Ostschweizer Wein-Route

Approaching Schaffhausen, the roaring cascade of the Rhine Falls, then a ride through Zurich’s wine country with its timber-framed houses, idyllic and peaceful the tiny Husemersee lake. Soon the wide Thur Valley comes into view with vines growing on its sun-soaked slopes.

The monks who founded the Carthusian Monastery in Ittingen were already familiar with wine growing. It’s still silent in the monks’ former houses, in the convent treasures of the Thurgau Art Museum wait to be discovered. The rattle of the Frauenfeld military training ground is heard from afar, the route leads along the vine-covered Ottenberg through the small town of Weinfelden.

Bischofszell’s historic centre appears austere and cool, on the River Sitter the canning factory clatters, formerly a paper mill, a technical unicum. Golfers too appreciate the Fürstenland’s green plateau with its deeply gouged streams, before cyclists’ minds are Taken over by the bustling industrial corridor between Gossau and St.Gallen.