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 388 km round trip from Frauenfeld - roughly 6 h 44 in the saddle. The stops in between: Robenhausen, Riedmatt, Riesi and Kehrsiten. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
47 km on Egelsee → Robenhausen.
For about 52 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.
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.
Egelsee is where the day begins. Next is Robenhausen.
In 1858 a local man named Jakob Messikommer began digging in the peat bog at Robenhausen, on the southern end of the Pfäffikersee in the Zurich Oberland, and he spent decades uncovering a remarkably rich Neolithic pile-dwelling settlement. His finds, from stone axes to woven textiles and charred bread, travelled to museums around the world and helped make Swiss lake dwellings famous. Today Robenhausen is one of the components of the UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, though what remains lies underground in a protected wetland.
Read the complete Robenhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Robenhausen comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Riedmatt.
Zug has a reputation as one of the wealthiest places in Switzerland, a small canton of low taxes, glass office blocks and companies registered by the hundred. But beneath the surface, quite literally, lies a much older story. Along the shores of Lake Zug, archaeologists have found the remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age villages built on piles in the shallow water and marshy ground, and Riedmatt, near the border between Steinhausen, Cham and Zug, is one of the sites included in the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage listing. As with most such sites, there is nothing visible on the surface; the remains are preserved in the waterlogged ground.
Read the complete Riedmatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Riedmatt. Next is Riesi.
Riesi is a stretch of shoreline at the northern end of the Hallwilersee, a long, narrow lake in the Aargau Seetal, between the villages of Seengen and Boniswil. It is a peaceful place of reeds, meadows and walking paths, and below the water and in the marshy ground lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements, part of the World Heritage list of such sites around the Alps.
Read the complete Riesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Riesi, about halfway. Next is Kehrsiten.
Kehrsiten is a small settlement on the southern shore of Lake Lucerne, at the foot of the Bürgenstock, a steep, forested ridge that juts out into the lake, and it feels almost cut off from the rest of Switzerland. A narrow road follows the shore from Stansstad, squeezed between the rocks and the water, and ends here; beyond, the cliffs of the Bürgenstock drop straight into the lake. For most visitors, Kehrsiten is the place where the boat from Lucerne stops and the Bürgenstock funicular begins, climbing steeply through the forest to the resort on top, which has been welcoming guests since the late nineteenth century.
Read the complete Kehrsiten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kehrsiten sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through Riesi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Riesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Riesi comes up about 249 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Riedmatt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Riedmatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 289 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Riedmatt. Next is back through Robenhausen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Robenhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Robenhausen, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 388 km.
Egelsee → Robenhausen is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Robenhausen → Riedmatt is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Riedmatt → Riesi is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Riesi → Kehrsiten is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kehrsiten → back through Riesi is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Riesi → back through Riedmatt is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Riedmatt → back through Robenhausen is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Robenhausen → Egelsee is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.