A ride around Upper Lake Constance

Lake Constance

Before I get into the tour I’ll give you a brief overview about the geographic situation. Lake Constance (external link to wikipedia) consists of three bodies of water: The large Upper Lake and the smaller lower Lake with Reichenau Island (external link to wikipedia) – were I live. They are connected by the third part, the Lake Rhine.
3 countries border on the Upper Lake: Switzerland to the south, Austria to the south west and Germany to the north.

Tackling Upper Lake Constance

I’ve cycled around the Lower Lake several times, which is 80km. With that in mind, I figured I could make a two day trip around the Upper Lake with an over night stay in Bregenz or Lindau, since it’s roughly 180km round trip.
Last year in October I decided to give it a go and see how far I’d come, with the option of returning by ferry or train. I simply started out and I rode 2/3 around the Upper Lake and took the ferry back to Constance. I wouldn’t have wanted to pedal a meter more than necessary.

This year I’ve been commuting to work a lot more and averaged about 50km per day. I felt strong enough for the whole distance around the Upper Lake and with fair weather in the forecast and being on vacation I set out for the ride.

Planing the route

Planing the route was easy enough, since the ‘Bodensee Radweg’ is an established and well marked route around the lake. Still I generated a GPS route on Mapy.cz (great interactive map with marked cycling paths) and downloaded it onto my Garmin GPS. As I found out when I set out to ride, Garmin does not simply import the route as is, but does it’s own take on things depending on which cycling profile you select during import.
No harm done, the route is marked, just follow the signs.

Preparations

For food I packed some energy bars, a bag of gummy bears, a bag of roasted peanuts and some waffles with peanut butter.

For hydration I put a 1 liter bottle with isotonic mix on the bike and collapsible 1 liter in the frame bag. In hindsight, there are so many fresh water wells along the route, that I needn’t had to worry.

On the day before I cleaned and lubed the chain and increased the pressure in the tyres to 3bar. I packed a spare inner tube (although the bike is setup tubeless), some tools, a spare hanger and chain link and I added a feed pouch (repurposed chalkbag) on the handlebar.

Through Switzerland

I started out from Reichenau Island at 9am. Along the causeway to the mainland I could smell the fresh water of the lake. It had rained for a couple of days and the water level was high. You can smell a difference when there is a lot of fresh rain water in the lake.

Constance was a bit busy, but it didn’t take long to cross into Switzerland. From there it’s a handful of kilometers and you’re out in the fields.

The cycling path mostly follows the shore closely and sometimes you have to cross the railway. The route is lined with meadows and orchards and it’s a very relaxed quiet ride.
Last year I went a bit too fast on some stretches, so this time I aimed for 140W NP, which was easy to maintain, since the path has almost no elevation changes.

The weather was perfect: sunny, not too warm with a mild breeze. I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed when I looked across the lake and considered that in a few hours time I’d be looking in the opposite direction.

There were a couple of cyclist heading in the same direction, who were a bit faster than me. I would catch up to them on a traffic light or a railway crossing. It was a great help to have them ahead of me, as I could simply follow their lead.

I cycled past a lot of historic town centers with half-timbered houses, city walls and strongholds. There was a detour because of a festival in Uttwil and some road construction in Rorschach (this is not a test) and then, after crossing a wooden bridge, I suddenly found myself in Austria.

Through Austria

The short stretch through Austria took me mostly through the fields and over the dikes of the Alpine Rhine delta. A Stork was soaring very low overhead and I got a good view of this magnificent animal.

There were some stretches were trees shaded the route, some gravely bits, a turn left, a turn right and just like this I was at the Seebühne in Bregenz (external link to wikipedia). They are playing Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Madame Butterfly’, in case you’re interested. The Seebühne is the largest open-air stage in the world.

Back to Germany

From Bregenz it was a short ride along the waterfront to Lindau. I didn’t notice crossing a border there. What I definitely noticed was the increase in cycling traffic and also in tarmac and concrete, which was a stark contrast to the route so far. There were some short segments with graveled dirt roads lined by allotment gardens. Maybe the rising temperature and the south facing shore line played a role in there too.
Following the Bodensee Radweg through Switzerland and Austria, I found the marking in Germany became sparser. Don’t get me wrong there were plenty of signs indicating cycling paths and signs with directions and distances. But in the other countries they had additional markers for the Bodensee Radweg on every sign.

That is one of the reasons of my involuntary detour and the fact, that my Garmin GPS tried to guide me to ride on the federal highway. So after I went through I crowded pedestrian area (pushing my bike) I found a cycling path sign and followed it… uphill, climbing 130m. At least I found a freshwater fountain and could refill my water bottles. Since my GPS and the signs seemed to guide me away from my intended route, I consulted my smartphone and used it to find my way back to the route.

At this point I felt fatigue creeping into my legs and I knew I still hat at least 60km to ride. I was set to complete the tour and not take the ferry across the lake. The gummy bears helped a great deal. They provided a quick boost for a couple of kilometers. I also ate half of my waffles for a bit more long term energy and topped it all off with some big gulps of water. That did the trick and my legs recovered.

From Immenstaad onward the hills north of the shore got steeper and higher and turned into vineyards. That also meant the cycling path narrowed down and it didn’t help that the weeds growing below the traffic barrier hung over a quarter of the cycling path.

Around the Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen (external link to wikipedia) was a lot of traffic and I took the wrong cycling path (again). Luckily I found one of the rare signs of the Bodensee Radweg and followed it until I found a sign towards Meersburg, from where I came. So I turned around and after a couple of hundred meters there was a sign for a cylcling path in roughly the right direction, which I followed. Somehow I ended up in the same spot where I turned around the first time – again the Garmin was no help and I consulted the Mapy.cz app on my smartphone. Heading due west I managed to get to Überlingen. Last chance to take a ferry.

Home Stretch

Because of my detours the kilometer count was off. When I imported the route, my Garmin said it would be 185km. Part of the remaining route follows my daily commute, which is 25km. Looking west along the shore I could tell I was nowhere near my workplace and my GPS told me I’d already done 160km.

I popped a few gummy bears in my mouth and rode on. Shortly after that I found a sign giving the distance to Contance with 46km, that meant around 40km for me to get home.

Cycling traffic had been decreasing since Immenstaad. There were a couple of hot spot around lidos, but from Überlingen on you could only ride in two directions. The one I come from and the one I was heading to. That made focusing on turning the cranks easy. Past Überlingen, the vinyards gave way to waste orchards again, where the “Bodensee Äpfel” (apples from Lake Constance) are grown.

Finally I rode past my workplace, conquered the last steep climb and then I had only the more or less flat home stretch ahead of me.

On the causeway back to the Island Reichenau I had to evade a Swan, who walked with his chest puffed proudly and the wings slightly spread across the cycling path.

When I pulled up to my front door, the GPS read 199,3km. I shortly considered to do a little loop to complete the 200, but then again I cycled further than ever before and out of 9h 40min elapsed time I’ve been moving 9h 11min. So I saved the track, fished for the door keys in my frame bag and went inside to eat some leftover Shepard pie.

Retrospective

Looking back, I wouldn’t have packed so much food. The roasted peanuts are still unopened and I only ate half of an energy bar. The waffles with peanut butter were tasty, easy to eat and digest. I’d say they provided a good amount of fuel and the gummy bears helped immensely.
Before I started out in the morning I ate a big bowl of cereals. That has always been my go to food ahead of long days in the saddle.

I managed to maintain my set power goal at 142W NP. Throughout Switzerland I was slightly under at 138W and increased towards the end, when the gummy bears boost kicked in. All in all it was a good pace and it got me over the distance. Next time I might increase the goal a bit. With less detours and off route adventuring I should come through quicker and hopefully closer to 185km total distance.

Other than that I wouldn’t change anything. Well aside from making sure the track on my Garmin doesn’t try to guide me onto some busy roads.
I didn’t have a technical failure, the weather was good, not to hot. And so far I don’t have any sore muscles. I mean I feel the fatigue, especially when climbing stairs, but that’s it.

While the last segment was closer to type 2 fun, I enjoyed the tour very much. There were a lot of different landscapes, views, sights, paths and impressions, but the lake was the same.