Nussbaumersee and Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
354 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 02
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
354 km from Hüttwilen to Hüttwilen, about 6 h 02 of riding. On the way it passes Bodman-Schachen / Löchle, Schreckensee, Ödenahlen and Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Grand Tour of Switzerland
This part of the ride is 48 km of Grand Tour of Switzerland.
Chapter facts
Length
48 km
Named road
Grand Tour of Switzerland
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Nussbaumersee
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nussbaumersee is where the day begins. Next is Bodman-Schachen / Löchle.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bodman-Schachen / Löchle comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Next is Schreckensee.
3. Schreckensee
The Schreckensee, the lake of terror, is a disappointingly peaceful place for such a dramatic name. It is a small kettle lake in the moraine country of Upper Swabia, between Ravensburg and Aulendorf, left behind when a block of glacial ice melted at the end of the last Ice Age. Its shores, now partly bog and reed bed, hide the remains of prehistoric settlements, and it is one of the German sites in the UNESCO listing of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. As at most of these sites, nothing is visible on the surface; the timbers and household waste lie preserved underwater and in the peat, waiting for future archaeologists.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 103 km into the recorded legs you reach Schreckensee. Next is Ödenahlen.
4. Ödenahlen
The Federsee basin in Upper Swabia is one of those landscapes that hides its importance. It looks like a flat expanse of reeds, wet meadows and woodland around a shrinking lake, but beneath the peat lie dozens of prehistoric settlements, preserved because the bog kept the oxygen out. Ödenahlen is one of these sites, a Neolithic village on the edge of the moor, and the Federsee settlements are part of the UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Wooden floors, house walls, wheels and everyday objects have been excavated here, and some of the oldest wooden wheels in Europe come from this region.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ödenahlen, about halfway. Next is Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura.
5. Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura
Forty thousand years ago, someone sitting in a cave above the Ach valley carved a tiny woman out of mammoth ivory, and someone else made a flute from the wing bone of a griffon vulture. Both were found in the Hohle Fels near Schelklingen, a few kilometres from where you are standing, and they rank among the oldest figurative art and musical instruments ever found. The caves of the Ach and Lone valleys were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2017 as the Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura, and they changed how archaeologists think about the first modern humans in Europe.