MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN Germany

Riding the Romantic Road by motorcycle means covering the 460 kilometers between Würzburg and Füssen, Germany's most famous touring route since a group of travel agents coined the name in 1950 to relaunch postwar tourism.

The route largely follows an old medieval trade road that once connected central Germany with the south, and today it runs through three walled towns —Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen— almost untouched since the 15th century.

The route ends at Neuschwanstein Castle, built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria between 1869 and 1886, which inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle in 1955. It draws over 1.4 million visitors a year, making it one of the mandatory stops for any motorcycle traveler crossing Bavaria.

Crossing the German Alpine Road by motorcycle means riding Germany's oldest touring route: it was born in 1927 from an idea by physician August Knorz and took its final shape in the 1930s under engineer Fritz Todt.

It runs 484 kilometers from Lindau, on the shore of Lake Constance, to Schönau am Königssee, with the Oberjoch Pass as its roof at 1,178 meters above sea level — the stretch between Bad Hindelang and Oberjoch is, with over 100 curves packed into a few kilometers, the most winding road in Germany.

During the original construction in the 1930s, part of the Weißbach glacier garden was actually dynamited before the project was halted to protect what remained of it, now a protected area.

Climbing the Schwarzwaldhochstraße by motorcycle is the rite of passage for any motorcycle traveler in Germany: the section between Hundseck and Unterstmatt opened in 1930 as the country's first "high road", though the full stretch between Baden-Baden and Freudenstadt —about 60 kilometers— wasn't fully passable until 1952.

The road winds between 800 and over 1,000 meters of elevation, at the foot of the Hornisgrinde, the highest peak of the Northern Black Forest at 1,164 meters, running alongside the Black Forest National Park.

During the Nazi era, the section between Ruhestein and Alexanderschanze was widened (1938-1941) for military-strategic purposes — a fact that goes unnoticed today by riders chasing the B500's chained curves.

Riding the Eifel and the Nürburgring by motorcycle means entering the very heart of world motorsport: the circuit was built between 1925 and 1927 and opened on June 18 of that year with the Eifelrennen, a weekend that kicked off with motorcycle races.

The Nordschleife, at 20.832 kilometers with dozens of chained corners, is the longest permanent racetrack in the world and earned the nickname "Green Hell" from Scottish driver Jackie Stewart after winning the 1968 German Grand Prix in torrential rain and fog.

The B258, which leads to Adenau and the circuit itself, is today the meeting point for motorcycle travelers from across the Ruhr valley, though in recent years the circuit's management has at times restricted motorcycles from the Nordschleife's public tourist laps (Touristenfahrten) for safety reasons — it's worth checking the current status before planning a lap of the track.

Riding the Kesselbergstraße by motorcycle means climbing one of Bavaria's most historic passes: the first road over this saddle opened in 1492 by order of Duke Albrecht IV, and its current layout —just 8 kilometers between Lake Kochelsee and Lake Walchensee— dates from the 1893-1897 reconstruction under Prince Regent Luitpold.

Between 1905 and 1907 the pass hosted car and motorcycle races on grades of up to 21.3%, and it was used again as a race circuit from 1928 to 1935.

Today the speed limit is 60 km/h with a full overtaking ban, and in recent years time-based restrictions on motorcycles have been added after decades of illegal street racing and fatal accidents that left memorial crosses along the roadside — it's worth checking local signage before riding up.

Riding the Moselle Valley by motorcycle means following 208 kilometers of river inside Germany through a region the Romans already cultivated with vineyards more than 1,900 years ago — the poet Ausonius described these hillsides back in the year 371.

The curves link wine villages like Bernkastel-Kues and Cochem, where Cochem Castle, rebuilt in the 19th century on 11th-century foundations, crowns the valley.

Near Bremm, the Calmont trail runs along Europe's steepest vineyard, with grades local guides describe as exceeding 60% — which explains why the Moselle's curves are so tight: the road literally has to climb those hillsides.

Riding the Sauerland and Lake Sorpesee by motorcycle means entering the backyard playground of curves for the entire industrial Ruhr region: the Sorpesee dam was built between 1926 and 1935, stands 69 meters tall and holds back 70 million cubic meters of water across 3.3 km².

Since 2017 the dam has been listed as a historical monument along the region's Industrial Heritage Route, and the roads that wrap around it —narrow, tree-lined and packed with tight curves— are weekend territory for thousands of German and Dutch riders who call the area "the home of curve hunters."

Unlike the Alpine routes, there are no mountain passes here: it's dense forest, artificial lakes and a layout that keeps changing direction, ideal for lightweight and trail bikes.

Riding up to the Brocken by motorcycle —the highest point in Northern Germany at 1,141 meters— comes with a limit that surprises most riders: a paved road runs from the town of Schierke to the summit, but vehicles with combustion engines may only use it with special permission, otherwise reserved for bicycles, hikers and the historic Brockenbahn steam train.

Between 1961 and 1989 the summit was a restricted East German military zone, surrounded by a concrete wall and Soviet and Stasi listening stations; it only reopened to the public on December 3, 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Goethe immortalized the mountain in his 1808 Faust as the setting for Walpurgis Night, the witches' gathering of April 30th — a legend that still lends its name to festivals and tourist routes in the region today.

Riding Saxon Switzerland by motorcycle means crossing what was once a fossilized seabed: the sandstone formations that shape the landscape were deposited during the Cretaceous period and became exposed when the uplift of the Ore Mountains and lateral pressure from the Lusatian Highlands fractured the plateau into a grid of rock blocks and pinnacles.

Saxon Switzerland National Park was created in September 1990, just weeks before German reunification, and protects 93 km² split between the Bastei area and the sector bordering the Czech Republic.

The Bastei Bridge, already a photographed postcard landmark by the early 20th century, is today the mandatory viewpoint over the Elbe valley — the point where every motorcycle route through the region inevitably ends, parking the bike to walk the final stretch on foot.

Riding around Lake Constance by motorcycle means crossing three countries in a single day: Germany, Switzerland and Austria share its 273 kilometers of shoreline, split between the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau and Schaffhausen, and the Austrian state of Vorarlberg.

The lake was formed by the Rhine Glacier during the last ice age, and around 10,000 years ago, as the ice melted, erosion from the High Rhine gradually split it into two sections — the 473 km² Obersee and the 63 km² Untersee.

On Reichenau Island, within the Untersee, the former abbey founded in the year 724 preserves three early medieval churches designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site — a short detour by motorcycle from the shore that's worth taking for anyone doing the full loop.