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.
A 225 km round trip from Arbon - roughly 4 h 43 in the saddle. On the way it passes Konstanz-Hinterhausen, Hornstaad-Hörnle, Sipplingen-Osthafen and Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Arbon sits on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance, in the canton of Thurgau, and just outside the town, on land that was once lake shore, lies one of the most remarkable prehistoric sites in Europe. At Arbon-Bleiche, archaeologists excavated a Neolithic village of wooden houses built on the edge of the lake around 3400 BC. Because the wood was preserved in waterlogged ground, tree rings allowed the village to be dated almost to the year: it was built, lived in for about fifteen years and then destroyed by fire. The finds, from pottery and tools to textiles and food remains, gave a detailed picture of how these early farmers lived, and Arbon counts among the Swiss sites in the Alpine pile-dwelling inscription of 2011. There is nothing to see at the site itself, which is now under buildings and fields; the finds are displayed in the Thurgau archaeological museum in Frauenfeld.
Read the complete Bleiche 2-3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bleiche 2-3 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 about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hornstaad-Hörnle.
On the Höri peninsula, the long finger of land that pokes into the Untersee arm of Lake Constance, the shallow water off the point of Hornstaad hides the remains of a village burned some six thousand years ago. Hornstaad-Hörnle is one of the most important Neolithic sites in the region: the settlement was destroyed by fire, and the charred remains, sealed in lake mud, preserved an extraordinary record of daily life, including food, textiles, tools and house timbers, which dendrochronology has dated with great precision. It is part of the World Heritage inscription of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, and finds from the site are displayed in museums around the lake.
Read the complete Hornstaad-Hörnle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Hornstaad-Hörnle. Next is Sipplingen-Osthafen.
At Sipplingen the north shore of Lake Constance changes character. The Überlinger See, the long north-western arm of the lake, is hemmed in here by steep molasse cliffs and wooded slopes rising to the Sipplinger Berg, and the village sits on a narrow strip between the hill and the water. Below the surface off the eastern harbour lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, villages of wooden houses built on stilts along the shore some five to six thousand years ago. They are part of the World Heritage site of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Sipplingen-Osthafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sipplingen-Osthafen, about halfway. Next is Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.
Unteruhldingen is where most people first meet the prehistoric lake dwellers of the Alps, thanks to the Pfahlbaumuseum, an open-air museum of reconstructed houses on stilts standing in the shallow water of Lake Constance. It started in the 1920s and has been adding houses ever since, and walking along the wooden walkways between thatched huts gives you a vivid idea of village life thousands of years ago. The real archaeological sites, like Stollenwiesen just offshore, lie underwater, a series of settlements preserved in lake mud and listed by UNESCO in 2011 as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen sits at 88 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sipplingen-Osthafen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sipplingen-Osthafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sipplingen-Osthafen comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hornstaad-Hörnle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hornstaad-Hörnle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hornstaad-Hörnle. 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 Bleiche 2-3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bleiche 2-3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 225 km.
Bleiche 2-3 → Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Hornstaad-Hörnle is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hornstaad-Hörnle → Sipplingen-Osthafen is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sipplingen-Osthafen → Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen → back through Sipplingen-Osthafen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sipplingen-Osthafen → back through Hornstaad-Hörnle is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hornstaad-Hörnle → back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Bleiche 2-3 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.