CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
294 km from Bad Schwalbach to Bad Schwalbach, about 5 h 14 of riding. It goes by way of Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Watchtower WP 1/77, Watchtower WP 1/73 and back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 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 34 km in. 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.
68 km in you reach Watchtower WP 1/77.
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.
Upper Middle Rhine Valley, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 1/73.
The Roman frontier in Germany starts at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and climbs into the hills of the Westerwald, and Watchtower WP 1/73, near Hillscheid, belongs to that first stretch. The numbers tell you where you are: section one, tower seventy-three. All that survives is a low mound in the woods, but in the second and third centuries it was a stone tower with a view over the frontier line and, behind it, the palisade and ditch that ran across the landscape. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes has been part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire since 2005, and this is where it all begins.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 1/73 sits at 136 km, about halfway. 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 comes up 170 km in. 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.
204 km in you reach back through Watchtower WP 1/77.
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 294 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 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/77 → 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 1/73 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/73 → back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Upper Middle Rhine Valley → back through Watchtower WP 1/77 is 34 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 34 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.