Weier I - III and Egolzwil 3

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Weier I - III

   Just outside Thayngen, almost on the German border, a small wetland hides the remains of Neolithic villages that stood here more than five thousand years ago. The sites known as Weier I to III were built on the edge of a former lake or moor, now mostly filled in, and excavations revealed well-preserved timber houses, tools, pottery and food remains that give a detailed picture of early farming communities. They form part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, though as with most such sites, there is little to see above ground today beyond the landscape itself.

   Read the complete Weier I - III write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Weier I - III is where the day begins. Next is Winkel.

2. 2. Winkel

   Under the calm surface of Lake Zurich, just off the shore at Erlenbach, lie the remains of villages that people built here more than five thousand years ago. The site called Winkel is one of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a UNESCO site of more than a hundred settlements, and here, as elsewhere on the lake, archaeologists diving in the shallow water have found wooden piles, pottery, tools and food remains preserved in the mud. There is nothing to see from the shore, only the water and the reeds, but it is fascinating to think that the people who farmed and fished here in the Neolithic chose the same sunny slope that, thousands of years later, would become known as the Gold Coast.

   Read the complete Winkel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Winkel comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Egolzwil 3.

3. 3. 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

   about 157 km into the recorded legs you reach Egolzwil 3. Next is back through Winkel.

4. 4. back through Winkel

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Winkel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Winkel, late in the day. Next is Weier I - III.

5. 5. Weier I - III

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Weier I - III write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Weier I - III. That is the ride.