My Alps and Eastern European wander - July / August 2025

[Fluffmeister]

"Riding" day 14

Up bright and early, loaded the bike, and enjoyed Claudia's stern rebuttal and espresso expertise then headed back over the Stelvio .....again, and heading for the Top Mountain motorcycle museum on the Timmelsjoch, then onto Telfs for the night, staying at a new modern hotel called Harry's Home, which had secure underground parking and was a 5 minute walk into the centre of Telfs itself.

About 206 miles in total, and here's the route

And here we go with some pictures

Caught again in the same spot by Kanyarfoto



Cutting back over Umbrail


Heading up the Top Mountain Cable Car



Top Mountain cafe for lunch


And wandering around the museum


The hotel appeared to be aware of the type of character I am, and had thoughtfully arranged these sex doll's outside my room for me




So after this little jaunt, it was time to swing North and start heading home for the ferry, I'd head up through Trier as I'd like to take another look around there, call in at Dortmund to say hi to my sons girlfriend and check out the latest exhibits at the modern gallery she is a digital media creator for and onwards to Europoort and home.

 

[Fluffmeister]

So Homeward bound, got up nice and early and hit the road at about 7:15Am, I wanted an early start as I'd packed a fair bit in. I was heading out from Telfs via the Fernpass and over to Sonthofen, I vaguely remember the B199 being half decent from when I lived down there, and Guru Gora reminded me by one of his trip reports that the B308 dropping into Sonthofen was a great road to. Sonthofen has one of the Held factory stores so I stopped off there and bagged a new pair of gloves and some other bits and bobs at a bargain price.

From there I broke with tradition and use the Autobahn to get up to Sinnsheim to have a quick blat around the Technik museum and into Heidlberg for the night. After Heidlberg, I was up the next day, and headed up to Dortmund to check out the exhibition at the gallery, Phoenix des lumiere, which was an old steel mill and blast furnace, now converted to a digital art installation where my sons girlfriend is one of the two digital artists that put it all together. The gallery also just happens to be right next door to he local brewery The Bergmann Brauerei, so we had a sociable drink before I headed to an NH Hotel for the night, again with secure parking.

Phoenix des Lumières | Digital & immersive art center in Dortmund

Discover Phoenix des Lumières, a digital art centre offering immersive and digital exhibitions in Dortmund. A unique artistic experience.

www.phoenix-lumieres.com

The following day, I headed off for the ferry, I went via the old Roman city of Xanten near Oberhausen, and made the pilgrimage to Louis Megastore in Tillburg before heading onto Europoort for the boat home.

Here's a bit of a mashup of pictures in the next couple of posts of the trip back to the ferry and some of the bits and bobs on the route.

The B308 into Sonthofen





Heidelberg Castle


More Heidelberg


There's a big old steak under those chantarelles


Inside the gallery and the Rousseau exhibit

 

[Fluffmeister]

And from Sinnsheim Technik Museum

 

[Fluffmeister]

And finally, back to Europoort and home for tea and medals

Thanks for looking everyone, hope it may be useful to someone and you've enjoyed my meanderings.

Old Roman city of Xanten, just outside Oberhausen





The Breda Panther










And Scrubbed up nice and clean back at home




I'll work out some more detailed stats for the trip for anyone interested, in total though it was approximately 3500 miles, I was incredibly lucky with the weather as I only had two days of rain on the entire trip

Thanks again for looking

 

[Tinytim]

And finally, back to Europoort and home for tea and medals

Thanks for looking everyone, hope it may be useful to someone and you've enjoyed my meanderings.

Old Roman city of Xanten, just outside Oberhausen

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The Breda Panther

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And Scrubbed up nice and clean back at home

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I'll work out some more detailed stats for the trip for anyone interested, in total though it was approximately 3500 miles, I was incredibly lucky with the weather as I only had two days of rain on the entire trip

Thanks again for looking

And thanks again for taking the time and making the effort to post up. Thoroughly enjoyed it ta.

 

[Von Stolberg]

Ssssshhhhhh Dont tell anyone about Sonthofen .................................. Oh shit!!!


No pics of Claudia???

Top quality trip, nice one!

 

[GTMorgan]

Great read and photo's, thoroughly enjoyed every post, thanks for sharing. I feel inspired to explore more, rather than just heading to the same old places.

 

[NeilDD]

Cheers Fluff, enjoyed that

 

[Guru Gora]

Good stuff.

Don’t tell anyone about the Joch Pass…….

 

[Justin]

Really enjoyed that, brought back lots of memories.
Thank you

 

[HGS]

Great report...Thank you
Do you have a route for the trip abck to the coast as per posts #62 / 62 ?

 

[Fluffmeister]

Great report...Thank you
Do you have a route for the trip abck to the coast as per posts #62 / 62 ?

I have, I will grab them off MRA, they do have a chunk of Autobahn in though as I was on the way back and trying to get to the bit's I wanted to visit.

 

[HGS]

Thank you....thats great
No problem with autobahn....it's more for the places in the pictures. I'll have a faff around with it
The Austrian...Italian ....Swiss bit are for me to sort a trip in 2026

 

[Fluffmeister]

Will post the final bit up tomorrow mate, been out most of the evening. I can see about exporting the waypoints with the locations in gpx format if that helps?

 

[HGS]

Brilliant...thank you

 

[Fluffmeister]

Brilliant...thank you

Here we go mate, this was my route from Telfs to Heidelberg, calls in at the Held Flagship store in Sonthofen, Sinnsheim Technik Museum and ends at Central Hotel in Heidelberg

Nothing special about this one, It just comes from Heidelberg to the Gallery, Phoenix des Lumiere and the Bergmann Brauerei, which is a good place for a break as they sell direct, and have alternating food trucks for food

And the bit from Dortmund to the Roman city at Xanten, The Panther at Breda and Louis at Tillburg to the ferry

Some more info on Xanten, it's well worth a visit for a couple of hours and has a really good restaurant built into the old Roman stables, and of course a gladiatorial arena It is a world heritage site, and more or less on the route back to Rotterdam. It's really impressive for any history buffs.

Welcome to the LVR-Archaeological Park Xanten! - APX

apx.lvr.de

Also on the route is a McDonalds at Best on the outskirts of Eindhoven, now I'm not suggesting stopping there for a lavish meal, but if you've not heard of it before, it has a very "unique" feature outside, and it's next to a Shell station avoiding motorway fuel prices. You have probably heard of it or seen it on your travels, but it is quite "unique" ................... (eeeeeeeehooooooo, shamone, moonwalk)

Hope this helps out.

 

[Fireflyer]

View attachment 465445

Next couple of days will be chilling out, get the luggage off the bike and have a play over Stelvio and mooch around Lake cancano and the surrounding area's

I'll be back

Great ride report

Slight off track question, how do you rate the DUSC side cases from sw-motec?
Haven’t used hard panniers for years as not a big fan of the scaffolding involved but I’m being tempted by their system of quick release carrier racks allowing for a much lighter look when you don’t need them.
Shame the bike specific set up for yours seems to still use an offset with smaller pannier on the right side even though it appears that the box wouldn’t be affected by the exhaust?

 

[Fluffmeister]

Great ride report

Slight off track question, how do you rate the DUSC side cases from sw-motec?
Haven’t used hard panniers for years as not a big fan of the scaffolding involved but I’m being tempted by their system of quick release carrier racks allowing for a much lighter look when you don’t need them.
Shame the bike specific set up for yours seems to still use an offset with smaller pannier on the right side even though it appears that the box wouldn’t be affected by the exhaust?

Mines not offset mate, it's got 2 x DUSC 33 litres on (It's just my bad photography)




I'll see if I've got a better picture. I really rate them, so much so I've switched out the Shad top box for a 41 litre DUSC. I only had 2 days of rain, but it was biblical, and they were totally waterproof. They are very easy to mount and remove, and if anything happens like a drop, you can buy the corners, handles etc all as spares
(don't ask how I know )



What I really do like though is the ability to take the scaffolding off in 5 minutes, and they even supply a tool with the racks to do it

My only gripe, and it is very minor, is the lid straps, the little plastic things that support the lids when opened sometimes trap when closing the lid, only tends to happen when fully loaded, and easy just to check and poke in if it happens. They are light, strong, 100% waterproof and well made with all the spares available if needed.

The Man Cave Moto youtube channel still has a functioning affiliate link for 10% off the DUSC kit direct from Motech with his review video

https://sw-motech.co.uk/?ref=MANCAVE

 

[HGS]

Here we go mate, this was my route from Telfs to Heidelberg, calls in at the Held Flagship store in Sonthofen, Sinnsheim Technik Museum and ends at Central Hotel in Heidelberg

Nothing special about this one, It just comes from Heidelberg to the Gallery, Phoenix des Lumiere and the Bergmann Brauerei, which is a good place for a break as they sell direct, and have alternating food trucks for food

View attachment 466073

And the bit from Dortmund to the Roman city at Xanten, The Panther at Breda and Louis at Tillburg to the ferry

Some more info on Xanten, it's well worth a visit for a couple of hours and has a really good restaurant built into the old Roman stables, and of course a gladiatorial arena It is a world heritage site, and more or less on the route back to Rotterdam. It's really impressive for any history buffs.

Welcome to the LVR-Archaeological Park Xanten! - APX

apx.lvr.de

Also on the route is a McDonalds at Best on the outskirts of Eindhoven, now I'm not suggesting stopping there for a lavish meal, but if you've not heard of it before, it has a very "unique" feature outside, and it's next to a Shell station avoiding motorway fuel prices. You have probably heard of it or seen it on your travels, but it is quite "unique" ................... (eeeeeeeehooooooo, shamone, moonwalk)

Hope this helps out.

Much appreciated

 

[Fireflyer]

Mines not offset mate, it's got 2 x DUSC 33 litres on

Ah, optical allusion, unfortunately I think the ones for the 800de are going to be the odd size set up which was one of the things holding me back even though most tube vids are positive about them.
Think with the final bit of feedback from yourself and the discount steer I’ll bite the bullet and give them a try as planning a trip with daughter in tow and don’t think my soft luggage is going to cut it for the make up bag

Thanks for the report and info