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.
A 316 km round trip from Pfedelbach - roughly 5 h 27 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41, 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.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41.
Somewhere between Walldürn and the hills north of Stuttgart, the Roman surveyors drew a line on the map and simply refused to bend it. For about eighty kilometres, the Upper Germanic Limes runs almost perfectly straight across hill and valley, one of the most remarkable feats of ancient surveying in Europe. The watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 near Osterburken and Adelsheim lie on that straight stretch, and like the rest of the frontier they are part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Most are now low mounds in fields and woods, but here and there you will find a reconstructed tower or a stretch of wall to give you an idea of what it looked like.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 comes up about 40 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 90 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 158 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 192 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 226 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 316 km.
Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 → Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 → Watchtowers WP 7/1 to 7/36 including fortl is 50 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 8/31 to 8/41 is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 → Watchtowers WP 9/36 to 9/68 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.