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.
293 km from Glashütten to Glashütten, about 3 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtower WP 4/17*, Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg, Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 25 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
High in the Taunus hills northwest of Frankfurt, the Upper German Limes runs along the main ridge, and here, between Glashütten and Schmitten, a series of watchtower sites and the remains of a small fort follow the frontier through dense beech and spruce forest. The bank and ditch of the Limes are still clearly visible, winding over the hills like a long scar, and the area is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Nearby, on the Kleiner Feldberg, lie the remains of a Roman fort, and a few kilometres east, the Saalburg near Bad Homburg is a fully reconstructed fort with a museum, the best place in Germany to imagine life on the frontier.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 4/17*.
The Limes crosses the Wetterau, the fertile plain north of Frankfurt, in a long arc, and Watchtower 4/17 is one small point in it. The Wetterau is loess farmland, rich and flat, with wide fields of wheat and sugar beet, and the Romans valued it as an agricultural region, planting farms and estates beside the frontier. The tower itself, as at most of these sites, is represented today by a low mound or a marker, and a short walk will let you see the line of the frontier running across the fields.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 4/17* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 4/17* comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
Arnsburg confuses people, and for good reason. The name belongs first to a Cistercian monastery in the Wetter valley near Lich, whose roofless Gothic church stands in a meadow as one of the most romantic ruins in Hesse. But on the wooded hill nearby lies an older layer: a Roman fort on the Limes, sometimes called the Alteburg, with its civil settlement, and the frontier itself running past on its way around the northern edge of the Wetterau.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Seligenstadt is one of those Main valley towns where every era has left something on the table. The Romans came first: here the frontier of the Upper German-Raetian Limes ran along the river itself, and a fort with a civilian settlement around it guarded the Main crossing. The fort site lies under the old town, so you are walking over it rather than looking at it, but the logic of the place is obvious when you stand by the water. The river was the border, the road and the supply line all at once.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg sits at 160 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtower WP 4/17*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 4/17* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 4/17* comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the → Watchtower WP 4/17* is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 4/17* → Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg → back through Watchtower WP 4/17* is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 4/17* → Watchtowers WP 3/45 to 3/52 including the is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.