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 346 km round trip from Buchen in Odenwald - roughly 5 h 46 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe, Messel Pit Fossil Site, Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the and Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber. 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 43 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Odenwald Limes is famous for its stubborn straightness. For about eighty kilometres, from the Main near Miltenberg south to the Neckar near Neckarburken, the Romans drew their frontier almost as a ruler line across the wooded hills, ignoring valleys and ridges, and surveyors today still marvel at it. The watchtowers numbered 7/38 to 8/10 belong to this stretch, including a small fort, and the line here passes through the countryside around Buchen, in the Neckar-Odenwald district of Baden-Württemberg, a quiet region of beech forest, meadows and farms. The wooden towers of the first phase were later replaced by stone, and the palisade was supported by a bank and ditch that survive in the woods as a long, shallow trough.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe.
Miltenberg is one of those German towns that seem almost too pretty to be real, with half-timbered houses leaning over the cobbled streets, a market square sloping down toward the river, a castle on the hill above and the Main flowing slowly past. The Romans were here first. Two forts guarded this point on the frontier, one near the old town and another to the east, where the Limes left the river and ran overland through the Odenwald, and the sites, with their civilian settlements, are part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. A museum in the town displays finds from the forts.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Messel Pit Fossil Site.
Forty-seven million years ago, in a warm, subtropical world, a deep volcanic lake lay where the forest near Messel now stands, a few kilometres northeast of Darmstadt. The lake's depths were starved of oxygen, and animals that fell or sank into it were preserved in fine layers of mud with extraordinary detail: not just skeletons, but skin, feathers, fur, the contents of stomachs and even the colours of beetles' wings. Over time the mud turned into oil shale, which was mined here from the nineteenth century until 1971. After mining ended, there were plans to turn the pit into a rubbish dump; scientists and local people fought the plan, and in 1995 the pit became Germany's first natural World Heritage site.
Read the complete Messel Pit Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Messel Pit Fossil Site. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the.
The Main river is where the Roman frontier changes character. Coming down from the north, the Limes runs in a long arc through the Wetterau and then meets the river near Großkrotzenburg, and from there the Romans used the Main itself as the boundary, with towers and forts strung along its bank. The numbers 5/13 and 5/14 belong to that river line, and a fort and its civilian settlement sit close by. On the ground, expect a marker, a low rise and a view down toward the water rather than anything dramatic.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the, about halfway. 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.
Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber sits at 168 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Messel Pit Fossil Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Messel Pit Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 254 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Messel Pit Fossil Site. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 346 km.
Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort → Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe → Messel Pit Fossil Site is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Messel Pit Fossil Site → Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the → Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber is 39 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 5/13 to 5/14 including the is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 5/13 to 5/14 including the → back through Messel Pit Fossil Site is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Messel Pit Fossil Site → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Miltenbe → Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.