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.
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.
A 370 km round trip from Sankt Gallen - roughly 5 h 53 in the saddle. It goes by way of Konstanz-Hinterhausen, Egelsee, Storen-Wildsberg and Oterswil / Insel Eielen. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
41 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
37 km on Grand Tour of Switzerland.
For 40 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.
In the centre of St Gallen, a city in north-eastern Switzerland between Lake Constance and the Appenzell hills, the twin towers of a baroque cathedral rise above a wide square, and beside them stands one of the oldest and most beautiful libraries in the world. The Abbey of St Gall was founded in the eighth century on the site where the Irish monk Gallus had settled in the early seventh century, and it became one of the great centres of learning in medieval Europe. The abbey precinct was listed by UNESCO in 1983.
Read the complete Abbey of St Gall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abbey of St Gall 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 38 km in. Next is Egelsee.
There is almost nothing to see at the Egelsee, and that is part of its charm. It is a small, reed-fringed bog lake in the rolling Thurgau countryside between Gachnang and Frauenfeld, and under its peat and mud lie the remains of a Neolithic lakeside settlement, timber piles and floor layers preserved for thousands of years because air never reached them. It is one of the many sites that make up the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps on the UNESCO list, and unlike the reconstructed villages you find elsewhere, this one has been left in the ground on purpose. Archaeologists consider the soggy earth the best museum there is.
Read the complete Egelsee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
76 km in you reach Egelsee. Next is Storen-Wildsberg.
The Greifensee lies just east of Zurich, a shallow, quiet lake of about six kilometres in length, framed by reeds, meadows and the gentle hills of the Zurich Oberland. Its shores are largely protected, and there is no road running right along the water, which keeps it remarkably calm for a lake so close to Switzerland's biggest city. At Storen-Wildsberg near the village of Greifensee, the remains of a prehistoric settlement lie under the water and in the shoreline sediments, one of the Swiss sites in the UNESCO listing of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. As with all of them, it is the ground itself that is protected; there is nothing to see except the reeds and the water.
Read the complete Storen-Wildsberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Storen-Wildsberg, about halfway. Next is Oterswil / Insel Eielen.
Lake Zug is the quiet one among the central Swiss lakes, long and slender, with the Rigi rising steeply from its southern end and gentle farmland and orchards rolling down to its northern shores. Around its edges, as around many Alpine lakes, people built villages on the shore in prehistoric times, and the remains of these settlements at places like Oterswil and the little island of Eielen are among the sites of the transnational pile dwelling listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Under water and mud, wooden piles, pottery and tools have survived for thousands of years.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen sits at 153 km, about halfway. Next is back through Storen-Wildsberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Storen-Wildsberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Storen-Wildsberg comes up 191 km in. Next is back through Egelsee.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Egelsee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
229 km in you reach back through Egelsee. 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 Abbey of St Gall.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abbey of St Gall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 370 km.
Abbey of St Gall → Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Egelsee is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Egelsee → Storen-Wildsberg is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Storen-Wildsberg → Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen → back through Storen-Wildsberg is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Storen-Wildsberg → back through Egelsee is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Egelsee → back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Abbey of St Gall is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.