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.
From Bern it runs 159 km to Bern; allow about 3 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Lobsigensee, Vingelz / Hafen, Strandboden and Chenevières de Guévaux I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The ride follows Emmental Panorama Road for 20 km.
For about 23 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.
Bern does not shout. The Swiss capital sits on a sandstone spur in a tight loop of the green Aare, with six kilometres of arcaded streets that let you walk the whole old town in the rain without getting wet. It was founded in 1191 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, and legend says he named it after the first animal he killed hunting nearby, a bear. The bears have been the town's mascots ever since, and a few still live in the BärenPark down by the river at the end of the Nydeggbrücke.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Berne is where the day begins. Next is Lobsigensee.
Lobsigensee is a tiny lake, barely more than a pond, hidden among fields and woods on a low hill above Aarberg in the Bernese Seeland. It is a nature reserve, ringed with reeds and alder trees, and it is home to frogs, newts, dragonflies and birds. It also hides one of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage sites: the remains of Neolithic settlements along its shore. There is nothing visible on the surface, but the quiet, green setting gives a sense of what the landscape might have looked like thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Lobsigensee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lobsigensee comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vingelz / Hafen.
Biel and Bienne are the same city, one name in German and one in French, and street signs, conversations and even jokes switch between the two languages without anyone noticing. At its western edge, the lakeside district of Vingelz, with its small harbour, has given archaeologists remains of prehistoric pile dwellings in the shallow water of Lake Biel, and the site is one piece of the World Heritage property for pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake, long and narrow, lies at the foot of the Jura mountains, and its shores have been inhabited for thousands of years.
Read the complete Vingelz / Hafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 41 km into the recorded legs you reach Vingelz / Hafen. 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.
Strandboden, about halfway. 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 sits at 72 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Strandboden comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vingelz / Hafen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vingelz / Hafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vingelz / Hafen. Next is back through Lobsigensee.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lobsigensee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lobsigensee, late in the day. Next is Old City of Berne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 159 km.
Old City of Berne → Lobsigensee is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lobsigensee → Vingelz / Hafen is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vingelz / Hafen → Strandboden is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Strandboden → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → back through Strandboden is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Strandboden → back through Vingelz / Hafen is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vingelz / Hafen → back through Lobsigensee is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lobsigensee → Old City of Berne is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.