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.
346 km from Waldems to Waldems, about 4 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em, Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof and back through Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em. The line favours views over speed.
On the western side of the Taunus, the hills are lower and the forest gives way more often to farmland, with villages in the folds of the valleys. Idstein, a small town with a remarkable old centre, sits on this side, with Waldems and Glashütten nearby. Through the woods above them ran the Roman frontier, and the stretch of watchtowers numbered WP 3/24 to 3/40 followed the ridges here, part of the Upper Germanic Limes and of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire site.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em.
Bad Ems has been a spa town since the Romans noticed the springs, and today it is a handsome, slightly faded place squeezed into the narrow Lahn valley between wooded hills. The town and its surroundings sit on the line of the Upper Germanic Limes, which the Roman Empire pushed through here to protect the valley and its minerals. A fortlet and a watchtower were built on the heights above the river, and the remains give the numbered label its meaning. Walk a short way up and you can see why the soldiers picked the spot: the slopes drop sharply to the water, and the view along the valley is long.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof. Next is back through Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP. That is the ride.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em → Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kottenforst Süd | Heiderhof → back through Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Watchtower WP 2/1 including fortlet Bad Em → Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.