Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just and Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just

   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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just is where the day begins. Next is Fortlet of Pfarrhofen.

2. 2. Fortlet of Pfarrhofen

   In the second century, the Roman frontier in Germany ran across the hills of the Taunus north of the Rhine as a line of wooden palisades, ditches, earth banks, watchtowers and forts, stretching over five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, as it is called, is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, listed by UNESCO in 2005, and the fortlet of Pfarrhofen, near Holzhausen an der Haide in the western Taunus, is one of the many small installations along its course. A fortlet was a small fort with a garrison of a few dozen men, guarding a road crossing or a section of the frontier between larger forts.

   Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fortlet of Pfarrhofen comes up 17 km in. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.

3. 3. Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort

   Between the Lahn and the Rhine, the Roman frontier crossed a high, wooded plateau known locally as the Einrich, and the watchtowers from 2/7 to 2/13 stood on this stretch, near the village of Dachsenhausen. In the forest, the earth bank and ditch can still be followed, and small forts, built to house the soldiers who manned the towers, have left their outlines in the ground. Here, as elsewhere in Germany, the Limes belongs to the frontiers of the Roman Empire on the World Heritage list, but the forest is quiet, and you may walk the line for an hour without meeting anyone.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   35 km in you reach Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort. Next is Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30.

4. 4. Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30

   Kastell Holzhausen is one of the best-preserved Roman forts along the German Limes, and it lies in a forest clearing near the village of Holzhausen an der Haide in the western Taunus, where the remains of its stone walls, gates and corner towers still stand to a height of a metre or more. The fort housed an auxiliary cohort of several hundred soldiers in the second and third centuries, and it guarded a section of the frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, along with a chain of watchtowers spaced at regular intervals along the line. The watchtowers numbered WP 2/26 to 2/30, part of the UNESCO listing, stood on this section between the fort and its neighbours.

   Read the complete Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.

5. 5. Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6

   WP 2/5 and 2/6 sound like spare parts, but they are the numbers archaeologists gave to two watchtower positions on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the fortified frontier Rome drew across southern Germany. Here, in the hills above the Lahn near Bad Ems, the line ran up from the Rhine and over the high ground, and every few hundred metres a tower stood with a view to the next. Today most of what survives are low mounds, traces of the bank and ditch, and in some places a reconstructed tower to give you scale. The whole frontier became part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire in 2005.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 sits at 70 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30.

6. 6. back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Watchtoers WP 2/26 to 2/30 comes up 87 km in. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort.

7. 7. back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   104 km in you reach back through Watchtowers WP 2/7 and 2/13 including fort. Next is back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen.

8. 8. back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/50 to 2/55 including Just.

9. 9. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 157 km.