Riesi and Forêt de la Bettlachstock

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Riesi

   Riesi is a stretch of shoreline at the northern end of the Hallwilersee, a long, narrow lake in the Aargau Seetal, between the villages of Seengen and Boniswil. It is a peaceful place of reeds, meadows and walking paths, and below the water and in the marshy ground lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements, part of the World Heritage list of such sites around the Alps.

   Read the complete Riesi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Riesi is where the day begins. Next is Egolzwil 3.

2. 2. Egolzwil 3

   Archaeologists named a whole Neolithic culture after Egolzwil, a small village in the canton of Lucerne, because the settlements found in the Wauwiler Moos, a former lake turned into peat bog, revealed a way of life older than anything else known in the region at the time. Egolzwil 3, one of these sites, was a village of farmers who lived on the shore of a small lake over six thousand years ago, and it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake was drained in the nineteenth century to create farmland, and the remains were preserved in the wet peat.

   Read the complete Egolzwil 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Egolzwil 3 comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Burgäschisee Ost.

3. 3. Burgäschisee Ost

   Burgäschisee is a small, quiet lake on the border between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, surrounded by reeds, woods and farmland. It would be easy to ride past without noticing, but it holds a secret: along its shores, archaeologists have found the remains of Neolithic villages built on piles, dating back more than five thousand years. The eastern shore site, Burgäschisee Ost, is one of the components of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site, listed by UNESCO in 2011. There is nothing much to see on the surface, as the remains lie underwater or in the soft ground, but the peaceful setting makes it easy to imagine the wooden houses, canoes and fishing nets of those early farmers.

   Read the complete Burgäschisee Ost write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Burgäschisee Ost. Next is Forêt de la Bettlachstock.

4. 4. Forêt de la Bettlachstock

   Above the watchmaking towns of Grenchen and Bettlach, the first chain of the Jura rises like a wall out of the Aare plain, and on its steep southern flank grows the beech forest of the Bettlachstock. In 2021 it became one of the Swiss components of the UNESCO Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a serial site that stretches across the continent to show how beech spread after the last Ice Age. What makes this patch special is that it has been left largely to itself for decades, on slopes so steep and rocky that nobody bothered to log them hard, and so the trees grow old, fall, rot and feed the next generation.

   Read the complete Forêt de la Bettlachstock write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Forêt de la Bettlachstock, about halfway. Next is back through Burgäschisee Ost.

5. 5. back through Burgäschisee Ost

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Burgäschisee Ost write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Burgäschisee Ost sits at 122 km, about halfway. Next is back through Egolzwil 3.

6. 6. back through Egolzwil 3

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Egolzwil 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Egolzwil 3 comes up about 157 km into the recorded legs. Next is Riesi.

7. 7. Riesi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Riesi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Riesi closes the day.