Wollmatingen-Langenrain and Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Wollmatingen-Langenrain

   Konstanz is the German city that sits on Switzerland's lap, so close to the border that the two towns, Konstanz and Kreuzlingen, run into each other with a fence in between. The old town lies on the narrows between the Obersee and the Untersee, the two halves of Lake Constance, where the Rhine leaves the lake, and it has one of the best preserved medieval centres in southern Germany. Its survival has a simple explanation: it was not bombed in the Second World War, partly because of its closeness to neutral Switzerland. In the early fifteenth century, it hosted the Council of Constance, which ended a split in the Catholic Church and condemned the reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415.

   Read the complete Wollmatingen-Langenrain write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Wollmatingen-Langenrain is where the day begins. Next is Sipplingen-Osthafen.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Sipplingen-Osthafen comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen. Next is back through Sipplingen-Osthafen.

4. 4. back through Sipplingen-Osthafen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sipplingen-Osthafen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Sipplingen-Osthafen, late in the day. Next is Wollmatingen-Langenrain.

5. 5. Wollmatingen-Langenrain

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Wollmatingen-Langenrain write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Wollmatingen-Langenrain. That is the ride.