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 247 km round trip from Konstanz - roughly 4 h 39 in the saddle. It goes by way of Wangen-Hinterhorn, 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. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 39 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
There is nothing to see at Konstanz-Hinterhausen, and that is precisely the point. Below the surface of Lake Constance, along the shore near the city, lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings: wooden posts, floors, pottery and food remains preserved in the mud for thousands of years. They are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a World Heritage site that spans six countries and over a hundred locations. Archaeologists dive to study them, but the rest of us have to make do with the view of the lake and a bit of imagination.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen is where the day begins. Next is Wangen-Hinterhorn.
When the water of the Untersee, the western arm of Lake Constance, was unusually low in the winter of 1853 to 1854, people around the Swiss and German shores noticed wooden posts sticking out of the mud. They were the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, villages built on the lakeshore thousands of years ago, and the find sparked a wave of research and a craze for lake-dwelling romance across Europe. Wangen, on the German shore of the Untersee, was one of the first sites studied, and Wangen-Hinterhorn belongs to the World Heritage inscription for prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, though there is nothing to see above the water.
Read the complete Wangen-Hinterhorn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wangen-Hinterhorn comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 62 km into the recorded legs 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 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wangen-Hinterhorn.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wangen-Hinterhorn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wangen-Hinterhorn comes up about 210 km into the recorded legs. Next is Konstanz-Hinterhausen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen closes the day.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Wangen-Hinterhorn is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wangen-Hinterhorn → Weier I - III is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Weier I - III → Storen-Wildsberg is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Storen-Wildsberg → back through Weier I - III is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Weier I - III → back through Wangen-Hinterhorn is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wangen-Hinterhorn → Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.