Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the and Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
181 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 46
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
From Echzell it runs 181 km to Echzell; allow about 2 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Fort Schrenzer, Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456, Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP and back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
Fort Schrenzer → Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456
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.
Chapter facts
Length
29 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the
Echzell is a small town on the edge of the Wetterau with a very big Roman past. A large fort stood here, one of the main garrison points on the Upper Germanic Limes, and the civil settlement beside it grew into a busy town, with workshops, shops, baths and an inn for travellers. Little is visible above ground today, but the outline of the fort is known, and the watchtowers numbered 4/76 to 4/80 stretch away along the frontier line. The numbers belong to the old survey system, and the line of towers, ditch and palisade ran through fields that are now farmland.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the is where the day begins. Next is Fort Schrenzer.
2. Fort Schrenzer
Butzbach sits at the northern edge of the Wetterau, a broad, fertile plain north of Frankfurt, where the Taunus ends and the land opens out into fields of wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed. The Romans prized this land, and their frontier made a long detour around it, swinging east and then south to include the Wetterau within the empire. Near Butzbach, on the Schrenzer hill, they built a small fort, the Kastell Schrenzer, to guard the frontier where it left the Taunus and began its loop around the plain. The fort and the frontier nearby are part of the frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and the remains, low earthworks in the woods, can be visited on foot.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort Schrenzer comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456.
3. Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456
The Saalburg is the Roman fort that Germany rebuilt. On the crest of the Taunus north of Bad Homburg, where the Limes crossed a pass, archaeologists excavated the remains of a fort in the nineteenth century, and between 1897 and 1907, with the enthusiastic support of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was reconstructed with walls, gates, barracks and a headquarters building. Today it is a museum and archaeological park, and the civil settlement, or vicus, that grew up outside the fort lies east of the B 456 road. It is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage Site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456. Next is Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP.
4. Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the closes the day.
Leg by leg
Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the to Fort Schrenzer
Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the → Fort Schrenzer is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort Schrenzer to Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456
Fort Schrenzer → Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 to Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP
Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 → Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP to back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 to back through Fort Schrenzer
back through Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 → back through Fort Schrenzer is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort Schrenzer to Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the
back through Fort Schrenzer → Watchtowers WP 4/76 to 4/80 including the is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.