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 Mainhardt it runs 187 km to Mainhardt; allow about 4 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35, Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41, Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn and back through Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Mainhardt sits on a ridge in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, and the Roman frontier ran right through it, on its way south in one of the longest straight lines ever drawn across European landscape. Here, the Upper Germanic Limes runs for some eighty kilometres from Walldürn to near Welzheim almost perfectly straight, ignoring hills and valleys, as if surveyors had laid a ruler on the map. The watchtowers numbered in this section stood along that line in the forest, and Mainhardt had a fort, whose site is marked in the village, with a small museum.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35.
Öhringen had not one but two Roman forts, known today as the Bürgkastell and the Rendelkastell, both on the Upper Germanic Limes, which ran past the town on its way south. The watchtowers numbered here were part of that frontier, and the town grew partly on the remains of the Roman settlement that clustered around the forts. Little is visible above ground, but finds are displayed in the local museum, and the line of the Limes can be followed on foot or by bike through the surrounding countryside.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn.
Walldürn sits on the high, rolling plateau where the Odenwald meets the Bauland, a gentle landscape of fields, woods and small towns in the northeast of Baden-Württemberg. The Romans came here in the second century AD, when the Upper German Limes was pushed forward to a new line running almost straight through the countryside, and they built a small fort at Walldürn with a civil settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. The remains of a bath house have been excavated and conserved, and the line of the frontier, with its watchtowers and palisade, runs nearby. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, more than five hundred kilometres long, became a UNESCO site in 2005.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn, about halfway. 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 sits at 108 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 comes up about 161 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the closes the day.
Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the → Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 → Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 → Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Walldürn → back through Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/31 to 8/41 → back through Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/33 to 9/35 → Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.