Finding somewhere to lay your head

I am loathe to mention the products of organisations, other than our own or the one we are writing a book for, but I think I need to make an exception for one series of Esterbauer Books: “Bett und Bike”, which includes Bed and Bike Flandern (Flanders) (ISBN 978-3-85000-255-7). The ADFC, a German cyclist club laid down a list of specifications some time ago for bike friendly hotels. Hotels wishing to join the scheme have to agree to provide lockable bike accommodation, carbohydrate rich breakfasts for cyclists, accept folk for one night, public transport information and other similar things. This does mean that the smaller B&Bs where cheapskates like me prefer to stop, cannot match all of these criteria and so don't appear whereas the major chains and more expensive houses can offer all of these facilities, do. I would personally prefer to include say the hotels/guest houses/B&Bs that take folk for one night and encourage people to offer some of the other facilities. I do have the impression that the ADFC approach is also designed to improve the public image of cyclists as not always stopping in B&Bs and Youth Hostels. The latter however are included in the German volumes. The books cover Flanders, i.e North Belgium, all of Germany and a few hotels in Luxembourg. You can check out the accommodation lists by going to the ADFC website (www.adfc.de) but you will need some German. The Flanders book also does not mention the Trekkershutten which are simple wooden huts with four berths and cooking facilities mainly on commercial campsites. They cost around €40 a night. You need to take a sleeping bag, but that's all. We have used them and they are superb value for money. (www.trekkershutten.nl. Click on the “Zoek een Hut” button to see a map of where the Dutch ones are and then click on the Belgian flag at the bottom to see the ones in Flanders.) Flanders is a great place to go cycling. Lots of history, some but not too many hills and the beer is good too.
The idea has also spread to Switzerland. Veloland Schweiz the Swiss cycling Foundation has produced a similar guide called “Velo & Bett” (ISBN: 3-85932-522-1) covering the whole country. You can find the same information on the Veloland Schweiz website (www.cycling-in-switzerland.ch) as well.