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 Holzhausen an der Haide it runs 310 km to Holzhausen an der Haide; allow about 6 h 39 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 1/77, Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the, Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof and Iversheim. 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 44 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
West of the Taunus ridge, where the high country rolls down toward the Rhine gorge and the Lahn, the line of the Upper German Limes runs through farmland and forest near the villages of Holzhausen an der Haide, Katzenelnbogen and Nastätten. Archaeologists have catalogued the sites of the watchtowers along this stretch, numbered WP 2/35 to 2/48, and near Holzhausen are the remains of a stone fort, well preserved and easily visited, with its walls and gate outlines clear in the grass. The Limes here consisted of a palisade of wooden stakes, later backed by a ditch and bank, with watchtowers at regular intervals and forts a few kilometres behind. It formed the frontier of the Roman Empire for more than a century and a half.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 1/77.
In the hills of the Westerwald, east of Koblenz, the Roman frontier ran from the Rhine up across the high ground towards the Taunus, and archaeologists have numbered every tower site along it. Watchtower WP 1/77, near the villages of Kadenbach and Arzbach, is one of them, now marked by a low mound or reconstructed foundations in the woods. The frontier here was a palisade of timber and later an earth bank and ditch, with towers every few hundred metres, and the whole system is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/77 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/77 comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the.
Here is where the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the longest stretch of Roman frontier in Europe, begins. The Romans started the line at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran it up over the hills of the Westerwald, then on through the Taunus and beyond for more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube. The section with watchtowers numbered WP 1/11 to 1/20 follows the first climb away from the river through the forests above Rheinbrohl, Hammerstein and Niederbreitbach. Most of the towers survive only as low mounds of stone in the woods, but the course of the frontier ditch and rampart can often be traced on foot, and there are information boards and a few reconstructions along the way.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
There is very little to see at first glance here, which is exactly what makes the place oddly moving. South of Bonn, in the edge of the Kottenforst near the Heiderhof quarter of Bad Godesberg and the town of Wachtberg, the forest floor hides the faint outlines of Roman practice camps. Legionaries stationed at the fortress of Bonna on the Rhine marched out here to train at the hard, boring work that won the empire its wars: digging ditches, throwing up earth ramparts and laying out a camp to the standard plan in a few hours. A handful of these training camps in the Kottenforst are part of the Lower German Limes, the Roman frontier along the Rhine recognised by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof, about halfway. Next is Iversheim.
Iversheim is a village in the valley of the Erft, at the northern edge of the Eifel, just downstream from the old spa town of Bad Münstereifel. It is known for one thing: a Roman lime-burning works, one of the best preserved in Europe. The Romans built a series of kilns here to burn limestone from the surrounding hills into quicklime, which was used to make mortar for the forts, towns and roads of the province of Lower Germany. The kilns were worked by detachments of soldiers from the Rhine legions, as inscriptions found on the site show.
Read the complete Iversheim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Iversheim sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof comes up about 191 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 227 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the. Next is back through Watchtower WP 1/77.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/77 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 1/77, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 310 km.
Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the → Watchtower WP 1/77 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/77 → Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the → Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → Iversheim is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Iversheim → back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the → back through Watchtower WP 1/77 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 1/77 → Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.