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 366 km round trip from Osterburken - roughly 6 h 34 in the saddle. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68, Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par, Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 and Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 46 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Osterburken is the place on the German Limes where you really can see the Romans in the town. The fort here sat on the frontier in the Bauland, a hilly farming district between the Odenwald and the Neckar, and the museum in the town houses the remains of the fort baths and a rare relief of the god Mithras, an eastern cult favoured by soldiers, whose followers met in small, dark temples to share a sacred meal. The watchtowers 8/29 and 8/30 stand out in the fields a short distance away, part of the line that ran straight over the hills.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 is where the day begins. 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.
Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par.
In the Swabian Forest east of Stuttgart, the Roman frontier ran as straight as a ruler for some eighty kilometres, ignoring hills and valleys in a way that still puzzles historians. Welzheim lies on this straight stretch of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, and the town had two Roman forts, the west and east forts, with a civil settlement around them. The northern part of the settlement near the east fort is one of the components of the Limes World Heritage Site, and the Ostkastell has been turned into an archaeological park with a reconstructed gate.
Read the complete Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68.
The Roman frontier wall known as the Limes ran for more than five hundred kilometres across what is now southern Germany, from the Rhine to the Danube, and near Aalen it passed through the Kocher valley and over the hills of the Ostalb. Along its length, watchtowers were built at regular intervals, numbered by archaeologists in sequence: WP 12/60 to 12/68 are a group of tower sites near Hüttlingen, mostly now visible as low mounds or reconstructed foundations. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes was inscribed by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68, about halfway. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho.
There is nothing to climb at Ruffenhofen, and that is the clever part. The Roman fort here, on gently rising ground above the Wörnitz near Weiltingen and Wittelshofen, has never been rebuilt in stone. Instead, the outline of the walls, gates and the buildings of the settlement around it has been traced across the fields with hedges, trees and mown strips, so the whole place reads like a plan drawn in plants. From the little viewing hill you can see the shape of a garrison that has been underground for seventeen centuries.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho sits at 176 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 comes up about 229 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 269 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par. 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, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 366 km.
Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 → Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 → Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par → Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 → Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Ruffenho → back through Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/60 to 12/68 → back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par → back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 → Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.