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.
From Buchen in Odenwald it runs 176 km to Buchen in Odenwald; allow about 3 h 15 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2, Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68, Murrhardt civil settlement northern part and back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68. The line favours views over speed.
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 Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2.
The Jagst is a small, winding river in northern Württemberg, and between Jagsthausen and Möckmühl it runs through a valley of orchards, wooded slopes and half-timbered villages. The Roman frontier ran along this side of the river, and watchtowers 8/44 to 9/2 sit on the high ground above. They belong to the Upper German-Raetian Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2005, which here ran in a remarkably straight line for many kilometres, a feat of surveying that still impresses. The Romans needed to hold a rim of high ground and chose a line that ignored the little hills, which is why the old frontier looks like a ruler line across the map.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68.
Between Öhringen and Mainhardt, the Upper German Limes does something a Roman engineer must have been proud of: it runs dead straight for many kilometres, up hill and down dale, ignoring the terrain as if drawn with a ruler on a map. The watchtower sites numbered along this section lie on that line, in the Hohenlohe country of northern Württemberg, between the open farmland around Pfedelbach and the dark wooded hills of the Swabian-Franconian Forest.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68. Next is Murrhardt civil settlement northern part.
Murrhardt lies in the valley of the Murr, deep in the Swabian-Franconian Forest northeast of Stuttgart, a hilly, densely wooded region of streams, mills and small villages that feels a long way from the industrial heartland just to the west. The Romans built a fort here on the Limes, the frontier that ran through these forests from north to south, and a civil settlement grew up around it. The northern part of that settlement lies under parts of the modern town, and while there is little to see, the town's museum displays Roman finds, and the frontier through these woods is protected by its World Heritage status.
Read the complete Murrhardt civil settlement northern part write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Murrhardt civil settlement northern part, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 sits at 108 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 comes up about 150 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort → Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 → Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 → Murrhardt civil settlement northern part is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Murrhardt civil settlement northern part → back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 → back through Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/44 to 9/2 → Watchtowers WP 7/38 to 8/10 including fort is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.