From Weizen-Bier to vino rosso: Over the Alps from Munich to Venice by bicycle and train

Obviously you can, if you want,  swing your leg over your mountain bike at Munich Airport, tighten your rucksack and set off on stony trails toward Italy across the Alps, risking life and limb on MTB routes, but the good news is that you don't have to bounce around on single track trails to get from Munich to Venice by bike. There is a signposted road and cycle path route with the option of taking the train up the Brenner Pass by train or bus. This means that all of us have the option to make what may well be the trip of lifetime through three countries, with two languages and through three climate zones. It is 560km (350 miles) from Munich to Venice via Innsbruck and the whole trip can be cycled in about a week though you may want to take more time. There is information available on:

•  www.tirol.at/a-muenchen-venezia The English version of the tirol.at website does not mention the Munich - Venice route at all, however the German version has downloadable gps and gpx tracks bottom right.
•  www.muenchen-venezia.info, but the English language portion is largely in German. Persevere and you can get some information. You could also use Google Translator to get more information. 
• http://www.italybike.info/en/cycle-holidays/munich-venice/  This website is the best laid out of these three websites and gives you all you need to know about the route. It is a commercial site for companies offering guided and self-guided tours. You can book the whole trip for about 800 Euros per person from Munich to Venice for an eight day trip. This is the comfortable option.

You may choose to use the information on the websites to organise your own trip. There are youth hostels and B&Bs along much of the route, which could cut your costs considerably.

Bike transport by bus in Germany

As we have written before the German Government recently liberalised the long distance bus market and there has been an almost textbook increase in the number of services. The ADAC, the German motor club, and Deutsche Post are offering a joint service from 1 October onwards. The first route will be from Munich to Cologne, via Stuttgart and Mannheim, or Nuremberg and Frankfurt and Bonn. Tickets for the whole route from Munich to Cologne cost from €28. The free luggage allowance is a piece of hand luggage and a hold bag. Extra luggage including bicycles cost €10 per item. The buses take longer than the train, are cheaper and offer free WLAN.

Future services (from 1 November ) are

• Bremen - Hamburg - Berlin
• Cologne - Dortmund - Hannover - Berlin 
• Berlin - Dresden - Leipzig 
• Frankfurt - Würzburg - Nuremberg - Munich

There is more information on http://www.adac-postbus.de/ (in German).

Cycling in Munich

We spent ten days shepherding or at least helping to shepherd seventeen North American cyclists along the Romantic Road and returned home via Munich. There is normally a good rail link between Füssen, the end of the Romantic Road and Munich, but it seems to our fate that part of the route is under reconstruction. It was true this time and was true the last time. There was a bus connection between Füssen and Obermarktdorf.
The cyclist arrives in Munich and wants to see the sights of Munich without his bike. Munich is a typical big city and leaving a valuable bike anywhere is not a good idea. The Hauptbahnhof, central station offers no facilities for bicycle parking. This is madness of course, but since when has a shortly to be privatised industry worked in a sensible manner? You can take it with you, but the Deutsches Museum, the Hofbräuhaus or even the much more ethnic Augustiner Beer Hall don't like you taking a bike in their hallowed rooms.
One cure might be to nip into the Radius Tours Bike Rental enclosure opposite Platform/Track 32 and hire a bike. You can then leave your expensive light tourer there and take off on a three gear bike, which is a lot less attractive to the light fingered. Radius Tours offer a wide range of tours in Munich and Southern Bavaria in addition to hiring out bikes.