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 Forchtenberg it runs 214 km to Forchtenberg; allow about 3 h 19 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort, Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl, Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb and back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Götz von Berlichingen, the knight with the iron hand, was born at Jagsthausen castle in about 1480, and he would probably be amused to know that he is best remembered today for a rude phrase. In Goethe's play about him, Götz tells an imperial messenger exactly what the emperor can do, a line that every German knows. The castle still stands in the village, now a hotel, and in summer the Burgfestspiele, an open-air theatre festival, stages the play in the castle courtyard. Long before Götz, the Romans were here too: a fort stood at Jagsthausen on the line of the Upper Germanic Limes, and in the hills around, a series of watchtowers, numbered by archaeologists as WP 9/2 to 9/13, kept watch along the frontier.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 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 31 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 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb.
For one stretch of the Roman frontier in Germany, the soldiers did not need to build a wall at all. Between Großkrotzenburg and Miltenberg, the Main river itself served as the border, the so-called wet Limes, guarded by a chain of forts along its western bank. Niedernberg, a village on the river just below Aschaffenburg, was one of them, with a fort and a civilian settlement beside it. Little survives above ground today; the remains lie beneath fields and houses. But the Main still flows past, broad and slow, and it is easy to picture patrol boats and soldiers watching the far bank. The site is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb, about halfway. 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl sits at 132 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 → Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort is 31 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 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl → Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Niedernb → back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl is 32 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 38 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 9/2* to 9/13 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.