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.
328 km from Altenstadt to Altenstadt, about 5 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha, Watchtower WP 3/38*, Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se and Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 33 km this is Rhine Romantic 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 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/38*.
The Taunus is a range of wooded hills north-west of Frankfurt, rising to 878 metres at the Großer Feldberg, and it has long been the city's playground, with forests, spa towns and winding roads. Through these hills ran the Upper Germanic Limes, the Roman frontier that stretched for over five hundred kilometres across Germany, and one of its watchtowers, numbered WP 3/38, stood near the village of Glashütten, close to Waldems and Königstein im Taunus.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/38* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 3/38*. Next is Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se.
The western Taunus is wonderfully empty. Away from the commuter belt around Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, the hills north of Bad Schwalbach turn into a quiet patchwork of forest, small meadows and villages in the Heidenrod municipality, and right through the middle runs the Limes. Today you find grassy outlines, a few markers and the bank and ditch disappearing into the beech woods.
Read the complete Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.
WP 2/5 and 2/6 sound like spare parts, but they are the numbers archaeologists gave to two watchtower positions on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the fortified frontier Rome drew across southern Germany. Here, in the hills above the Lahn near Bad Ems, the line ran up from the Rhine and over the high ground, and every few hundred metres a tower stood with a view to the next. Today most of what survives are low mounds, traces of the bank and ditch, and in some places a reconstructed tower to give you scale. The whole frontier became part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire in 2005.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 sits at 138 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se comes up about 200 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/38*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/38* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 240 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 3/38*. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha, 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.
The route ends here after 328 km.
Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl → Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha → Watchtower WP 3/38* is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/38* → Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se → Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 → back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlets and site of the fort and civil se → back through Watchtower WP 3/38* is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/38* → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha → Watchtowers WP 4/82 to 5/8 including fortl is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.