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.
137 km from Estavayer-le-Lac to Estavayer-le-Lac, about 2 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Chenevières de Guévaux I, Strandboden, Segelboothafen and Dorfstation. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 16 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Lake Neuchâtel is the largest lake entirely within Switzerland, a long, narrow body of water at the foot of the Jura mountains, and its shallow shores have been home to people for thousands of years. La Bessime is one of the prehistoric pile-dwelling sites of the lake, part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011. Like most such sites, it lies underwater or buried in the lake bed, with the remains of wooden posts, tools, pottery and food preserved in the mud, invisible to the visitor but invaluable to archaeologists.
Read the complete La Bessime write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Bessime is where the day begins. Next is Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Lake Murten is small, shallow and warm, framed on its north side by the vine-covered whale back of Mont Vully. Under its shallows near the Vully shore lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and Chenevières de Guévaux is one of them, part of the UNESCO site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber posts along lake shores like this one. Waterlogged conditions preserved posts, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years, and the finds transformed what we know about early farming communities in Europe.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chenevières de Guévaux I comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Strandboden.
Erlach sits at the south-western tip of Lake Biel, a little Bernese town of one steep street climbing to a castle, with vineyards on the slope behind and reed beds and beaches along the shore below. The flat ground by the water, the Strandboden, is where archaeologists have found traces of prehistoric lakeside villages, part of the network of pile dwelling sites around the Alps inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Five or six thousand years ago farmers built their houses here on posts at the water's edge, and the waterlogged mud preserved timbers, tools, seeds and even textiles in astonishing detail.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 33 km into the recorded legs you reach Strandboden. Next is Segelboothafen.
Murten is the rare Swiss town where you can walk the medieval walls almost all the way round, looking down on brown tiled roofs on one side and the lake on the other. Its sailing harbour, the Segelboothafen, lies just below the old town on the shore of Lake Murten, and in the shallows here are the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, one of the Swiss components of the transnational World Heritage Site of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Nothing shows above the water, but the lakeshore has been a place to live for thousands of years.
Read the complete Segelboothafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segelboothafen, about halfway. Next is Dorfstation.
The south shore of Lake Biel is a gentle place of reeds, vineyards on the far bank and farmland stretching back towards the Seeland plain, and at Lüscherz, one of the small lakeside villages, the remains of a prehistoric pile-dwelling settlement lie in the shallows. Dorfstation, as the site is known, is part of the transnational World Heritage Site of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, inscribed in 2011. Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers built their houses on wooden piles along the shore, and the waterlogged ground preserved timbers, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years.
Read the complete Dorfstation write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dorfstation sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segelboothafen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segelboothafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segelboothafen comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Strandboden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 105 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Strandboden. Next is back through Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I, late in the day. Next is La Bessime.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Bessime write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 137 km.
La Bessime → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → Strandboden is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Strandboden → Segelboothafen is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segelboothafen → Dorfstation is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dorfstation → back through Segelboothafen is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segelboothafen → back through Strandboden is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Strandboden → back through Chenevières de Guévaux I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I → La Bessime is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.