Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 and Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
94 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 38
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
94 km from Osterburken to Osterburken, about 1 h 38 of riding. It goes by way of Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau, Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau.
2. Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau
Jagsthausen is a village of around fifteen hundred people in the Jagst valley of northern Württemberg, and it punches far above its weight in history. The Romans built a fort here on the Upper German-Raetian Limes, with a civilian settlement and a bath house, part of the UNESCO-listed frontier. But the village is better known for a later resident: Götz von Berlichingen, the knight with the iron hand, who was born in the castle here around 1480. He lost his right hand in battle and had a mechanical one made, led peasants in the war of 1525, and became the hero of a play by Goethe that contains a famously rude line that Germans still quote.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 to Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau
Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 → Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau to Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68
Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau → Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 to back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau
Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau to Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Jagsthau → Watchtowers WP 8/29 to 8/30 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.