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 93 km round trip from Großkrotzenburg - roughly 1 h 29 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel, Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Great forts are rare on the Limes; most of the frontier was watchtowers, small timber and later stone posts within sight of each other, each with a handful of men and a fire for signalling. The towers numbered 5/15 and 5/16 stood near Großkrotzenburg, at the point where the land frontier coming down from the Wetterau met the Main, and from here southward the river itself became the border as far as Miltenberg. Little of them remains to see, but the location tells the story: the Romans used water where they could and built palisades only where they had to.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel.
Marköbel is a village in the eastern Wetterau, the fertile plain north east of Frankfurt, and it stands on the site of a Roman fort that guarded the frontier where it crossed this open country. The fort, with its civilian settlement, the vicus, where merchants, craftsmen and soldiers' families lived, was part of the Upper German Limes, and today little remains above ground, but the village streets still follow parts of the old layout, and a reconstructed section of the frontier and markers explain the history. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 46 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16. That is the ride.
Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 → Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Marköbel → Watchtowers WP 5/15 to 5/16 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.