Inkwilersee Insel and Vingelz / Hafen

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Inkwilersee Insel is where the day begins. Next is Forêt de la Bettlachstock.

2. 2. Forêt de la Bettlachstock

   Above the watchmaking towns of Grenchen and Bettlach, the first chain of the Jura rises like a wall out of the Aare plain, and on its steep southern flank grows the beech forest of the Bettlachstock. In 2021 it became one of the Swiss components of the UNESCO Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a serial site that stretches across the continent to show how beech spread after the last Ice Age. What makes this patch special is that it has been left largely to itself for decades, on slopes so steep and rocky that nobody bothered to log them hard, and so the trees grow old, fall, rot and feed the next generation.

   Read the complete Forêt de la Bettlachstock write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Forêt de la Bettlachstock comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vingelz / Hafen.

3. 3. Vingelz / Hafen

   Biel and Bienne are the same city, one name in German and one in French, and street signs, conversations and even jokes switch between the two languages without anyone noticing. At its western edge, the lakeside district of Vingelz, with its small harbour, has given archaeologists remains of prehistoric pile dwellings in the shallow water of Lake Biel, and the site is one piece of the World Heritage property for pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake, long and narrow, lies at the foot of the Jura mountains, and its shores have been inhabited for thousands of years.

   Read the complete Vingelz / Hafen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Vingelz / Hafen. Next is back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock.

4. 4. back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Forêt de la Bettlachstock write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock, late in the day. Next is Inkwilersee Insel.

5. 5. Inkwilersee Insel

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Inkwilersee Insel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Inkwilersee Insel. That is the ride.