CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 314 km round trip from Xanten - roughly 5 h 28 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kleve-Reichswald | East, Arnhem-Meinerswijk, Tiel Inundation Canal and Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk. It crosses from Germany into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Xanten is an old Roman town that still behaves like a small, cosy market town on the Lower Rhine, and right next to it lies one of the largest archaeological parks in Germany. Colonia Ulpia Traiana, CUT for short, was founded around AD 100 under the emperor Trajan, who gave it the rank of a colonia and his family name. At its height it was a walled city of several thousand people, the second most important Roman city in the province of Lower Germany after Cologne.
Read the complete Xanten-CUT write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xanten-CUT is where the day begins. Next is Kleve-Reichswald | East.
South of Kleve, near the Dutch border, the Reichswald is one of the largest forests in the Lower Rhine region, a mix of oak, beech and pine on a low ridge of sand and gravel left behind by the glaciers of the Ice Age. On its edge, the Romans built military installations as part of the Lower German Limes, the frontier along the Rhine, and the remains in the Reichswald, including traces of camps, are part of the World Heritage site listed by UNESCO in 2021. There is little to see above ground, but the forest itself is a quiet, beautiful place to walk.
Read the complete Kleve-Reichswald | East write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kleve-Reichswald | East comes up 38 km in. Next is Arnhem-Meinerswijk.
The Rhine has always been a frontier here. In Roman times, the Lower Rhine marked the northern edge of the empire, and the Romans built a chain of forts, watchtowers and roads along its banks to guard it. At Meinerswijk, on the southern bank of the river opposite Arnhem, the remains of one of those forts lie buried in the floodplain. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021. There is little to see on the surface, but the floodplain itself, a wide expanse of meadows, ponds and willows, is a pleasant place to walk, and markers explain the history.
Read the complete Arnhem-Meinerswijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
76 km in you reach Arnhem-Meinerswijk. Next is Tiel Inundation Canal.
Tiel is a river town on the Waal, the main branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands, in the middle of the Betuwe, a region of orchards, dykes and meadows between the Waal and the Lower Rhine. Just outside the town, a wide, straight channel runs through the fields, crossed by bridges and lined by dykes. This is the Tiel inundation canal, built in the late nineteenth century as part of the New Dutch Waterline, the defensive system of controlled flooding that protected the heart of Holland, and it is now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Read the complete Tiel Inundation Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tiel Inundation Canal, about halfway. Next is Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
Two layers of Dutch defence history sit on top of each other just south-east of Utrecht. Around two thousand years ago, the Romans built a fort here called Fectio, at the point where a branch of the Rhine met the Vecht, with a harbour for the fleet that patrolled the river frontier. Its remains lie buried in the fields near Vechten and are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, a World Heritage site since 2021. Close by stands Fort bij Vechten, a nineteenth-century fortress of the New Dutch Waterline, a defensive system that could flood large areas of land to stop an invading army. That system is itself part of the UNESCO site of the Dutch Water Defence Lines. The fort now houses a museum explaining how the waterline worked, and how a country below sea level turned water into a weapon.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tiel Inundation Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tiel Inundation Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tiel Inundation Canal comes up 190 km in. Next is back through Arnhem-Meinerswijk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Arnhem-Meinerswijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
228 km in you reach back through Arnhem-Meinerswijk. Next is back through Kleve-Reichswald | East.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kleve-Reichswald | East write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | East, late in the day. Next is Xanten-CUT.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xanten-CUT write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 314 km.
Xanten-CUT → Kleve-Reichswald | East is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kleve-Reichswald | East → Arnhem-Meinerswijk is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Arnhem-Meinerswijk → Tiel Inundation Canal is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tiel Inundation Canal → Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → back through Tiel Inundation Canal is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tiel Inundation Canal → back through Arnhem-Meinerswijk is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Arnhem-Meinerswijk → back through Kleve-Reichswald | East is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | East → Xanten-CUT is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.