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.
A 429 km round trip from Bern - roughly 6 h 34 in the saddle. It goes by way of Chenevières de Guévaux I, Inkwilersee Insel, En Praz des Gueux and Pointe de Montbec I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 39 km this is Emmental Panorama Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
The ride follows Grand Tour of Switzerland for 73 km.
Bern looks like a city drawn by a medieval cartographer who never doubted his own plan. It sits on a high, narrow peninsula inside a tight loop of the Aare river, with the old town packed along the ridge and steep green banks falling to the water on three sides. It was founded in 1191 by Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, and the legend says that he named it after the first animal he killed on a hunt, a bear. Bears are still everywhere: on the flag, on fountains, in a park beside the river where several of them live.
Read the complete Bern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bern is where the day begins. Next is Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Lake Murten is small, shallow and warm, framed on its north side by the vine-covered whale back of Mont Vully. Under its shallows near the Vully shore lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and Chenevières de Guévaux is one of them, part of the UNESCO site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber posts along lake shores like this one. Waterlogged conditions preserved posts, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years, and the finds transformed what we know about early farming communities in Europe.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chenevières de Guévaux I comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Inkwilersee Insel.
You could ride past the Inkwilersee a dozen times without noticing it. It is a small, shallow lake tucked into a fold of farmland right on the line between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, ringed with reeds and alders, with a tiny wooded island near its middle. That island is the reason for the label: beneath its trees and in the mud around it lie traces of prehistoric lakeside settlement, enough to earn the Inkwilersee a place among the Alpine pile-dwelling sites on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Inkwilersee Insel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Inkwilersee Insel. Next is En Praz des Gueux.
Fribourg is the town where French and German meet. It was founded in 1157 by the dukes of Zähringen on a rock in a loop of the Sarine river, and the old city still sits above the water, with a Gothic cathedral, covered wooden bridges and steep cobbled lanes. The border between the languages runs through the city, so locals switch between French and a Swiss German dialect, and the divide has a name, the Röstigraben, after the potato dish that lies on one side. Beyond the city, the canton is green and rolling, with farms, forests and pastures that produce the famous cheese of Gruyères.
Read the complete En Praz des Gueux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
En Praz des Gueux, about halfway. Next is Pointe de Montbec I.
The south shore of Lake Neuchâtel is a long, soft margin of reeds, shallow water and woodland, and it hides one of the richest archaeological records in Europe. Pointe de Montbec, near the villages along the Fribourg and Vaud shore opposite Neuchâtel, is one of the places where prehistoric lake dwellers built their villages on the water's edge thousands of years ago. Their houses stood on piles driven into the soft lake shore, and when lake levels rose, the remains were sealed under water and mud, preserving wood, textiles, seeds and tools in astonishing detail. The prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps were inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 as a single serial site spanning six countries, and this shore contributes a good number of them.
Read the complete Pointe de Montbec I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pointe de Montbec I sits at 225 km, about halfway. Next is back through En Praz des Gueux.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete En Praz des Gueux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through En Praz des Gueux comes up about 239 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Inkwilersee Insel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Inkwilersee Insel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 317 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Inkwilersee Insel. Next is back through Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I, late in the day. Next is Bern.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 429 km.
Bern → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → Inkwilersee Insel is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Inkwilersee Insel → En Praz des Gueux is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
En Praz des Gueux → Pointe de Montbec I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pointe de Montbec I → back through En Praz des Gueux is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through En Praz des Gueux → back through Inkwilersee Insel is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Inkwilersee Insel → back through Chenevières de Guévaux I is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I → Bern is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.