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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Öhringen it runs 288 km to Öhringen; allow about 4 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort, Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl, Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p and Watchtowers WP 5/11 to 5/12. The line favours views over speed.
For about eighty kilometres through northern Württemberg, the Roman frontier runs in a nearly perfectly straight line, ignoring hills, valleys and rivers as if someone had drawn it with a ruler on a map. Surveyors still argue about how the Romans managed it. The stretch with watchtowers 9/14 to 9/32, near Öhringen in the Hohenlohe region, lies along this remarkable line, and Öhringen itself grew from Roman forts, two of them, which guarded the frontier here. The line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and the Limes trail follows it through fields and forests.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort.
The Romans did not much care for the shape of the land when they drew this frontier. Around Osterburken the Upper Germanic Limes stops following valleys and ridges and simply runs in long, stubborn straight lines across the Bauland, the rolling limestone country between the Odenwald and the Jagst. The watchtower sites numbered in this stretch were once timber, then stone, posts spaced so that each could see its neighbours, strung along a palisade and ditch that marked where the province ended and the unconquered north began.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl.
At Miltenberg, the Roman frontier did something unusual: it stopped being a wall and became a river. North of the town, the Main served as the frontier for some fifty kilometres, guarded by forts and watchtowers along its western bank, and here, where the river bends, the land frontier began again, heading south through the Odenwald. The watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 belong to this stretch, and while most are only traces in fields and forests, they are part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. The Romans built forts at Miltenberg, too, and some of their finds are displayed in the town museum.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl. Next is Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p.
Niedernberg is a quiet village on the left bank of the Main, a few kilometres downstream from Aschaffenburg, where the river was the Roman frontier. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, after running across the Odenwald, used the Main as its boundary between Großkrotzenburg and Miltenberg, and a fort with a civil settlement stood at Niedernberg, guarding the river line. The northern part of the civil settlement is listed separately as part of the UNESCO site. There is little to see above ground, as the remains lie under fields and houses, but the location by the river makes the Roman logic clear.
Read the complete Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 5/11 to 5/12.
Between Hanau and the river Main, the plain is flat, fertile and dense with small towns, and it hardly looks like a frontier. Yet around the year 100 the Romans ran their Upper Germanic Limes down this way to meet the Main near Großkrotzenburg, with a palisade, ditch and a line of wooden watchtowers set at intervals of a few hundred metres. The towers on the maps are labelled by section and number, and WP 5/11 and 5/12 are two of them, neighbours in a long chain that once stretched across Germany for hundreds of kilometres.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 5/11 to 5/12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 5/11 to 5/12 sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p comes up about 177 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 211 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 288 km.
Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the → Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort → Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl → Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p → Watchtowers WP 5/11 to 5/12 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 5/11 to 5/12 → back through Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Civil settlement of Niedernberg northern p → back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl → back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort → Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.