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 233 km round trip from Horw - roughly 4 h 10 in the saddle. The stops in between: Oterswil / Insel Eielen, Vorder Au, Technikum and Rorenhaab. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 54 km this is Lake Lucerne Axenstrasse, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Oterswil / Insel Eielen.
Lake Zug is the quiet one among the central Swiss lakes, long and slender, with the Rigi rising steeply from its southern end and gentle farmland and orchards rolling down to its northern shores. Around its edges, as around many Alpine lakes, people built villages on the shore in prehistoric times, and the remains of these settlements at places like Oterswil and the little island of Eielen are among the sites of the transnational pile dwelling listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Under water and mud, wooden piles, pottery and tools have survived for thousands of years.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vorder Au.
The Au peninsula pokes out into Lake Zurich like a green thumb, and at its tip, Vorder Au, the shallow water hides traces of villages built on piles thousands of years ago. It is one of the Swiss sites in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, though as with most of them, the archaeology lies under the lake bed and is protected rather than displayed. What you see is a wooded little hill with a castle-like house, vineyards running down to the water, reed beds and a small harbour.
Read the complete Vorder Au write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Vorder Au. Next is Technikum.
Students at the technical university in Rapperswil study engineering on a lakeside campus, and beneath the shoreline in front of their buildings lie the remains of villages that people built on piles thousands of years ago. The site, named after the old Technikum, as the college was long known, is one of the prehistoric pile dwelling sites around Lake Zurich included in the UNESCO listing of 2011. Nothing is visible, but the idea that this shore has been home to people for so long gives a different perspective to a stroll along the promenade.
Read the complete Technikum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Technikum, about halfway. Next is Rorenhaab.
The winter of 1853 to 1854 was so dry that the water in Lake Zurich fell to an unusually low level, and at Obermeilen, on the eastern shore, villagers extending their land into the lake found rows of wooden piles sticking out of the mud, along with pottery, bone tools and stone axes. The antiquarian Ferdinand Keller studied the finds and concluded that they came from prehistoric villages built on platforms over the water, and his reports launched the pile dwelling craze that swept through Europe in the nineteenth century. Rorenhaab, at Obermeilen, is that very site, and it is part of the pile dwellings around the Alps listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2011.
Read the complete Rorenhaab write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rorenhaab sits at 81 km, about halfway. Next is back through Technikum.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Technikum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Technikum comes up about 133 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vorder Au.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vorder Au write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 155 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vorder Au. Next is back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oterswil / Insel Eielen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen, late in the day. Next is Kehrsiten.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kehrsiten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 233 km.
Kehrsiten → Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen → Vorder Au is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vorder Au → Technikum is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Technikum → Rorenhaab is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rorenhaab → back through Technikum is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Technikum → back through Vorder Au is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vorder Au → back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen → Kehrsiten is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.