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 288 km round trip from Erlensee - roughly 3 h 24 in the saddle. It goes by way of Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor, Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg, Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg. The line favours views over speed.
For about 34 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
26 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
Arnsburg confuses people, and for good reason. The name belongs first to a Cistercian monastery in the Wetter valley near Lich, whose roofless Gothic church stands in a meadow as one of the most romantic ruins in Hesse. But on the wooded hill nearby lies an older layer: a Roman fort on the Limes, sometimes called the Alteburg, with its civil settlement, and the frontier itself running past on its way around the northern edge of the Wetterau.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg. Next is 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.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor comes up about 261 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg → Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 3/24 to 3/40Watchtowers WP → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Arnsburg → back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → Watchtowers WP 5/9 to 5/10 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.