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 365 km to Mainhardt; allow about 6 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13, Fortlet Holderbusch, Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the and Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 9/2* to 9/13.
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 comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortlet Holderbusch.
Holderbusch is a small piece of woodland above the Odenwald plateau, close to Buchen, where the Romans placed a fortlet on the Odenwald Limes about the middle of the second century. This part of the Upper Germanic frontier was, for much of its length, a simple palisade and ditch, running in an astonishingly straight line across hills and valleys from the Main to the Neckar. A fortlet was a small post, a few dozen soldiers behind a bank and ditch, and from here the watchtowers on each side could be reached on foot within minutes. The ground is marked by gentle swellings in the forest floor and a path with explanatory signs, and the walk takes less than half an hour.
Read the complete Fortlet Holderbusch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortlet Holderbusch. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the.
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, about halfway. 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 sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the comes up about 228 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fortlet Holderbusch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet Holderbusch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 286 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fortlet Holderbusch. Next is back through 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.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 365 km.
Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the → Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 → Fortlet Holderbusch is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Holderbusch → Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the → Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort → back through Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/14 to 9/32 including the → back through Fortlet Holderbusch is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortlet Holderbusch → back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/2* to 9/13 → Watchtowers WP 9/70 to 9/99a including the is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.