Appenweier, Feldberg, Lake Constance, 10 Days

You make your own way to Appenweier, the starting point of the loop. If needed you collect your rental machine here, meet the hosts and get a short briefing on the route and the stages ahead. The first night is spent at the base hotel.

Via Kappelrodeck and Sasbachwalden along the Baden Wine Route to Baden-Baden, then through Gernsbach to the Rote Lache and into the Murg valley to Forbach, Kaltenbronn, Baiersbronn and Freudenstadt. On through the Kinzig valley with Schiltach and Wolfach, over the Schönberg back to Lahr. Around 240 kilometres between vineyards and forest roads.

Through the Rench and Lierbach valleys you reach Allerheiligen with its monastery ruins and waterfall, before the Schwarzwald High Road invites photo stops at the Mummelsee and the Schwarzenbach reservoir. A short walk leads to the Teufelsloch, then the way runs past the Nagold reservoir through Freudenstadt and Bad Rippoldsau back to base. Around 240 kilometres.

Via Löcherberg, Strittberg and Gscheid you reach Waldkirch and climb the Kandel from the northern side. Through St. Peter and St. Märgen the way continues into the Hexenloch at Dreistegen, then via Furtwangen, Prechtal and Wolftal back to Kappelrodeck and the Hex vom Dasenstein. Around 260 kilometres of bends.

A quieter day through wine villages such as Durbach and Zell-Weierbach to the medieval town of Gengenbach. Past the Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum and the world's largest cuckoo clock you continue to Triberg with its waterfalls and on to the clock museum in Furtwangen. The B500 panorama road brings you to Titisee and Schluchsee. Around 230 kilometres.

The day opens at the Brigach spring, runs to the Martinskapelle where the Breg rises, and through the Bregtal to the source pool at Donaueschingen. On to the Danube sinkhole and the Danube gorge with its high limestone walls, before the Aachtopf, the largest spring in Germany, brings the vanished water back to the surface. Around 300 kilometres.

A full day devoted to the peaks of the Black Forest: Belchen at 1,414 metres, Blauen, the Feldberg as the highest point at 1,493 metres, Herzogenhorn, Schauinsland, Silberberg, Stübenwasen and Toter Mann line up one after another. Bend after bend, view after view, around 250 kilometres.

After the volcanic landscape of the Hegau the ferry carries you from Meersburg to Konstanz, past the Gnadensee and Untersee to Stein am Rhein in Switzerland. The day ends at the imposing Rhine Falls before the way runs back to the base hotel on the lake. Around 270 kilometres.

The Hotzenwald offers wildly scenic, gorge-like forest valleys with sheer rock faces, where narrow lanes wind between stream and cliff. From the bare ridgelines, clear weather opens a view across the High Rhine all the way to the Swiss Alps. Around 270 kilometres.

After roughly 2,000 kilometres in the saddle and a great many impressions, the loop ends with everyone making their own way home. Riders with rental machines return them together before heading off separately.