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.
172 km from Idstein to Idstein, about 3 h 21 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the, Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6, Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 and back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Rhine Romantic Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the hills of the Taunus north of Wiesbaden, the Roman frontier ran along the ridges through dense forest, and between watchtowers 3/15 and 3/19 near Idstein, its line can still be traced on the ground. The Romans built an earth bank and ditch, topped with a wooden palisade, with stone watchtowers at regular intervals, close enough to see each other and signal along the line. In the forest, the bank and ditch survive as a long, low ridge and hollow, and the foundations of watchtowers appear as low mounds, sometimes with a few stones visible. The Upper Germanic and Raetian Limes, more than five hundred kilometres long, has been a World Heritage site since 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the.
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 comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57.
This stretch of the Limes sits close to Bendorf and Stromberg, on the plateau above the Rhine near Koblenz, and the watchtowers numbered here, five in all, follow the line as it climbs from the river. The frontier was a controlled boundary: a palisade or bank, a ditch, and a series of towers within sight of each other, with a patrol path behind. Traces survive as low banks in forest and field, and some positions have been marked or partly reconstructed, which makes this a good place to understand how the system worked.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the → Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the → Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 → Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 → back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 → back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the → Watchtowers WP 3/15 to 3/19 including the is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.