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 Reinach it runs 369 km to Reinach; allow about 5 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Enge Alpenquai, Hurden Rosshorn, Egelsee and Konstanz-Hinterhausen. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. 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.
For about 50 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.
This part of the ride is 42 km of Grand Tour of Switzerland.
Five thousand years ago, people were building houses on stilts at the edge of lakes across the Alps, and then the lakes rose, buried the houses and kept them almost perfectly in the mud. The remains of these pile dwellings, found in the nineteenth century when a drought lowered the water, include posts, tools, textiles, food and even bread, and they gave archaeologists an extraordinary view of Stone Age and Bronze Age life. A hundred and eleven of the sites, in six countries, were listed by UNESCO in 2011, and the Swiss share is the largest.
Read the complete Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps is where the day begins. Next is Enge Alpenquai.
Zurich's lakefront is one of the most pleasant urban shorelines in Europe, and the Alpenquai, in the district of Enge, is a stretch of it where the city opens up to views across the water to the Alps. On a clear day, especially when the föhn blows from the south, the peaks of the Glarus Alps seem close enough to touch. Under the water off this shore, archaeologists have found the remains of prehistoric villages built on piles along the lake edge, and several of Zurich's shore sites were inscribed in 2011 among the prehistoric pile dwellings of the Alpine lakes. You will see nothing of them from the promenade; they lie in the mud of the lake bed, preserved by the water.
Read the complete Enge Alpenquai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Enge Alpenquai comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hurden Rosshorn.
Where Lake Zurich narrows to a waist between Rapperswil and Hurden, a low peninsula runs out from the Schwyz shore, and at its tip, the Rosshorn, the remains of prehistoric lakeside villages lie beneath the shallow water. People lived here in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, in houses built on wooden piles, and they also built some of the earliest known bridges across the narrows. The site is one of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps that UNESCO listed in 2011, a group of sites that has given archaeologists a remarkably detailed view of everyday life thousands of years ago, preserved in the mud of lakes and moors.
Read the complete Hurden Rosshorn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Hurden Rosshorn. Next is Egelsee.
There is almost nothing to see at the Egelsee, and that is part of its charm. It is a small, reed-fringed bog lake in the rolling Thurgau countryside between Gachnang and Frauenfeld, and under its peat and mud lie the remains of a Neolithic lakeside settlement, timber piles and floor layers preserved for thousands of years because air never reached them. It is one of the many sites that make up the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps on the UNESCO list, and unlike the reconstructed villages you find elsewhere, this one has been left in the ground on purpose. Archaeologists consider the soggy earth the best museum there is.
Read the complete Egelsee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Egelsee, about halfway. Next is Konstanz-Hinterhausen.
There is nothing to see at Konstanz-Hinterhausen, and that is precisely the point. Below the surface of Lake Constance, along the shore near the city, lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings: wooden posts, floors, pottery and food remains preserved in the mud for thousands of years. They are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a World Heritage site that spans six countries and over a hundred locations. Archaeologists dive to study them, but the rest of us have to make do with the view of the lake and a bit of imagination.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen sits at 160 km, about halfway. Next is back through Egelsee.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Egelsee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Egelsee comes up about 224 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hurden Rosshorn.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hurden Rosshorn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 287 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hurden Rosshorn. Next is back through Enge Alpenquai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Enge Alpenquai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Enge Alpenquai, late in the day. Next is Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 369 km.
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps → Enge Alpenquai is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Enge Alpenquai → Hurden Rosshorn is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hurden Rosshorn → Egelsee is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Egelsee → Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen → back through Egelsee is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Egelsee → back through Hurden Rosshorn is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hurden Rosshorn → back through Enge Alpenquai is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Enge Alpenquai → Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.