Why this ride
A 376 km round trip from Nassau - roughly 5 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 1/52, Remagen, Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 and Dormagen. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 and Dormagen
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 376 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 53
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Moselle Wine Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 38 km
- Named road
- Moselle Wine Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16
Imagine standing in a small timber or stone tower on a cold winter night, looking out over the dark forest for signs of movement, with a fire ready to signal to the next tower along the line. That was the life of the soldiers who manned the watchtowers of the Roman frontier, and the remains of three of them, numbered 2/14 to 2/16 by archaeologists, lie in the woods between Singhofen and Miehlen, on the plateau above the Rhine and the Lahn. Their foundations survive as low mounds and traces in the ground, and the line of the frontier, the ditch and bank, can be followed between them. They are part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, one of the components of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/52.
2. Watchtower WP 1/52
The Roman frontier in Germany began on the Rhine at Rheinbrohl, a few kilometres downstream from Koblenz, where the first watchtower of the Upper Germanic Limes, WP 1/1, stood on the riverbank. From there, the frontier ran south-east through the Westerwald and the Taunus, and the watchtower WP 1/52, near Bendorf, stood on this early section, close to the Rhine and the confluence of the Moselle at Koblenz. The tower is long gone, but its site is part of the UNESCO listing of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and the Roemerwelt museum at Rheinbrohl brings the life of the frontier soldiers vividly to life with reconstructions and hands-on exhibits.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/52 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 1/52 comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Remagen.
3. Remagen
On 7 March 1945, soldiers of the US 9th Armored Division reached Remagen and found the Ludendorff railway bridge across the Rhine still standing, despite German attempts to blow it. They rushed across, and for the first time the Allies had a foothold on the far bank of the great river. Ten days later the damaged bridge collapsed, but by then pontoons had been built and the war in the west had entered its last chapter. What remains today are the black stone towers on both banks, and those on the Remagen side house a small peace museum telling the story with honesty and without glorification.
Read the complete Remagen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Remagen. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
4. Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
The Kottenforst looks like an ordinary Rhineland woodland of oak, beech and hornbeam, with walkers, joggers and the odd horse rider, but in the second half of the first century and beyond it was a training ground for the Roman army. In clearings of the forest, the legion stationed at Bonna, today's Bonn, built a series of temporary camps as exercises, digging ditches and raising ramparts to practise the rapid construction they would need in the field. The remains of these camps, faint earthworks under the trees, are included in the Lower Germanic Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021. Am Weissen Stein is one of the northern groups.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1, about halfway. Next is Dormagen.
5. Dormagen
Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dormagen sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
6. back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 comes up about 248 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Remagen.
7. back through Remagen
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Remagen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 295 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Remagen. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/52.
8. back through Watchtower WP 1/52
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/52 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Watchtower WP 1/52, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16.
9. Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 376 km.
Leg by leg
Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 to Watchtower WP 1/52
Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 → Watchtower WP 1/52 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/52 to Remagen
Watchtower WP 1/52 → Remagen is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Remagen to Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Remagen → Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 to Dormagen
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → Dormagen is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dormagen to back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Dormagen → back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 to back through Remagen
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → back through Remagen is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Remagen to back through Watchtower WP 1/52
back through Remagen → back through Watchtower WP 1/52 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/52 to Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16
back through Watchtower WP 1/52 → Watchtowers WP 2/14 to 2/16 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 and Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a · 263 km
- Watchtower WP 1/65 and Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at · 228 km
- Fort site and civil settlement of Marienfe and Dormagen · 380 km
- Watchtower WP 1/64 and Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at · 244 km