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: 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.
A 225 km one-way ride from near Montreux, about 3 h 39 of riding. The stops in between: Lausanne, Neuchatel and Bern. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
For about 32 km this is Lavaux Vineyard 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.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 59 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Montreux is the Swiss Riviera in its most polished form, a ribbon of hotels, gardens and promenades stacked up the steep north shore of Lake Geneva, with the French Alps standing on the far side of the water like a stage set. The slopes behind are so sheltered that palms and magnolias survive outdoors, and the lakeside walk is lined with flowerbeds from early spring. It was a retreat for Victorian invalids and then for writers: Byron wrote about the nearby Château de Chillon, and Nabokov spent his last years in a suite at the Montreux Palace hotel, where his statue stands in the gardens today.
Read the complete Montreux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Montreux is where the day begins. Next is Lausanne.
Lausanne tips down a steep hillside to Lake Geneva, and you feel it in your legs, your brakes and your bike's low gears. The city sprawls over three hills and a lake front, with the old town at the top and the harbour district of Ouchy at the bottom, joined by one of the world's smallest metro systems. The Gothic cathedral looks out over the roofs and the water toward the French Alps across the lake.
Read the complete Lausanne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lausanne comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Neuchatel.
Neuchâtel looks across its lake from a long, gentle shoreline, with the Jura mountains rising behind and, on a clear day, the Bernese Alps floating above the far side like a distant promise. The town takes its yellowish tint from the local limestone, a warm honey colour in evening light, and its centre is a tidy lattice of old lanes between the castle and the lakefront. The castle and the Collegiate church sit together on a small hill above the old town, and it was from here that the counts, and later the Prussian kings, ruled. Neuchâtel was under the Prussian crown from 1707 until a republican revolution in 1848, a curious detail that explains its odd, independent character.
Read the complete Neuchatel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach Neuchatel. Next is Bern.
Bern is the odd capital, one that never calls itself a capital: the Swiss federal government sits here but the official term is federal city. It is also one of the best places in the country to park a bike and walk, because the old town fills a tight loop of the Aare river, with the water running green and fast on three sides far below the bridges. UNESCO put the medieval centre on its list in 1983, and the sandstone arcades along the main streets, about six kilometres of them in total, mean you can shop in the rain without an umbrella.
Read the complete Bern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bern, late in the day. Next is Interlaken.
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.
Read the complete Interlaken write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Interlaken. That is the ride.
Montreux → Lausanne is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lausanne → Neuchatel is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Neuchatel → Bern is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bern → Interlaken is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.