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.
269 km from Reichenau to Reichenau, about 4 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Egelsee, Weier I - III, Storen-Wildsberg and back through Weier I - III. It crosses from Germany into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
The ride follows Grand Tour of Switzerland for 25 km.
For 56 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.
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.
Hornstaad-Hörnle is where the day begins. 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.
Egelsee comes up 38 km in. Next is Weier I - III.
Just outside Thayngen, almost on the German border, a small wetland hides the remains of Neolithic villages that stood here more than five thousand years ago. The sites known as Weier I to III were built on the edge of a former lake or moor, now mostly filled in, and excavations revealed well-preserved timber houses, tools, pottery and food remains that give a detailed picture of early farming communities. They form part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, though as with most such sites, there is little to see above ground today beyond the landscape itself.
Read the complete Weier I - III write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
75 km in you reach Weier I - III. 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 back through Weier I - III.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Weier I - III write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Weier I - III sits at 150 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Egelsee comes up 188 km in. Next is 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.
Hornstaad-Hörnle closes the day.
Hornstaad-Hörnle → Egelsee is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Egelsee → Weier I - III is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Weier I - III → Storen-Wildsberg is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Storen-Wildsberg → back through Weier I - III is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Weier I - III → back through Egelsee is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Egelsee → Hornstaad-Hörnle is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.