In the morning we leave Erding on small country roads and first drive through the Hallertau, the largest continuous hop-growing area in the world. Hops have been grown here for 1,300 years! After leaving Upper Bavaria, we enter Franconia.

This area is an archaeological treasure trove, all 12 known fossils of the famous Archaeopteryx have been found here since 1855.

Later we reach the Romantic Road, where we visit the beautiful town of Dinkelsbühl before finally arriving in Rothenburg, probably the most famous medieval town in Germany.

Here you feel like you're in a fairy tale!

Lunchstop at a nice inside garden with Bratwurst and Sauerkraut, we had also one Schnitzel absolutley traditional

Today we drive through a true fairytale landscape to the famous university city of Heidelberg. On the way there we will see castles, palaces, monasteries and beautiful half-timbered villages, but also a lot of quiet, green countryside. Following in the footsteps of Götz von Berlichingen, we drive through his birthplace Jagsthausen, later on Götz achieved great fame by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In the neighboring village there is a magnificent baroque monastery where Götz von Berlicheningen is buried.

After lunch, we descend to the Neckar River, one of the largest rivers in Germany. The hills along the Neckar are dotted with castles, including Hirschhorn Castle, which even has a lovely café and a cozy castle terrace. We stop here once more and then follow the Neckar to Heidelberg.

Today we will travel through the Black Forest and the Rhine Valley to France. From Ettlingen, the route goes steadily uphill through the Albtal valley to Bad Herrenalb. The small town, which originated from a monastery, is located in the middle of seven valleys in the northern Black Forest and invites us to a first coffee break with its splendor of flowers.

We then cross the Murg Valley, where we turn onto the Black Forest High Road. This leads us in beautiful curves up to 1000 m altitude. Lake Mummelsee is the ideal place for our lunch break and a good opportunity to try a local specialty, Black Forest cake.

We continue along forest paths, through small villages and back to the plain, where we pass the Rhine and thus the border with France.

At the end of our day we reach Ribeauvillé, a small typical French village on the edge of the Vosges, where we will spend the next two days.

The glasbottles on the footbridge of Mummelsee, with view to Hornisgrinde today we made a white wall of fog for a better view to us

Its rest day! But this doesn't mean we're not going for a ride, the Alsace with the endless winding roads, less traffic, and beautiful landscapes is an absolute paradise for motorcyclicsts. 

Our first stop is at the National Monument Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg, a castle from the 12. century with a wonderful view down to the Rhine valley and up to the Black Forest. On this half day ride we have spectacular views all over around while having so much fun on the small mountain passes. 

Before we heading back to the hotel, we'll have a look at the cementry and battlefield memorial of WWI that took place here in 1915.

Back at the hotel it's time for lunch, good that Claudia already prepared a delicious picnic in the hotel patio of course with a fresh after ride beer! After a little rest Tom, Claudia, Jim and Dawn going to visit Strasbourg while Bill and Maxine enjoying the little old town of Ribeauville.We admire the awesome gothic sandstone cathedral of Strasbourg, it took 424 years to complete this building, it's the currently second highest cathedral in France but it was the highest building in the world from 1647 to 1874 with the 142m high belltower. After 322 steps to the observation deck we have the best view of the wonderful city of Strasbourg and it's surroundings.

Then we took a walk along the river to petit France area, with nice typical cafes and bars around half timbered houses, at a real cool microbrewery we got a refreshing beer. But this walking around the town also makes hungry, so we went to an traditional restaurant which was in an vaulted cellar, awesome location and great food! With a last drink in a cool bar this day ends.

We're leaving France today, thru the Black Forest enjoying the nice winding roads with a last view to Alsace and the Vosges. There's a little road which brings us to our coffee stop the Hexenlochmühle, a 200 year old mill the only one with two mills in the Black Forest. It's the last chance for a Black Forest cherry cake, or a original cuckoo clock which is made here. 
We ride on the Schwarzwaldhochstaße, having a quick stop at the Rothaus brewery which settled down around 1300 in Grafenhausen, it's an absolute cult beer in Baden-Württemberg. On the bottles label is a blonde girl with a traditional garb holding two beer, so people started to call her "Biergit Kraft" which means "Bier gibt Kraft" in english it means beer gives you strength. But we can't drink one now, Tom has prepared a delicious picnic for us at a great spot in the middle of fields, so we have to ride there! 
After this perfect lunchstop we leave Germany and heading southwards to Switzerland, Schaffhausen is our final stop for this day. The Rhinefall with the castle Laufen is located here, it's one of the third largest falls in Europe. For a perfect end of the day we took a boat ride on it, even we had a dry ride the hole day at the end we're all soaked

From Switzerland to Austria we also pass the little country Liechtenstein today. We start along the Rhine and had a coffee break with a wide view to Lake Constance the Säntis is rising in front of us, the highest alpine mountain of eastern Switzerland, today is a very cloudy day so we couln't do the cable car ride up to the peak. 

Soon we leave Switzerland and stop at the border of Liechtenstein for a picture, we cross this tiny country in a few minutes. The very curvy and narrow roads on Furkajoch are maybe the most challenging part of this tour, with a magnificant view we enjoy a very hot chocolate. Over the great bridge to the Hochtannbergpass we reach the hotel in Hochkrumbach, where Claudia awaits us with a cold boot beer.   

Our last riding day

We start in Hohenkrumbach on 1580 meters altitude, the clouds of the rain last night are slowly moving in between the mountains, which gives us a breathtaking view on our ride down into Lech valley this area is famous for its woodcarvers.
We're following the Lech river until it brings us to the 2nd biggest lake in Tirol, the incredibly lovely cristal clear Plansee with turquoise water we stop here for a picture. Soon we leave Austria and entering Germany to our next stop Linderhof castle the hunting and summer Residence of the Bavarian King Ludwig II. also called the fairy tale King. It was his favorite residence and the only one what he completed (1878). 
But today we're not that lucky with the weather, while we walked around the castle it started raining, but this can't stop us from riding. We ride on, passing the Ettal and getting on the highway to save some time and avoid the traffic around Munich, when we left the highway back on the country roads of bavaria we stop by at a traditional restaurant to warm up for the last kilometers of our trip. We reached Erding dry and happy, that's how we completed the circle through the heart of Europe.