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.
227 km from Glashütten to Glashütten, about 3 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort, Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell, Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 and back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 43 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Taunus is the low, forested mountain range that closes in the north of the Frankfurt basin, and the Romans put their frontier along and over it. Here, near Glashütten, the line passes through high woodland at roughly four hundred metres above sea level, in an area that is cold and often foggy in winter. Towers 3/41 to 3/44 belong to the third section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the one that UNESCO recognised in 2005 together with the rest of the frontier. The Romans cleared a swathe through the forest, set up a palisade, and watched the open ground to the north, where tribes of the Chatti lived. The name Glashütten itself recalls glassmaking, once common in these forests because wood, sand and potash were all to hand.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort.
Kaiser Wilhelm II took a personal interest in the Roman frontier, and at the beginning of the twentieth century, he ordered the complete reconstruction of the Saalburg, a Roman fort on the crest of the Taunus near Bad Homburg. The result, with its walls, gates and buildings rebuilt on the original foundations, is the most complete reconstruction of a Roman fort in Germany and houses a museum of Roman life on the frontier. A few kilometres north-east, near Rosbach vor der Höhe, the ruins of the Kapersburg fort lie in the forest, and the watchtowers numbered WP 4/1 to 4/19a, on the section of the Limes running from the Taunus ridge toward the Wetterau, are part of the UNESCO listing of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell.
Echzell is a village of a few thousand people in the Wetterau, the broad, fertile basin north-east of Frankfurt, where loess soil has been farmed since the Stone Age and the horizon rarely rises above a gentle swell. The Romans liked it for exactly that reason. They built a fort at Echzell in the later first century as part of their push into the Wetterau, and a civil settlement grew up around it in the usual way, with traders, craftsmen and families outside the gates. The fort later became part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005. Almost nothing of the walls stands now, and the outline lies mostly under fields and houses, so the Echzell stop is about reading a landscape rather than visiting a monument.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Great forts are rare on the Limes; most of the frontier was watchtowers, small timber and later stone posts within sight of each other, each with a handful of men and a fire for signalling. The towers numbered 5/15 and 5/16 stood near Großkrotzenburg, at the point where the land frontier coming down from the Wetterau met the Main, and from here southward the river itself became the border as far as Miltenberg. Little of them remains to see, but the location tells the story: the Romans used water where they could and built palisades only where they had to.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16, about halfway. Next is back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell sits at 131 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort comes up about 200 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 → Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort → Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Echzell → back through Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/1 to 4/19a including fort → Watchtowers WP 3/41 to 3/44 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.