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.
311 km from Bad Schwalbach to Bad Schwalbach, about 6 h 37 of riding. On the way it passes Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Watchtower WP 1/77, Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the and Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. 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 34 km this is Rhine Romantic Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Bad Schwalbach is a spa town that never quite lost its nineteenth-century manners: a long, leafy valley, a Kurpark with pavilions, and iron-rich springs that once drew the fashionable from across Europe to take the waters. Just above it, on the high ground of the Taunus, the Roman frontier ran through the forests, and the stretch catalogued as watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 passes within a few kilometres of the town. Here the Upper German Limes followed the ridge, with wooden and later stone towers set at intervals within sight of one another, a palisade in front, and a ditch and bank added later. In the beech woods you can still trace the low line of the bank in places, a quiet scar running through the trees for kilometre after kilometre.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is where the day begins. Next is Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
Between Bingen and Koblenz, the Rhine cuts a deep, winding gorge through the slate hills of the Rhenish Massif, and for centuries this has been one of the great landscapes of Europe: steep slopes covered with vineyards, castles on every crag, villages of half-timbered houses along the river, and barges gliding past. The Upper Middle Rhine Valley was listed by UNESCO in 2002, and Sankt Goarshausen sits at its heart, at the foot of the most famous rock on the river.
Read the complete Upper Middle Rhine Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Upper Middle Rhine Valley comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 1/77. 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.
Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the, about halfway. 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 sits at 138 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the comes up about 191 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 238 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 1/77. Next is back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Upper Middle Rhine Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 311 km.
Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just → Upper Middle Rhine Valley is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Upper Middle Rhine Valley → Watchtower WP 1/77 is 37 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 46 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 → 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 → back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley → Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.