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.
173 km from Sankt Gallen to Sankt Gallen, about 4 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Konstanz-Hinterhausen, Wollmatingen-Langenrain, Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen and Litzelstetten-Krähenhorn 32. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Appenzell and Schwagalp Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
St Gallen grew up around a hermit's cell. In the early seventh century an Irish monk called Gallus settled in a forest valley here, and a monastery grew up that became one of the great centres of learning in medieval Europe. Today the abbey district is a UNESCO site, with a baroque cathedral, an abbey library, and a plan of the cloister, a famous ninth-century drawing that shows what an ideal monastery should look like.
Read the complete St Gallen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St Gallen is where the day begins. Next is Konstanz-Hinterhausen.
There is nothing to see at Konstanz-Hinterhausen, and that is precisely the point. Below the surface of Lake Constance, along the shore near the city, lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings: wooden posts, floors, pottery and food remains preserved in the mud for thousands of years. They are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a World Heritage site that spans six countries and over a hundred locations. Archaeologists dive to study them, but the rest of us have to make do with the view of the lake and a bit of imagination.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wollmatingen-Langenrain.
Konstanz is the German city that sits on Switzerland's lap, so close to the border that the two towns, Konstanz and Kreuzlingen, run into each other with a fence in between. The old town lies on the narrows between the Obersee and the Untersee, the two halves of Lake Constance, where the Rhine leaves the lake, and it has one of the best preserved medieval centres in southern Germany. Its survival has a simple explanation: it was not bombed in the Second World War, partly because of its closeness to neutral Switzerland. In the early fifteenth century, it hosted the Council of Constance, which ended a split in the Catholic Church and condemned the reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415.
Read the complete Wollmatingen-Langenrain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Wollmatingen-Langenrain. Next is Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.
Unteruhldingen is where most people first meet the prehistoric lake dwellers of the Alps, thanks to the Pfahlbaumuseum, an open-air museum of reconstructed houses on stilts standing in the shallow water of Lake Constance. It started in the 1920s and has been adding houses ever since, and walking along the wooden walkways between thatched huts gives you a vivid idea of village life thousands of years ago. The real archaeological sites, like Stollenwiesen just offshore, lie underwater, a series of settlements preserved in lake mud and listed by UNESCO in 2011 as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen, about halfway. Next is Litzelstetten-Krähenhorn 32.
The Bodanrueck is a wooded peninsula that sticks out into the western end of Lake Constance, between the Uberlinger See and the Zeller See, and Litzelstetten is a small village on its southern side, close to the city of Konstanz. The Krahenhorn is a little promontory on the shore, and the whole area is an easy, gentle mix of orchards, forest, reeds and quiet beaches. Mainau Island, the flower island, lies just off the coast, with its palm trees and rhododendrons.
Read the complete Litzelstetten-Krähenhorn 32 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Litzelstetten-Krähenhorn 32 sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen comes up about 103 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Wollmatingen-Langenrain.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wollmatingen-Langenrain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Wollmatingen-Langenrain. Next is back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen, late in the day. Next is St Gallen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St Gallen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 173 km.
St Gallen → Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Wollmatingen-Langenrain is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wollmatingen-Langenrain → Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen → Litzelstetten-Krähenhorn 32 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Litzelstetten-Krähenhorn 32 → back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen → back through Wollmatingen-Langenrain is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wollmatingen-Langenrain → back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen → St Gallen is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.