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.
204 km from Thayngen to Thayngen, about 4 h 15 of riding. It goes by way of Insel Werd, Monastic Island of Reichenau, Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen and Sipplingen-Osthafen. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 19 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Weier I - III is where the day begins. Next is Insel Werd.
Where the Rhine leaves Lake Constance at Stein am Rhein, a group of small islands sits in the river, connected to the shore by a wooden footbridge, and on the largest, Werd, stands a small chapel surrounded by trees and water. It was here, in 759, that Saint Otmar, the first abbot of St Gallen, died in exile after falling foul of powerful local nobles, and the island has been a place of pilgrimage ever since. Long before Otmar, people lived here too: the islands and the surrounding shores are among the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a World Heritage site, and excavations have found traces of settlements from the Neolithic onwards.
Read the complete Insel Werd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Insel Werd comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastic Island of Reichenau.
Reichenau is a flat, green island in the Untersee, the western arm of Lake Constance, connected to the mainland by a long causeway lined with poplars. A wandering bishop named Pirmin founded the monastery here in 724, and over the next centuries it became one of the great centres of learning and art in Europe, famous for its scriptorium and its illuminated manuscripts. The island's three Romanesque churches survive, and UNESCO listed the whole as a World Heritage Site in 2000.
Read the complete Monastic Island of Reichenau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Monastic Island of Reichenau. Next is Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.
Unteruhldingen is where most people first meet the prehistoric lake dwellers of the Alps, thanks to the Pfahlbaumuseum, an open-air museum of reconstructed houses on stilts standing in the shallow water of Lake Constance. It started in the 1920s and has been adding houses ever since, and walking along the wooden walkways between thatched huts gives you a vivid idea of village life thousands of years ago. The real archaeological sites, like Stollenwiesen just offshore, lie underwater, a series of settlements preserved in lake mud and listed by UNESCO in 2011 as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen, about halfway. Next is Sipplingen-Osthafen.
At Sipplingen the north shore of Lake Constance changes character. The Überlinger See, the long north-western arm of the lake, is hemmed in here by steep molasse cliffs and wooded slopes rising to the Sipplinger Berg, and the village sits on a narrow strip between the hill and the water. Below the surface off the eastern harbour lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, villages of wooden houses built on stilts along the shore some five to six thousand years ago. They are part of the World Heritage site of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Sipplingen-Osthafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sipplingen-Osthafen sits at 75 km, about halfway. Next is back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen comes up about 118 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Monastic Island of Reichenau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastic Island of Reichenau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Monastic Island of Reichenau. Next is back through Insel Werd.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Insel Werd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Insel Werd, late in the day. Next is Weier I - III.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Weier I - III write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 204 km.
Weier I - III → Insel Werd is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Insel Werd → Monastic Island of Reichenau is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastic Island of Reichenau → Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen → Sipplingen-Osthafen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sipplingen-Osthafen → back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen → back through Monastic Island of Reichenau is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastic Island of Reichenau → back through Insel Werd is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Insel Werd → Weier I - III is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.