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Travel Blog · Motorcycle · Adventure

By motorcycle
to the edge of Europe

Seven months, a tent and a fully loaded motorcycle. In 2022 I rode from Germany all the way up to the North Cape, on through the Baltics and back home again.

Why I travel

Not to arrive –
but to be on the road.

Why put yourself through it? A tent instead of a hotel, rain instead of a couch, days without seeing a soul… Honestly? That is exactly why. On the bike I am part of the landscape, not just a spectator. I feel every drop in temperature, smell the forest after the rain, and when the evening sun sits over a fjord, that moment belongs to me alone.

No tour operator, no hotel, no fixed route – I just ride until I find a spot I like, pitch the tent and see what happens. And honestly: the best stories happen exactly when nothing goes to plan. That is what I try to capture here – raw, honest and unfiltered.

7Months on the road, non-stop
71°NNorth Cape reached
8Countries on the route
18Travel journals on the blog
GermanyDenmarkSwedenNorwayFinlandEstoniaLatviaLithuania→ and back

The motorcycle

Triumph Tiger 800 XC

My trusty companion: a Triumph Tiger 800 XC, built in 2012. Not a high-tech toy, but an honest travel enduro that simply runs – even after tens of thousands of kilometres, gravel roads and days of rain. The three-cylinder sounds like nothing else and carries the tent, the luggage and me reliably to the edge of Europe.

799 cc inline three-cylinderEngine
approx. 95 hp at 9,300 rpmPower
approx. 79 Nm at 7,850 rpmTorque
approx. 215 kg wetWeight
19 litresTank
21″ front / 17″ rear, spokedWheels
switchable (XC)ABS
2012Year

Manufacturer figures, rounded · model year 2012.

Triumph Tiger 800 XC from 2012, fully loaded with travel luggage at the harbour

„The core of the human spirit comes from new experiences.”

Cedric Hildebrandt

Motorcycle in front of a Norwegian fjord landscape on the way to the North Cape

Photo & Film

Between fjords and the midnight sun

The camera is always with me. What drives me is not the kilometres but the moments: the light over a Norwegian fjord, a coffee in the rain, people you only meet because you travel slowly. As a photographer and filmmaker I try to capture exactly this feeling of travel.

Next chapter

2023: Further east – all the way to Georgia.

I will be adding that stage here soon.

Let’s go

Ready for the journey?

Grab a coffee, lean back and come along for the road north.

Motorcycle journey 2022 · Germany → North Cape → Baltics → back · on a Triumph Tiger 800 XC · Photography & travel stories by Cedric Hildebrandt