing human could have built it.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo, about halfway. 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.
back through Watchtower WP 14/28 sits at 118 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 comes up about 159 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 → Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 → Watchtower WP 14/28 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 14/28 → Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo → 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 13/41 to 13/45 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 → Watchtowers WP 13/6 to 13/12 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.