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: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
886 km from Rorschach to Lindau, about 12 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Appenzell, Säntis view road and Oberstaufen. Schwägalp road is the high point. It tops out at about 1,550 m. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The passes are the reason to go.
25 km on Grand Tour of Switzerland.
The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 15 km. 420 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall — a steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
For 4 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 is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else. 42 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it.
Rorschach is where Switzerland meets the Bodensee, and it is the sort of port town that rewards a slow walk before the engine starts. It sits on the southern shore of Lake Constance, the big shared lake of Switzerland, Germany and Austria, with the Austrian shore and its mountains low and blue across the water on a clear day. Boats come and go from the harbour, gulls argue on the breakwater, and the promenade is lined with plane trees and benches.
Read the complete Rorschach lakefront write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rorschach lakefront is where the day begins. Next is Appenzell lunch, climbing 382 m.
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 lunch is where this day stops to eat. The road climbs 382 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Säntis view road, climbing 420 m.
Above the Toggenburg, on a shoulder of hillside around 1,200 metres, there is a stretch of road where the whole Säntis massif comes into view at once. The Alpstein is a compact mountain range, but from here it appears huge: a wall of pale limestone with steep faces, folded strata and a summit that wears a cap of cloud on most days. The pull-off for photographs is one of the better ones in eastern Switzerland.
Read the complete Säntis view road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
137 km in you reach Säntis view road. The road climbs 420 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Schwägalp road.
Schwägalp is a saddle rather than a summit, and it has something of the feel of a clearing in the woods. At 1,278 metres it lies between Urnäsch, on the Appenzell side, and Neu St. Johann in the Toggenburg, and the pass road runs beside a mountain stream and the upper reaches of the Sitter river, through meadows grazed by brown cattle. Behind the hotel at the top rises the massive northern face of the Säntis, which seems close enough to touch.
Read the complete Schwägalp road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section, 1278 m up. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Back to Rorschach, mostly downhill.
Rorschach sits on the south shore of Lake Constance, the big, shallow, sea-like lake where Switzerland, Germany and Austria meet, at about four hundred metres above sea level. It is a small port town with a promenade, a harbour, and the look of a place that was once busier than it is now. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was the centre of a linen trade, and later of embroidery, and the grain trade passed through it too. The Kornhaus, a big granary built in the 1740s by the monks of St. Gallen, stands on the waterfront with a baroque gable, and it is the town's emblem.
Read the complete Rorschach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Rorschach. That is the ride. You lose 880 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Lindau, mostly downhill.
Lindau is an island that behaves like a postcard. The old town sits on a small piece of land in the eastern corner of Lake Constance, linked to the mainland by a causeway and a railway bridge, with a harbour entrance guarded by two monuments, a stone lighthouse and a tall statue of the Bavarian lion. Boats cross to Bregenz in Austria and to the Swiss shore, and behind the harbour wall are cobbled streets, painted houses and cafés that spill onto the quay. The Bodensee, as the Germans call it, is the third largest lake in Central Europe and the surrounding land is orchard country, apple trees and vineyards, with the Alps rising over the south shore on a clear day.
Read the complete Lindau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The day opens at Lindau. Next is Oberstaufen.
Oberstaufen is a spa town with a taste for fasting. Its fame comes from the Schroth cure, a regime of dry days, wet days, wraps and very little food that visitors have been putting up with here for generations, and the place wears its wellness reputation with a certain Bavarian shrug. You see it in the clean flower boxes, the Kneipp-style water basins in the park, and the clinic-like hotels. It is also a proper Allgäu town, and a pleasant one, with about seven thousand people, cow bells in the background, and a brewing tradition that makes the fasting look like a very optional part of life.
Read the complete Oberstaufen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
410 km in you reach Oberstaufen. Next is Garmisch Partenkirchen.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen lies in a wide Alpine valley in Bavaria, close to the Austrian border, with the Wetterstein range rising behind it and the Zugspitze, at 2,962 metres the highest mountain in Germany, standing at the end of the valley. The town is really two, Garmisch and Partenkirchen, joined together for the 1936 Winter Olympics, and each still has its own character. Partenkirchen, the older part, has a Roman history, as it stood on the road across the Alps, and its main street, with painted houses, is the more charming.
Read the complete Garmisch-Partenkirchen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Garmisch Partenkirchen, about halfway. Next is Bad Tolz.
Bad Tolz grows from the Isar, the river that rushes down from the Alps toward Munich, and the town's main street, the Marktstrasse, climbs a steep slope above the water, lined with painted houses with gabled fronts and carved signs. At the top stands the Kalvarienberg, a hill with a baroque chapel and a view across the roofs to the Alps. The name Bad means spa, and it was the tapping of iodine-rich springs in the nineteenth century that gave the town its status, though the mountains and the old town are the real draw.
Read the complete Bad Tolz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bad Tolz sits at 546 km, about halfway. Next is Berchtesgaden.
Berchtesgaden sits in the far southeast corner of Germany, in a pocket of Bavaria that pokes into Austria, and the mountains here do not bother to be modest. The Watzmann, at 2,713 metres Germany's second highest mountain, stands above the valley in a long ridge, with the pale wall of the Hochkalter opposite. The town is the end of the German Alpine Road, which runs from Lake Constance, and it feels like the end of the line, with the peaks closing in on all sides. For centuries the local economy rested on salt, and the salt mine, worked since the sixteenth century, is open to visitors who put on miners' clothes and slide down the wooden chutes.
Read the complete Berchtesgaden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berchtesgaden comes up 615 km in. Next is back through Bad Tolz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bad Tolz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
683 km in you reach back through Bad Tolz. Next is back through Garmisch Partenkirchen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Garmisch-Partenkirchen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Garmisch Partenkirchen, late in the day. Next is back through Oberstaufen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oberstaufen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Oberstaufen sits at 820 km, late in the day. Next is Lindau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lindau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Lindau. That is the ride.
Rorschach lakefront → Appenzell lunch is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Appenzell lunch → Säntis view road climbs about 420 m in 15 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Säntis view road → Schwägalp road is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Schwägalp road → Back to Rorschach drops about 880 m over 41 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Back to Rorschach → Lindau is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lindau → Oberstaufen is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oberstaufen → Garmisch Partenkirchen is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Garmisch Partenkirchen → Bad Tolz is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bad Tolz → Berchtesgaden is 157 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Berchtesgaden → back through Bad Tolz is 157 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bad Tolz → back through Garmisch Partenkirchen is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Garmisch Partenkirchen → back through Oberstaufen is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Oberstaufen → Lindau is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.