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.
From Zürich it runs 777 km to Zermatt; allow about 11 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Rhine Falls, St Gallen, Appenzell and Davos. The highest point is about 2,650 m. Flüela pass and Furka Pass are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 51 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
This part of the ride is 13 km of Grand Tour of Switzerland.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
125 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it — this is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
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, early 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.
Davos sits at 276 km, about halfway. Next is Fluela Pass.
The Flüela pass, at 2,383 metres, links Davos with the Lower Engadin, and it is one of the more austere roads in the Swiss Alps: bare rock, small dark lakes and a feeling of height without the crowds of some of its neighbours. The road climbs from the Davos side in a series of broad curves through spruce forest and then through scree and stone, and on the top you find a small lake, the Schottensee, which is at the summit and reflects the surrounding peaks on calm days. A hospice building has stood at the summit for centuries to shelter travellers caught by storms.
Read the complete Fluela Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Flüela pass comes up about 276 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bernina Pass.
The Bernina Pass is the stark one. At 2,330 metres, it has no forest, no village to speak of, and almost no vegetation to soften the view: just two small lakes, a scatter of buildings at the Ospizio, a railway line, and mountains that look like they were left half-finished. It is also a true divide. Water from one side of the summit lake eventually reaches the Inn and the Danube, and then the Black Sea, while water from the other side flows south to the Po and the Adriatic. Lago Bianco, the milky-green reservoir on the summit, drains toward Italy, and Lago Nero, a little further north, toward the Inn.
Read the complete Bernina Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 344 km into the recorded legs you reach Bernina Pass. Next is St Moritz, mostly downhill.
St. Moritz is not subtle, and the world's most famous winter resort does not intend to be. It sits at about 1,800 metres in the Upper Engadine, on a sunlit shelf above a lake, with ranges of white peaks on every side and a record of sunny days that the tourist board advertises with some pride. Its mineral springs were known in the Bronze Age, and in the Middle Ages pilgrims came to drink the water. Winter tourism, legend says, started in 1864 when the hotelier Johannes Badrutt bet English summer guests that they would enjoy the Alps in the snow. The town has hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1948, and the Cresta Run, an ice toboggan track, still runs every winter.
Read the complete St Moritz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St Moritz, about halfway. Next is Bellinzona.
Bellinzona is the town that guarded the Alps. It lies on a flat piece of the Ticino valley where the routes from the Gotthard, San Bernardino and Lukmanier passes come together, and whoever held it controlled the way between northern Europe and Italy. Three castles, Castelgrande, Montebello and Sasso Corbaro, stand on rocky hills over the old town, linked by walls, and they form a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Milanese Visconti and Sforza dukes strengthened them in the fifteenth century, before the Swiss cantons took control, and Bellinzona stayed with them ever since. The oldest, Castelgrande, rises from a rocky outcrop right in the middle of town, and you can wander its courtyards and ramparts.
Read the complete Bellinzona write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bellinzona sits at 552 km, about halfway. Next is Lugano.
Lugano belongs to Switzerland by history and to Italy by temperament. It sits on the northern shore of a lake of the same name, in the canton of Ticino, with mountains, Monte San Salvatore and Monte Brè, rising straight from the water on either side. Italian is the language, the coffee is Italian, and the pace of life slows by a visible notch compared with Zurich. Ticino joined the Swiss Confederation only at the start of the nineteenth century, after centuries as subject territory of the Swiss cantons, and the town still has the atmosphere of a place with its own story.
Read the complete Lugano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lugano comes up about 549 km into the recorded legs. Next is Andermatt.
Andermatt sits at 1,444 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, wide, treeless hollow in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and it has been a crossroads for centuries. Three great passes meet here: the Gotthard, which runs south to Italy and Ticino at 2,106 metres, the Furka, which climbs west over 2,429 metres toward the Valais, and the Oberalp, which leads east at 2,044 metres into Graubünden. For a motorcyclist it is a kind of Mecca, since the three roads are among the most famous in the Alps, and the town fills with bikes on any fine summer weekend.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 659 km into the recorded legs you reach Andermatt. Next is Furka Pass.
Furka is one of the Alps' great stage roads: 2,429 metres of switchbacks linking Uri and Valais, with the Rhône Glacier at the western foot. From Andermatt the road climbs through the high Urseren valley, past Realp, up a series of hairpins to a pass where the air is thin and cold, and the views unfold across rock, snow and sky. The mountains here are bare and grand, and the sense of altitude is real.
Read the complete Furka Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Furka Pass, late in the day at 2429 m. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Tasch for Zermatt, mostly downhill.
Täsch is a place most people pass through on the way to somewhere more famous, and it has made peace with that. Zermatt, a few kilometres up the valley, is closed to private cars, so the road ends here, at a large terminal beside the railway, where visitors leave their vehicles and ride the shuttle train for around twelve minutes to the village under the Matterhorn. For a motorcyclist the arrangement is simple. Park at the terminal, change out of the leathers, and take the train in.
Read the complete Tasch for Zermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tasch for Zermatt closes the day.
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.
Davos → Fluela Pass is 13 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Flüela pass → Bernina Pass is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bernina Pass → St Moritz is 24 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
St Moritz → Bellinzona is 150 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bellinzona → Lugano is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lugano → Andermatt is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Andermatt → Furka Pass is 21 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Furka Pass → Tasch for Zermatt is 96 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.