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.
Out of Zürich, one way: 263 km, roughly 3 h 53 in the saddle. On the way it passes Rhine Falls, St Gallen and Appenzell. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,250 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 about 51 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Zurich is the polite, prosperous kind of city that keeps its history discreet. It lies at the northern end of Lake Zurich, where the Limmat river runs out of the lake and through the old town, and it began as a Roman customs post called Turicum on the hill now known as the Lindenhof. By the sixteenth century it was a centre of the Reformation under Huldrych Zwingli, who preached at the Grossmunster, the twin-towered church that still dominates the skyline. Across the river, the Fraumunster holds stained glass windows by Marc Chagall, and the light inside on a bright morning is worth a short detour.
Read the complete Zurich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zurich is where the day begins. Next is Rhine Falls.
The Rhine Falls, at Neuhausen near Schaffhausen, are the biggest plain waterfall in Europe, not in height, which is about twenty-three metres, but in volume, with a stream some hundred and fifty metres wide pouring over the rock in the early summer when the snow melts in the Alps. The water thunders and the spray hangs in the air, and a central rock, a stump of limestone, stands in the middle of the torrent. A walkway and a set of platforms take you almost to the foam, and the whole thing smells of wet stone and minerals.
Read the complete Rhine Falls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rhine Falls comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Gallen.
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.
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach St Gallen. Next is Appenzell.
Every year on the last Sunday in April, the people of Appenzell Innerrhoden gather in the main square, men and women, many with a ceremonial sword or a bayonet at the hip, and vote with raised hands. The Landsgemeinde is one of the last open-air assemblies of its kind in Switzerland, and it takes place in the middle of this small town, which has been the capital of the half-canton for centuries. Women only gained a vote at the cantonal level here in 1990, after a federal court ruling, which tells you something about how conservative the valley is, and also how proud.
Read the complete Appenzell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Appenzell, late in the day. Next is Davos.
At about 1,560 metres, Davos is often called the highest town in Europe, and it is certainly one of the most unusual. It lies in a long, broad valley of Graubünden, with ski slopes on both sides, a lake, a main street that looks like a motorway, and a mix of grand old sanatoria, apartment blocks and hotels that tells the story of the town.
Read the complete Davos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Davos. That is the ride.
Zurich → Rhine Falls is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rhine Falls → St Gallen is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
St Gallen → Appenzell is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Appenzell → Davos is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.