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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Morges it runs 268 km to Morges; allow about 4 h 37 of riding. It goes by way of Port-Conty, Old City of Berne and back through Port-Conty. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 70 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
On a calm morning the lake off Morges is as flat as polished pewter, with the Savoy Alps on the far shore and Mont Blanc floating above them, and it is hard to believe that anyone ever had to fight for this view. Yet people have been living right here for millennia. Just off the shore, in the shallow water near the town, lie the remains of prehistoric villages built on piles, the Stations de Morges, one of the Swiss components of the UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Divers and archaeologists have mapped wooden posts and objects from the Bronze Age, but from the shore you will see only water, swans and the occasional paddleboarder.
Read the complete Stations de Morges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stations de Morges is where the day begins. Next is Port-Conty.
Under the shallow water off Port-Conty lie the remains of villages that were built on stilts more than five thousand years ago, and you will see none of them from the shore. The site, near Saint-Aubin-Sauges on the north-western side of Lake Neuchâtel, is one of the many locations in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Archaeologists have found posts, tools, pottery and remains of food preserved in the lake mud, painting a picture of Neolithic and Bronze Age communities who farmed, fished and built their houses along the water's edge.
Read the complete Port-Conty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Port-Conty comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old City of Berne.
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.
about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach Old City of Berne. Next is back through Port-Conty.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Port-Conty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Port-Conty, late in the day. Next is Stations de Morges.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stations de Morges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Stations de Morges. That is the ride.
Stations de Morges → Port-Conty is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Port-Conty → Old City of Berne is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old City of Berne → back through Port-Conty is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Port-Conty → Stations de Morges is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.