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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
344 km from Rapperswil to Rapperswil, about 5 h 56 of riding. The stops in between: Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner, Riesi, Inkwilersee Insel and Old City of Berne. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
35 km on Grand Tour of Switzerland.
For about 36 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.
Lake Zurich has a narrow waist, and at the waist stands a long causeway called the Seedamm. It links Rapperswil on the north shore with the Pfaffikon side on the south, and the peninsula of Hurden sits at its northern end. The upper lake, the Obersee, lies to the east, a quieter, shallower basin with reed beds, while the main lake stretches away to the west. Behind it all, the Glarus Alps and the Churfirsten rise to the horizon on a clear day.
Read the complete Hurden Seefeld write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hurden Seefeld is where the day begins. Next is Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner.
Zürich's lake has been a home for much longer than the city's banks suggest. The names Grosse Stadt and Kleiner Hafner belong to prehistoric settlement sites in the shallows of the Seebecken, the lake basin where the water meets the old town, and they are part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Farmers and fishers built villages on stilts here between roughly 4,000 and 800 BC, and the lake mud kept their traces. The site is underwater, so you cannot see it, but you can stand on the Utoquai or the Alpenquai promenade and imagine it.
Read the complete Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Riesi. Next is Inkwilersee Insel.
You could ride past the Inkwilersee a dozen times without noticing it. It is a small, shallow lake tucked into a fold of farmland right on the line between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, ringed with reeds and alders, with a tiny wooded island near its middle. That island is the reason for the label: beneath its trees and in the mud around it lie traces of prehistoric lakeside settlement, enough to earn the Inkwilersee a place among the Alpine pile-dwelling sites on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Inkwilersee Insel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Inkwilersee Insel, about halfway. Next is Old City of Berne.
Bern does not shout. The Swiss capital sits on a sandstone spur in a tight loop of the green Aare, with six kilometres of arcaded streets that let you walk the whole old town in the rain without getting wet. It was founded in 1191 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, and legend says he named it after the first animal he killed hunting nearby, a bear. The bears have been the town's mascots ever since, and a few still live in the BärenPark down by the river at the end of the Nydeggbrücke.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Berne sits at 172 km, about halfway. Next is back through Inkwilersee Insel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Inkwilersee Insel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Inkwilersee Insel comes up about 217 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 275 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Riesi. Next is back through Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner, late in the day. Next is Hurden Seefeld.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hurden Seefeld write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 344 km.
Hurden Seefeld → Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner → Riesi is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Riesi → Inkwilersee Insel is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Inkwilersee Insel → Old City of Berne is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old City of Berne → back through Inkwilersee Insel is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Inkwilersee Insel → back through Riesi is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Riesi → back through Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grosse Stadt Kleiner Hafner → Hurden Seefeld is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.