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.
A 330 km round trip from Idstein - roughly 5 h 54 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fortlet of Pfarrhofen, Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66, Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 and Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 37 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Taunus is the low, wooded range north of Frankfurt, and the Romans chose it as the place to draw their line. The Limes crossed the ridge at a height that gave good views over both sides, and watchtowers placed close together made it possible to send signals by fire and smoke from tower to tower. The numbers, such as WP 3/20, are from the survey carried out by German archaeologists at the end of the nineteenth century, and they refer to the third section of the line. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes was listed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/20 to 3/22 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/20 to 3/22 is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66.
The Westerwald is a low, rain-washed plateau of beech, meadow and clay pits, and the Roman Limes cut straight across it. This stretch, marked by the surveyors' numbers for two watchtowers, lies close to Höhr-Grenzhausen, where the Limes was a palisade and ditch with timber towers every few hundred metres, replaced later by stone. You will not find tall walls. What you find is a gentle bank in the woods, a mound where a tower stood, and a signpost telling you that soldiers once watched the horizon from this exact spot.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10.
Rheinbrohl is where the Roman frontier of Upper Germany began. Here, on the east bank of the Rhine between Bonn and Koblenz, the Limes left the river and struck off inland, running across hills and valleys for more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube near Regensburg. The first watchtowers, numbered 1/1 onwards, stood in the hills above the town, and the stretch from 1/3 to 1/10 climbs from the Rhine valley into the forests of the Westerwald. The Römerwelt museum in Rheinbrohl, at the start of the Limes, brings Roman frontier life to life with reconstructions, hands-on exhibits and a reconstructed watchtower nearby.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10, about halfway. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach.
South of Bonn, between the Rhine and the Eifel foothills, the Kottenforst is a big forest that most people drive around and few really enter. For centuries it was a hunting forest of the Electors of Cologne, who ran straight rides through the trees for their parties, and some of those long avenues survive as forest tracks. Oak and beech dominate, with ponds and damp hollows where the Villiper Bach, a small stream, begins its journey toward the Rhine. In spring the floor is carpeted with wood anemones, and in autumn the leaf litter smells sharp and sweet.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 comes up about 215 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 254 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66. Next is back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet of Pfarrhofen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/20 to 3/22.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/20 to 3/22 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 330 km.
Watchtowers WP 3/20 to 3/22 → Fortlet of Pfarrhofen is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet of Pfarrhofen → Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 → Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Villiper Bach → back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/3 to 1/10 → back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/67 to 1/66 → back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet of Pfarrhofen → Watchtowers WP 3/20 to 3/22 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.