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 112 km round trip from Altenstadt - roughly 1 h 34 in the saddle. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10, Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber and back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10. 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 16 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Out here on the eastern rim of the Wetterau, between Altenstadt, Hammersbach and the Büdingen forest, the Roman frontier did something unusual. Having come over the Taunus and swung north around the fertile plain, the Limes turned and ran almost due south towards the Main, enclosing the Wetterau like a hand cupped around something precious. The towers numbered WP 4/82 to 5/8, along with small fortlets, guarded this eastern flank, and their remains lie in fields and woodland edges where only a shallow bank or a marker stone gives them away.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10.
The label gives only a pair of watchtower numbers, and the place itself is a swathe of flat country between Hanau and the Kinzig, where the suburbs of Erlensee, Rodenbach and Langenselbold have grown together into a continuous belt of houses, orchards and sports fields. In the second century the Roman frontier ran along this side of the Main plain before it turned south to the river, and the small towers, spaced at easy shouting distance, were the first line of warning. Nothing much remains above ground, and the nearby fort at Rückingen is known mostly from excavation. This is a stop for imagination rather than sightseeing.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber.
Friedberg's castle stands on a basalt ridge above the Wetterau, a walled enclosure so large it is almost a town of its own, with a tall round tower, the Adolfsturm, rising above the trees. What most visitors walking through the castle gate do not know is that they are standing on a Roman fort. The legions chose this same ridge in the first century AD, and a fort with a civil settlement grew up here, linked by road to the Limes a few kilometres to the north and west.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl. That is the ride.
Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl → Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 → Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber → back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 → Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.