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 335 km round trip from Hüttwilen - roughly 5 h 47 in the saddle. It goes by way of Bodman-Schachen / Löchle, Weier I - III, Monastic Island of Reichenau and Bleiche 2-3. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
This part of the ride is 48 km of Grand Tour of Switzerland.
For about 46 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Out in the Thurgau countryside, between Frauenfeld and the Rhine, a chain of small lakes lies in a glacial hollow: the Nussbaumersee, the Hüttwilersee and the Hasensee, with the wetland of the Seebachtal around them. It is a place of reeds and still water, where herons stand in the shallows and dragonflies hang over the surface. The Nussbaumersee is the biggest of them, a modest lake with a wooded shore, and a footpath circles it.
Read the complete Nussbaumersee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nussbaumersee is where the day begins. Next is Bodman-Schachen / Löchle.
Lake Constance takes its German name, Bodensee, from this village. Bodman, at the western tip of the Überlinger See arm of the lake, was the site of a royal palace in the early Middle Ages, and the name of the place spread to the water. Below the village, in the shallows at Schachen and Löchle, lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, part of the transnational World Heritage Site of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, inscribed in 2011.
Read the complete Bodman-Schachen / Löchle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bodman-Schachen / Löchle comes up about 48 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 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Weier I - III. Next is Monastic Island of Reichenau.
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, about halfway. Next is Bleiche 2-3.
Arbon sits on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance, in the canton of Thurgau, and just outside the town, on land that was once lake shore, lies one of the most remarkable prehistoric sites in Europe. At Arbon-Bleiche, archaeologists excavated a Neolithic village of wooden houses built on the edge of the lake around 3400 BC. Because the wood was preserved in waterlogged ground, tree rings allowed the village to be dated almost to the year: it was built, lived in for about fifteen years and then destroyed by fire. The finds, from pottery and tools to textiles and food remains, gave a detailed picture of how these early farmers lived, and Arbon counts among the Swiss sites in the Alpine pile-dwelling inscription of 2011. There is nothing to see at the site itself, which is now under buildings and fields; the finds are displayed in the Thurgau archaeological museum in Frauenfeld.
Read the complete Bleiche 2-3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bleiche 2-3 sits at 157 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Monastic Island of Reichenau comes up about 207 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 253 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Weier I - III. Next is back through Bodman-Schachen / Löchle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bodman-Schachen / Löchle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bodman-Schachen / Löchle, late in the day. Next is Nussbaumersee.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nussbaumersee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 335 km.
Nussbaumersee → Bodman-Schachen / Löchle is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bodman-Schachen / Löchle → Weier I - III is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Weier I - III → Monastic Island of Reichenau is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastic Island of Reichenau → Bleiche 2-3 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bleiche 2-3 → back through Monastic Island of Reichenau is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastic Island of Reichenau → back through Weier I - III is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Weier I - III → back through Bodman-Schachen / Löchle is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bodman-Schachen / Löchle → Nussbaumersee is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.