Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl and Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl

   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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.

3. 3. Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor

   The Wetterau is a broad, fertile basin north of Frankfurt, a land of rich loess soils, wheat fields, orchards and old villages, and the Romans wanted it badly. Their frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, bulged out here to take in the whole basin, looping around it in a wide arc. At Ober-Florstadt stood a fort with a civilian settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. Today little is visible, but the site is part of the World Heritage frontier, and information boards help to picture the scene.

   Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. Next is Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald.

4. 4. Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald

   The Roman frontier in Germany, the Limes, ran for over five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, a line of palisades, ditches, walls, watchtowers and forts that marked the edge of the empire. In the Wetterau, north of Frankfurt, the Limes swung east in a great bulge to enclose this fertile plain, which the Romans valued for its farmland. In the woods near Wölfersheim stood a signal tower, one of the many small posts along the line, and today its remains are part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

   Read the complete Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald, about halfway. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha.

5. 5. Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha

   Elvis Presley spent his military service in Friedberg, a few kilometres from here, from 1958 to 1960, and lived in a rented house in the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where fans still leave messages on the wall outside and a square in the town bears his name. But nearly two thousand years earlier, other soldiers served in this region. The Roman frontier of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a World Heritage site, ran along the edge of the Taunus hills here, and at Langenhain, near Ober-Mörlen, the Romans built a fort with a civil settlement beside it, where traders, craftsmen and the families of soldiers lived. Today, the site is mostly fields and meadows, with information boards to help you imagine the walls, gates and buildings that once stood here.

   Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha sits at 81 km, about halfway. Next is back through Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald.

6. 6. back through Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Signaltower Wölferheimer Wald comes up about 148 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.

7. 7. back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 170 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10.

8. 8. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl.

9. 9. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 221 km.