Interlaken long day · Lobsigensee

416 km from Interlaken

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Why this ride

416 km from Interlaken to Interlaken, about 7 h 10 of riding. The stops in between: Burgäschisee Ost, Egolzwil 3, Halbinsel and Lobsigensee. The highest point is about 2,000 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.

Roadbook

1. Interlaken start

   Interlaken means between the lakes, which is exactly where it sits: a flat strip of land on the Aare, wedged between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, with the Bernese Oberland piled up behind. On a clear day the Jungfrau fills the end of the main avenue, and visitors line up to take pictures of that view across the green lawn of the Höhematte, where paragliders land.

   The town grew out of an Augustinian monastery founded in the twelfth century, and from the early nineteenth century it became one of the first mass tourist towns in Europe, attracting English visitors, artists and poets. The grand hotels along the Höheweg date from that period. Today it is the springboard for the Jungfrau region and the base for every kind of mountain activity, and it can be crowded in July and August.

   For a rider, arriving here after the Grand Tour is a gentle ending. The road along Lake Thun or Lake Brienz is smooth and scenic, with lake water on one side and steep hills on the other, and it is slower than it looks because of traffic, speed cameras and tour buses. Good riding starts as soon as you leave, up the Lauterbrunnen valley with its waterfalls, or over the Brünig toward Lucerne, or up the Grimsel from Meiringen. The mountain passes in this area are open from roughly June to October.

   All services are here: fuel at several stations around the edge of town, supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants with every price. A population of about five thousand makes it small, but it feels bigger because of all the visitors. Parking for a motorcycle is easier than for a car, and the train station is the centre of everything. Take an evening walk by the river when the day-trippers have gone, and the town becomes much quieter.

2. Burgäschisee Ost sight

   Burgäschisee is a small, quiet lake on the border between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, surrounded by reeds, woods and farmland. It would be easy to ride past without noticing, but it holds a secret: along its shores, archaeologists have found the remains of Neolithic villages built on piles, dating back more than five thousand years. The eastern shore site, Burgäschisee Ost, is one of the components of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site, listed by UNESCO in 2011. There is nothing much to see on the surface, as the remains lie underwater or in the soft ground, but the peaceful setting makes it easy to imagine the wooden houses, canoes and fishing nets of those early farmers.

   The lake is a nature reserve, home to birds, frogs and dragonflies, and in summer there is a small swimming area where locals come to cool off. A path runs around the shore, a pleasant walk of about an hour, through reeds and woods.

   The area around is the Oberaargau, a gentle region of rolling hills, farms and villages, with the Jura mountains rising to the north and, on clear days, the Bernese Alps visible to the south. To the east lies the Emmental, famous for its cheese with holes, its wooden farmhouses with huge roofs and its winding roads through green hills. Herzogenbuchsee, the nearest town, is a small, friendly place with shops and cafés.

   The riding here is relaxed and pleasant, on quiet roads with gentle bends, through farmland and forest. The roads into the Emmental are more interesting, with more curves, climbs and views. Swiss roads are generally in excellent condition, but speed limits are strict and enforced with cameras and heavy fines, so keep an eye on your speed. A vignette is required for motorways.

   Herzogenbuchsee has fuel, shops and restaurants; the villages around have small shops and inns. Try a plate of rösti, crispy potatoes, or a slice of Emmental cheese with bread. The weather is variable, with rain likely at any time of year; summers are warm, winters cold, with occasional snow. Spring and autumn are lovely, with blossom in the orchards or golden leaves in the forests. Bring a swimsuit in summer and take a dip in the lake.

3. Egolzwil 3 sight

   Archaeologists named a whole Neolithic culture after Egolzwil, a small village in the canton of Lucerne, because the settlements found in the Wauwiler Moos, a former lake turned into peat bog, revealed a way of life older than anything else known in the region at the time. Egolzwil 3, one of these sites, was a village of farmers who lived on the shore of a small lake over six thousand years ago, and it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake was drained in the nineteenth century to create farmland, and the remains were preserved in the wet peat.

   Today the Wauwiler Moos is a flat expanse of fields and meadows, with drainage ditches, a few patches of reeds and wetland, and the small villages of Egolzwil, Wauwil and Schötz around its edge. Bird life is rich, especially in spring and autumn. The rolling hills of the Lucerne countryside rise around the plain, with farms, orchards and forests. Sursee, a pretty small town with a fine town hall, lies to the east, and Lake Sempach, a little further on, was the scene of the battle in 1386 in which the Swiss confederates defeated the Habsburgs.

   The riding here is relaxed. The roads across the plain are flat and straight, but the hills around offer curves, and to the west, the Napf region has some of the twistiest small roads in Switzerland, climbing through steep valleys and over ridges with views of the Alps on clear days. The surface is excellent, as everywhere in Switzerland, and traffic is light on minor roads. Speed limits are strictly enforced, with heavy fines, so stay alert. Weather can be foggy in autumn and winter.

   Sursee, about seven kilometres away, has a filling station and somewhere to eat, and Nebikon, closer by, also has services. Swiss food here means rösti, sausages, cheese and, in the Lucerne region, the Luzerner Chügelipastete, a puff pastry filled with veal and mushrooms. A stop at a farmhouse café for cake and coffee is a pleasant break. There is nothing to see of the Neolithic village itself, but standing on the edge of the old lake, you can imagine the smoke rising from the huts and the dugout canoes on the water.

4. Halbinsel sight

   At the northern tip of Lake Sempach, near the little town of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne, a small peninsula pushes into the water, and on and around it lie the remains of prehistoric lakeside settlements, part of the World Heritage site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Nothing remains visible above ground, but under the water and in the wet soil of the shore, piles and objects have survived for thousands of years, telling the story of farmers and fishermen who lived here long before the Romans. Today, the shore is a quiet area of reeds, meadows and paths, popular with walkers and cyclists.

   Lake Sempach is best known in Swiss history for the battle of 1386, when the troops of the Swiss Confederation defeated the army of Duke Leopold III of Austria near the town of Sempach, at the southern end of the lake. According to legend, the battle was won thanks to the sacrifice of Arnold von Winkelried, who threw himself onto the enemy lances to open a breach in their ranks. A chapel and a monument mark the site. The town of Sempach is also home to the Swiss Ornithological Institute, the Vogelwarte, with an interesting visitor centre, and the lake is a good place for watching birds.

   Sursee itself is a charming small town with a well-preserved old centre, a handsome late Gothic town hall, and a few old gates and houses. The countryside around is the gentle hill country of the Lucerne plateau, with farms, orchards and woods, and the roads are winding and pleasant, with views of the Alps on clear days. To the south-west, the Napf area offers steeper, twistier roads through narrow valleys and over ridges, and to the south, Lucerne and Lake Lucerne open the way into the mountains, including the Bürgenstock, a cliff-top resort above the lake reached by a narrow road from Stansstad with views over Kehrsiten and the water. Swiss speed limits are strictly enforced, and cameras are common.

   Sursee has fuel, shops, restaurants and a railway station. In the old town, cafés and inns offer local dishes, such as the Luzerner Chügelipastete, a puff pastry filled with veal and mushrooms in cream sauce, a speciality of the region. On a hot day, a swim in Lake Sempach is a pleasant way to end the ride.

5. Lobsigensee turn

   Lobsigensee is a tiny lake, barely more than a pond, hidden among fields and woods on a low hill above Aarberg in the Bernese Seeland. It is a nature reserve, ringed with reeds and alder trees, and it is home to frogs, newts, dragonflies and birds. It also hides one of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage sites: the remains of Neolithic settlements along its shore. There is nothing visible on the surface, but the quiet, green setting gives a sense of what the landscape might have looked like thousands of years ago.

   The Seeland, the land of lakes, lies between the lakes of Biel, Neuchâtel and Murten, and for centuries it was a marshy, flood-prone area. In the nineteenth century, the Jura Water Correction, a huge engineering project, redirected the Aare river into Lake Biel and lowered the level of the lakes, draining the marshes and creating fertile farmland. Today the Seeland is known as the vegetable garden of Switzerland, with fields of carrots, lettuce, onions and potatoes stretching to the horizon. The lowering of the lakes also exposed many of the pile dwelling sites, which is why so many have been found in this region.

   Aarberg, just below the lake, is a charming small town built on a rocky island in the old course of the Aare. Its long, cobbled market square is lined with old houses and inns, and a covered wooden bridge crosses the river. The town is also home to one of Switzerland's two sugar factories, processing sugar beet from the surrounding fields, and in autumn the smell of cooking beet hangs in the air.

   The riding in the Seeland is flat and easy, with straight roads across the fields and gentle bends through villages. It is pleasant rather than exciting. To the north, the Jura mountains offer much better riding, with winding roads, passes and views over the lakes and the Alps. The roads to Chasseral, the highest point in the Bernese Jura, are particularly good.

   Aarberg has fuel, shops and restaurants. Try local vegetables, fresh from the fields, or fish from the lakes. Lowland fog is the local speciality in autumn and winter, often lingering until noon while the hills above sit in sunshine. Spring and summer are the best seasons for riding.

6. back through Halbinsel stop

   back through Halbinsel comes up 260 km in.

7. back through Egolzwil 3 stop
8. back through Burgäschisee Ost stop

   back through Burgäschisee Ost, late in the day.

9. Interlaken finish

   The route ends here after 416 km.

Where this sits

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