Cyclist- and bicyclist-friendly accommodation in Europe

We wrote about the German Cycling Club's BettundBike.de/en website earlier, in 2013. It is an excellent website offering lists of cyclist-friendly accommodation (Hotels, pensions, guest houses, youth hostels camping sites) in Europe. The idea has spread into neighbouring countries.

In addition there are other sources of information in websites listing cyclist-friendly accommodation:

• Austria Vienna Wien.info has 130 cyclist friendly hotels/pensions/guest houses on its books.
• Belgium 
• Flanders http://www.visitflanders.co.uk/discover/flanders/cycling-flanders/bed-and-bike/index.jsp lists 300 places to stop, that offer all that that warms the heart of the touring cyclist.
• Wallonia An Internet search did not reveal any website offering information about cyclist-friendly accommodation in the French speaking province of Belgium. 
• Croatia There seems to be no specific information available on cyclist friendly hotels but on the other hand we suspect that all the hotels in Croatia are cyclist-friendly.
• Denmark The http://cyclistic.dk/en/ website has lists of cyclist-friendly accommodation in Denmark.
• France In our experience all French hotels are cyclist-friendly and with one exception over about 35 years of cycling in France, we've always had somewhere to lock our bikes away, in the countryside in sheds and in the cities conference rooms or unused offices. 
• Netherlands The http://www.allefietserswelkom.nl/kaart shows a map of the Netherlands with accommodation marked. By clicking on the map one links to the hotel and hostel websites. The website is in Dutch, but the accommodation websites often offer an English version. 
• Poland There seems to be no specific information available on cyclist friendly hotels but on the other hand we suspect that all the hotels in Poland are cyclist-friendly. There are links to accommodation on http://www.poland.travel/en/cycling/cyclist--environmentalist/. 
• Switzerland Check out http://www.veloland.ch/en/accommodation.html

Bicycle Hire in Travemünde

Travemünde is the port of Lübeck and lies on the German Baltic coast. There are many cycling routes and a lot of cyclists so it is a safe place to cycle. The area is relatively flat. Across the River Trave on the other side of the hamlet of Priwall is the border with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of the new German provinces. Until 25 years ago the Iron Curtain ran here. To the east there are miles of little developed beaches to swim from and sunbathe on. They are not developed because the former GDR government discouraged access to the Baltic to prevent people escaping the country. However being Germany there are a number of kiosks along the cycle route set back from the beach selling snacks, beer and coffee. The cyclepath, a former DDR border police track, runs along the coast to the northwest of Travemünde linking a number of small seaside resorts. We were in Travemünde recently and found two cycle hire shops one in the town and one across the river in Priwall.

Fahrradverleih Bruders, Mecklenburger Landstraße 14 23570 Travemünde/Priwall Tel: 04502/5340

Hire bike per day  6.00€
1 week                  25€
2 weeks                 45€
Children's bikes     Half price
Bollerwagen         3€ per day

Das Fahrrad  -  Moorredder 15  -  23570 Lübeck- Travemünde  -  @Mail: Fahrrad-Spuida@web.de  Telefon/ Fax: 04502-3550

Hire bike per day	6.00 €
1 week	35.00 €
2 weeks	60.00 €
Child's bike 18" - 24"	4.00 €
Child's seat	2.00 €
Tandem	12.00 €
Bollerwagen*	2.00 €
Pedelec	18.00 €

*Bollerwagen are small, rubber tyred, four wheeled wagons to take all the family needs to the beach:

Why should I ride a bike regularly and leave the car at home?

There are all sorts of reasons:

• Financial Reasons: Bike riding is cheaper. An expensive bike costs five thousand Euros. You can purchase a new reasonable bike for between five hundred and a thousand Euros. A decent two or three year old second hand car will cost you a lot more. 
• Cycling is as quick: Bike riding is as quick as a car over shorter distances, if not quicker, if you take the time to find a parking space for your four wheeled vehicle in to consideration.
• Health Reasons: Bike riding is healthier. 
• Environmental Reasons: Bike riding is better for air quality because you are cleaning the air rather than filling it full of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric and nitrous oxides, lung clogging unburnt tar particles, etc. etc. However you should then try to get out of town now and again to give your respiratory passages a chance to recover.
• Patriotic Economic Reasons: Motor cars and bikes need oil to power them. Although Britain does still have North Sea oil, it has imported more oil than it has exported since 2003, so if the country can reduce its appetite for oil, it will spend less money abroad and so improve the balance of payments. Cyclists don't use much oil, so every kilometre you can ride on a bike or walk instead of sitting in a car is good for the nation.

German cycle route signposting, an apology!

Over the years I have complained about the German habit of putting small square shields with an arrow and a bike logo at right angles to the direction of travel as intermediate signposts on cycle routes. It is not always possible to decide which route these signs refer to or which direction you are following. However we recently cycled across a local forest in the dark and it was pitch black. It was very spooky with odd souls (walkers) and dogs with glowing eyes appearing suddenly out of the gloom.  We have decent lighting and could follow the path, but was it the right one? We were both very pleased to see the bike logo and arrow signs shining brightly in our headlamps at junctions.

Ground Effect yet again!

The regular reader of this column will have noted that we are fans of Ground Effect, a Kiwi bike clothing company. I was amused by their image film on their first twenty years. Click on http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/video/259/products-that-bombed to check it out.

Safer tram lines part II

VBZ, the Zurich transport authority has carried a long term test on its tramline modification to make tramlines safer for cyclists in operation for about a year now and has found that the rubber inserts work well, but they are not stable enough for long term use. (See our blog from 9 November 2013.) Further work will be carried out to develop a more stable filling.

What to do in Berlin: Cycling the Mauerweg (Berlin Wall Route)

The route is 160km (100 miles) long. It mainly asphalt and therefore good for cycling. The route has been divided into fourteen stretches between seven and twenty-one kilometres long. A city tour leads from the Eastside Gallery via Checkpoint Charlie to Potsdamer Platz and then via the S-Bahn (suburban railway) to the Berlin Wall Memorial in the Bernauer Straße. People who witnessed the wall and its building lead tours with "Berlin on bike".
Links: www.visitberlin.de, www.berlinonbike.de