Leiden → the Alps → Leiden

Day 1 · Mon 24 Aug — Escape day

Leiden → Cochem · 420 km · ≈5 h

A4 and A2 to Utrecht, A67 past Eindhoven, A61 south. Leave the motorway at Koblenz and take the B49 and B416 along the water for the last 50 km.

The only motorway day of the trip. Get out of the Netherlands quickly, then drop into the Mosel and let the pace change.

Day 1 route (GPX)

Day 2 · Tue 25 Aug — Hunsrück and the Wine Road

Cochem → Ribeauvillé · 330 km · ≈6 h

B49 to Kastellaun, over the Hunsrück to Simmern and Bad Kreuznach, then the Deutsche Weinstraße through Bad Dürkheim and Landau. Cross at Wissembourg, over the Col du Pigeonnier, then the Route des Vins south through Barr.

First proper back-road day. Forest, then vineyards the whole way down.

Evening Walk the Grand'Rue. Arrive around five and the old street is yours — the day visitors have gone and the walled centre goes quiet. Thirty minutes end to end at a wander.

Optional Half an hour up the vines. The castle trail leaves from the top of town. You will not reach Saint-Ulrich and back before dark, but twenty minutes up gets you above the roofs with the Rhine plain behind them, which is the view worth having.

Day 2 route (GPX)

Day 3 · Wed 26 Aug — Route des Crêtes into the Black Forest

Ribeauvillé → Schluchsee · 250 km · ≈5 h

Up to the Col du Bonhomme, then the Route des Crêtes south along the ridge over the Col de la Schlucht and the Grand Ballon. Down to Guebwiller, cross the Rhine at Breisach, then Freiburg, the Schauinsland climb, Todtnau, the Feldberg and down to the lake.

Two mountain ranges in one day, with the Rhine plain in between as a palate cleanser.

Day 3 route (GPX)

Day 4 · Thu 27 Aug — Into the Alps over the Klausenpass

Schluchsee → Hospental · 330 km · ≈6 h

South to Waldshut and across the border, then east on back roads through Brugg and Zug, along the Walensee to Linthal. Over the Klausenpass to Altdorf, then up the Reuss valley through Andermatt to Hospental.

The Klausen is the right way to arrive in Switzerland — quieter than the Gotthard, and it drops you exactly where you want to be.

Day 4 route (GPX)

Day 5 · Fri 28 Aug — Three passes, no luggage

Hospental → Hospental · 180 km · ≈4 h

Furkapass, down to Gletsch, up the Grimsel, down to Innertkirchen, over the Susten to Wassen and back up through Andermatt. Ride it in that order and early — the Furka fills with cars by eleven.

Bags stay in the room. The one day in fourteen where you ride purely for the sake of it.

15:30 Schöllenen Gorge. From Andermatt the path drops through the gorge to the Teufelsbrücke, where the old Gotthard mule road crossed. An hour there and back. The noise of the water in the narrows justifies it on its own.

Evening Eat in Hospental. Fewer covers than Andermatt, no queue, and you are already home. Order the Geschnetzeltes.

Day 5 route (GPX)

Day 6 · Sat 29 Aug — Oberalp, Albula, Bernina

Hospental → Bormio · 300 km · ≈6 h

Over the Oberalp to Disentis and down the Vorderrhein to Chur, then Tiefencastel and the Albula to La Punt. Through St. Moritz, over the Bernina, then the Forcola di Livigno into Italy, through Livigno and over the Foscagno to Bormio.

Three of the finest passes in Graubünden in sequence, ending at the foot of the Stelvio.

Day 6 route (GPX)

Day 7 · Sun 30 Aug — Stelvio morning

Bormio → Arabba · 250 km · ≈6 h

Up the Stelvio from the Bormio side, down the 48 hairpins to Prato, then east down the Val Venosta through Silandro and Merano to Bolzano. North into Val Gardena through Ortisei, over the Passo Gardena to Corvara, then the Campolongo down into Arabba.

Leave by 07:30 and the Stelvio is yours. By ten it is a queue of camper vans and the hairpins stop being fun.

Day 7 route (GPX)

Day 8 · Mon 31 Aug — Dolomites on foot

Arabba → Arabba · rest day

Bike stays parked. Two nights in the same bed — the only time on the trip.

The one full rest day left standing, and the right one to keep. Arabba sits at 1,600 m with a cable car out of the village — you are inside the best walking country in Europe and spending it in a helmet would be a waste.

08:30 Porta Vescovo cable car. Straight out of the village up to 2,478 m. From the top the whole Marmolada face is in front of you and the Sella massif behind — the best view in Fodom and you did not have to walk for it.

09:30 Viel dal Pan. The reason to be here, and it starts where the cable car drops you. An old smugglers' path that runs the balcony from Porta Vescovo across to the Pordoi, almost level, at around 2,400 m, with the Marmolada glacier on your right the whole way. Two and a half to three hours, and easy. Take a windproof layer regardless of what it is doing in the valley.

12:30 Rifugio Viel dal Pan. About two thirds along the path. Barley soup, casunziei, a glass of Lagrein, on a terrace at two and a half thousand metres. This is the entire point of the Dolomites — do not bring a packed lunch.

14:00 Sass Pordoi, if the legs allow. The path ends at Passo Pordoi. The funivia there goes to 2,950 m in four minutes — the Terrace of the Dolomites, a flat limestone desert on top of the Sella. Twenty minutes up there is enough.

16:00 Bus back. Dolomiti Bus runs Pordoi to Arabba through the afternoon. Check the last departure before you set off in the morning — they thin out after five.

Alternative The famous ridge instead. Drive or bus over to Ortisei, cable car to Seceda, and walk the ridge with the Odle spires on your shoulder. Half a day, more photographs, more people.

Day 9 · Tue 1 Sep — Sella Ronda, then east

Arabba → Heiligenblut · 300 km · ≈6.5 h

Close the Sella Ronda first — Campolongo, Corvara, Gardena, Sella, Pordoi, back down to Arabba. Then east on the SS48 through Andraz to the Falzarego and down to Cortina, up to Lago di Misurina for the Tre Cime view, north to Dobbiaco and east down the Val Pusteria to Lienz. Over the Iselsberg and up the Möll valley.

Arabba sits on the Sella Ronda itself, so the loop closes without a detour. Still the longest day of the trip and the price of fitting the plan into fourteen — but it ends at the foot of the Grossglockner.

Note If 6.5 hours is too much. Cut the Misurina spur and go straight from Cortina to Dobbiaco. That is 40 km and about 50 minutes back, at the cost of the best Tre Cime view on the route.

Day 9 route (GPX)

Day 10 · Wed 2 Sep — Grossglockner to the Fernpass

Heiligenblut → Füssen · 370 km · ≈8 h

Be at the Glockner toll gate when it opens. Franz-Josefs-Höhe for the glacier, back down over the Hochtor and the Edelweißspitze spur, then Fusch to Zell am See. West along the Salzach through Mittersill to Krimml, over the Gerlos Alpenstraße and down the Zillertal to Jenbach. West up the Inn to Telfs, then Nassereith and over the Fernpass to Reutte and Füssen.

Two of the old days pressed into one. It is the only day on the trip over your seven-hour ceiling, and it is over it by about an hour — see the note below before you commit to it.

Read first This day is about an hour over your limit. 370 km with the Grossglockner in it runs to roughly eight hours in the saddle. Three ways to pull it back: skip the Franz-Josefs-Höhe spur and save 35 km and about 45 minutes; take the Inn valley motorway from Jenbach to Telfs and save another 30, at the cost of your no-motorway rule; or accept it and leave at the toll gate opening. Sunset is around 19:45 in early September, so the light is there.

Midday Twenty minutes at Krimml. The lower basin is a five-minute walk from the car park and gets you the full drop. The trail to the top is two hours — not on this day.

Evening Füssen on foot. Arrive late afternoon and the Lechfall is ten minutes away, the Hohes Schloss courtyard five. Enough for the evening, not for Neuschwanstein.

Day 10 route (GPX)

Day 11 · Thu 3 Sep — Across Germany to the Rhine

Füssen → Boppard · 535 km · ≈7 h

West to Kempten and Memmingen, then the A7 and A8 through Ulm to Stuttgart, the A6 to Heidelberg and the A61 to Mainz — motorway through the middle, deliberately. Drop onto the B9 at Bingen and take the Rhine gorge past Bacharach and St. Goar into Boppard. <b>Alternative:</b> stay on the A7 north from Ulm through Aalen and Crailsheim, stop at Rothenburg, then carry on to Würzburg and pick up the A3 west — about 80 km and an hour more.

A transit day with a good ending. Two thirds of it is fast road so the last 65 km can be the gorge, and so tomorrow is a short one. Rothenburg is still reachable as a mid-day stop if you are willing to make it a long day — see below.

Option Cut through Rothenburg. You do not have to give it up entirely — it just becomes a stop rather than a night. Take the A7 north out of Ulm instead of the A8 to Stuttgart: Aalen, Crailsheim, and the Rothenburg exit is about 12 km from the old town. Rejoin the A7 to Würzburg afterwards and pick the A3 west exactly as planned. Costs roughly 80 km and an hour of riding over the Stuttgart–Heidelberg line, so call it 615 km and eight hours in the saddle.

If you stop Ninety minutes is enough. Park outside the walls — the old town is closed to through traffic. Walk the covered rampart from the Klingentor round to the Burggarten, about half the circuit and 40 minutes, then the Plönlein and the market square. That is the town's best hour. The Night Watchman's tour starts at 20:00, so it is off the table on a day you are riding on to the Rhine.

Timing It makes for a long day. Away from Füssen at seven, Rothenburg by about half eleven, back on the road at one, Boppard around six with fuel and food stops. Sunset is near 20:00, so the light holds — but this turns a seven-hour day into something closer to nine door to door.

From Bingen The gorge is the payoff either way. 65 km of B9 along the left bank, castle after castle, Bacharach and St. Goar with the Loreley opposite. Do not shortcut this onto the A61 — it is the reason the rest of the day is motorway.

Evening Boppard on foot. The Rheinallee promenade is a ten-minute walk from Steinstraße. The Roman fort walls are in the middle of town, and the chairlift to the Vierseenblick runs until early evening if you want the view over the four bends.

Day 11 route (GPX)

Day 12 · Fri 4 Sep — Eifel, Ardennes, home

Boppard → Leiden · 350 km · ≈6.5 h

North-west through Mayen and across the Eifel past the Nürburgring, over to Monschau and Eupen, then through the Ardennes and Limburg. Motorway only for the last hour from Eindhoven.

Back to back roads for the run home, and short enough to enjoy them. The trip ends the way it began, in reverse.

Timing No need to rush. 350 km on back roads is about six and a half hours. Away at nine puts you home for dinner with stops at Monschau and somewhere in the Ardennes.

Worth stopping Monschau. Half-timbered town in a narrow valley on the Belgian border, about two thirds of the way. Twenty minutes on foot is enough and it is the last proper thing you will see.

Day 12 route (GPX)