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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
355 km from Luzern to Luzern, about 6 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch, Old City of Berne, back through Old City of Berne and back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 86 km this is Grimsel Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Lucerne is where central Switzerland likes to show off. The town sits at the end of its lake, with the Reuss river sliding out through the middle, old houses with painted gables along the quay, and mountains on every side, Pilatus to the south and the Rigi to the east. The best-known sight is the Kapellbrücke, the Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden footbridge from the fourteenth century with a stone water tower beside it, and painted panels under the roof. A fire in 1993 burned much of it, and the bridge was rebuilt, so the paintings you see are mostly reconstructions, but the shape is old. Nearby the Lion Monument, carved into a sandstone cliff in 1821, commemorates Swiss guards who died in Paris in 1792, and Mark Twain called it the saddest piece of stone in the world.
Read the complete Lucerne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lucerne is where the day begins. Next is Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch.
No road comes anywhere near. This is a landscape of ice, rock and sky, the first Alpine area to be listed as a World Heritage site, and the riding is all around it rather than through it.
Read the complete Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch comes up 44 km in. Next is Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
89 km in you reach Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch. Next is Old City of Berne.
Bern does not shout. The Swiss capital sits on a sandstone spur in a tight loop of the green Aare, with six kilometres of arcaded streets that let you walk the whole old town in the rain without getting wet. It was founded in 1191 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, and legend says he named it after the first animal he killed hunting nearby, a bear. The bears have been the town's mascots ever since, and a few still live in the BärenPark down by the river at the end of the Nydeggbrücke.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Berne, about halfway. Next is Old City of Berne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Berne sits at 178 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old City of Berne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old City of Berne comes up 222 km in. Next is back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
266 km in you reach back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch. Next is back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch, late in the day. Next is Lucerne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lucerne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 355 km.
Lucerne → Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch → Old City of Berne is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Old City of Berne → back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch → Lucerne is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.