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.
453 km from Reichenau to Reichenau, about 6 h 53 of riding. On the way it passes Weier I - III, Storen-Wildsberg, Oterswil / Insel Eielen and Halbinsel. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Germany into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. An island ride, so the sea is never far.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 46 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Reichenau is a flat, green island in the Untersee, the western arm of Lake Constance, connected to the mainland by a long causeway lined with poplars. A wandering bishop named Pirmin founded the monastery here in 724, and over the next centuries it became one of the great centres of learning and art in Europe, famous for its scriptorium and its illuminated manuscripts. The island's three Romanesque churches survive, and UNESCO listed the whole as a World Heritage Site in 2000.
Read the complete Monastic Island of Reichenau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastic Island of Reichenau is where the day begins. 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.
Weier I - III comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 110 km into the recorded legs you reach Storen-Wildsberg. 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, about halfway. Next is Halbinsel.
At the northern tip of Lake Sempach, near the little town of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne, a small peninsula pushes into the water, and on and around it lie the remains of prehistoric lakeside settlements, part of the World Heritage site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Nothing remains visible above ground, but under the water and in the wet soil of the shore, piles and objects have survived for thousands of years, telling the story of farmers and fishermen who lived here long before the Romans. Today, the shore is a quiet area of reeds, meadows and paths, popular with walkers and cyclists.
Read the complete Halbinsel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Halbinsel sits at 172 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 284 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Storen-Wildsberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Storen-Wildsberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 346 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Storen-Wildsberg. 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, late in the day. Next is Monastic Island of Reichenau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastic Island of Reichenau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 453 km.
Monastic Island of Reichenau → Weier I - III is 46 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 → Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oterswil / Insel Eielen → Halbinsel is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Halbinsel → back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oterswil / Insel Eielen → back through Storen-Wildsberg is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Storen-Wildsberg → back through Weier I - III is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Weier I - III → Monastic Island of Reichenau is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.