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 Andermatt it runs 428 km to Andermatt; allow about 6 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Oterswil / Insel Eielen, Castel Grande, Three Castles and Rempart du bourg. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
For 149 km this is Furka-Grimsel-Susten Pass Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
1 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Andermatt sits at 1,444 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, wide, treeless hollow in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and it has been a crossroads for centuries. Three great passes meet here: the Gotthard, which runs south to Italy and Ticino at 2,106 metres, the Furka, which climbs west over 2,429 metres toward the Valais, and the Oberalp, which leads east at 2,044 metres into Graubünden. For a motorcyclist it is a kind of Mecca, since the three roads are among the most famous in the Alps, and the town fills with bikes on any fine summer weekend.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Andermatt is where the day begins. Next is Oterswil / Insel Eielen.
Lake Zug is the quiet one among the central Swiss lakes, long and slender, with the Rigi rising steeply from its southern end and gentle farmland and orchards rolling down to its northern shores. Around its edges, as around many Alpine lakes, people built villages on the shore in prehistoric times, and the remains of these settlements at places like Oterswil and the little island of Eielen are among the sites of the transnational pile dwelling listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Under water and mud, wooden piles, pottery and tools have survived for thousands of years.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castel Grande.
Coming down from the Gotthard or the San Bernardino, the Ticino valley narrows into a bottleneck at Bellinzona, and right in the middle of it, on a rocky hill above the old town, sits Castel Grande. Its two square towers and long crenellated walls are the oldest and largest of the three castles of Bellinzona, which together with the defensive wall across the valley make up a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Castel Grande write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 212 km into the recorded legs you reach Castel Grande. Next is Three Castles.
Bellinzona is a small city in a very big position. It stands where the Ticino valley opens into the Magadino plain, at the point where the roads from the San Gottardo and San Bernardino passes both come down from the Alps, and whoever held it controlled the way between Milan and the north. That is why three castles crown the rocky hills above the town, linked by a long wall that once barred the whole valley. Castelgrande, the oldest, stands on a rock in the centre, Montebello on a spur above, and Sasso Corbaro on a high hill farther back, and together they were listed by UNESCO in 2000 as outstanding examples of medieval fortification.
Read the complete Three Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Three Castles, about halfway. Next is Rempart du bourg.
Most people who stop in Bellinzona look up at the castles. Spend a little time at street level instead and you will find the other half of the story: the walls of the old borgo, the medieval town that grew up beneath Castel Grande. Stretches of these ramparts still enclose the old centre, linking the castles to each other and to the great Murata, the wall that once ran right across the floor of the Ticino valley to the river, so that nothing could pass north or south without the Duke of Milan's permission.
Read the complete Rempart du bourg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rempart du bourg sits at 226 km, about halfway. Next is back through Three Castles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Three Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Three Castles comes up about 217 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Castel Grande.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castel Grande write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 218 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Castel Grande. Next is back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen, late in the day. Next is Andermatt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 428 km.
Andermatt → Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen → Castel Grande is 141 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Castel Grande → back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen → Andermatt is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.