The digital SPEZI Germersheim 2020 on your PC

We were very disappointed that the real actual SPEZI has been cancelled. We have been going since before 2005. I was looking forward to talking to HP Velotechnik and having serious discussions about the Gekko trikes we have bought recently. I am not alone in missing SPEZI. We took the trikes for a run over the border in Baden-Württemberg on Sunday afternoon and a passing Hase Pino captain shouted, "We'd rather be at SPEZI." He left with a traditional Mannheim cyclists' farewell, "Next year in Germersheim!"

A popular event even ten years ago

 

Social distancing was never going to be easy

Serious discussions

There's a digital SPEZI exhibition with a link from https://www.specialbikesshow.com/welcome-to-the-spezi.html under a big green button until the end of May. When you click on this you are transferred to the German website: https://virtual.spezialradmesse.de/virtual-spezi-2020.html#top.  If your German is not up to much it's a bit awkward, but… The first thing you will notice is a overhead photograph of the bus station in Germersheim which is used as a trike/bike demonstration arena during SPEZI. The German instructions tell you to "NACH UNTEN SCROLLEN", i.e. Scroll down. Do that! You can watch a short film of the Hase-Bike team singing "Happy Birthday" to SPEZI. This was to be the 25th SPEZI. I don't suppose the video will make the charts, but it sums up the friendliness and informality of the event. At the bottom of the page there is a blue banner with a number of boxes. Clicking on these leads to the "AUSSTELLERN" - the exhibitors, the "VORTRAGEN" - the lectures, the FANSHOP and a galler of photgraphs from the first ten years of the exhibition. Click on AUSSTELLERN to find a page showing the exhibition hall with box entitled "NACH UNTEN SCROLLEN". Do that and scroll down the page to see a list of all of the exhibitors who were taking part, at least up to the date when SPEZI was cancelled. Some of the exhibitors have contributions in English. They are well worth looking at. Each exhibitor has a box with name upon it and if you click on these they turn blue. The box then displays a lower box entitled "MEHR". Click on this and you are transferred to the exhibitor's contribution. (Much of this information is actually published in the lower part of the english language page.)

AUSSTELLERN (Exhibitors) with english language videos

AZUB has an image film showing a AZUB Ti FLY X full suspension trike with all 26" wheels racing round a forest. This has no commentary. For me it looks like an interesting trike to scare oneself half to death. I must admit AZUB would be on my list of folk to contact if I came up on the lottery. Course, I would need to buy a lottery ticket first and I suspect I'm too mean.

Bernds  the German folding bike company shows a film about cycling around the Bodensee (Lake Constance) which perfectly understandable without German and very jolly to boot.

HP Velotechnik has a film by the Laidback Bike Report discussing the new range of Gekko trikes.

ICE (ICLETTA) distributors of ICE trikes, TerraCycle recumbent accessories has a gallery of ICE trikes underway. The company sells lots of weird trike gear and clothing for trikes that is probably the answer to many of those problems that seem unsolvable.

Podbike has a short film about this unusual velocar, narrated by the owner of the company. 

RadicalDesign is showing a film about a Brompton folding bike carrier bag that you can use as a rucksack to schlepp the bike. The rucksack can be folded and used as a daypack when it's not carrying the bike. The film also shows covers for velomobiles, special covers for use on cargo bikes and a tadpole trike garage.

Santana's film shows how to disassemble a Santana tandem to pack into the company's flight case.

Utopia a manufacturer of ergonomically designed bicycles, pedelecs and recumbent bikes, cross frames, trailer, and accessories has a film in English about the company showing how the bikes are manufactured. It looks at the beginning like it might be in Spanish. It is in English with Spanish subtitles.

Velo:RE has a film about making belts from cast off bike tyres.

Ventisit makes padded seats for recumbent seats and also lots of other non-cycle seats. Once I have uploaded this blog I am going to write to the company and buy a new seat for my Gekko.

VORTRÄGE (Lectures)

There are two lectures in English. „Cycling without age“ is about an organisation that takes older folks out on Rickshaws. The other is a lecture about the Sun Trip 2018 –  12.000 km through 10  countries in 100 days using muscle power and Solarenergy. Initially it's a film of a lecture but they then show a film about their trip. Great stuff. These characters are to be admired. They built a back to back tandem trike where the captain steers and pedals and the stoker uses a rowing rig. We, my wife and I, had a reputation for mild eccentricity in the company I worked for, because once we cycled over the Alps to Lago Maggiore. In comparison to these two we were just making an adventure out of going the baker's round the corner. 

The FANSHOP
The shop shows a number of souvenir articles. You can browse through these and if you want a description in English, then cut out the descriptions and paste them in Google Translator. If you want to buy something and I must admit, the Swiss cowbell strikes me as a good solution to the problem of cycling on mixed cycling/walkers' paths. The walkers will notice you are there. However the pries shown include postage and packing within Germany, but not abroad, Drop the organizers a line in simple English and tell them what you want. They will then inform you of the increased costs for postage abroad.

 

Is the Netherlands a paradise for cyclists?

From time to time I spend a modest amount of time watching "Tim's Trike Trips" on YouTube. Tim cycled the Ronde van Nederland - Tour of the Netherlands  in 2018. The 1400km route follows the Dutch border all the way round the country and follows the North Sea in the west. It crosses the Afsluitdijk, the 19-mile (31km) dam that encloses the IJsselmeer. The cycle route on the dam is closed at present because of maintenance work on the dam and will remain closed until April 2022. In the Netherlands cyclists are considered to be important members of society and so the Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch Water Authority) has laid on a free bus that will take 15 bikes and 25 people across the dam  in both directions. There is a slight fly in the ointment. The maximum size of bike allowed on the bus is 0.8m wide and 1.90m long. However the Dutch authorities recognise that others ride larger vehicles - trikes for example and offer an additional service to carry wider or longer cycles. One needs to contact the Rijkswaterstaat at least two days before the service is required to book a special vehicle. This is amazing, in my opinion.

Human powered trike hire in continental Europe

Although you can hire bicycles and even e-bikes in most European cities and towns, very few shops or organisations offer trikes for hire. We have looked at the rental market for trikes and there are not many companies offering trikes for a one or two week period. Some shops really only offer trikes for hire as a way of letting the customer try a various models for a few hours to help in deciding which trike to buy. We will not list these organisations, just the ones we think offer a week's hire. We do not recommend any of these companies nor does omission from this list imply any criticism. The majority of the websites are in a foreign language. If you don't read this language use a translation app to convert the text into something that is similar to english. In any case it is not possible to pick up a trike in one shop and drop it off somewhere else, so you will need to plan a circular route. BTW if you wish to put the trike on a train, make sure it is a foldable trike, because continental railways will not carry unfolded trikes. If you try to smuggle the trike onto a train, Murphy's Law means you will meet a jobsworth who will throw you off the train at the next station. AZUB, HPVelotechnik and ICE offer foldable trikes. If you wish to hire a trike and do not speak the local language write to the company of your choice in simple English to reserve your trike/s.

The following companies offer trike rental for more than one day.

Locations
If your European geography is not up to much, use Apple or Google mapping apps to find the locations.

GERMANY

LLR Lausitzer Liegerad GmbH, Frank Budich, Dorfstraße 18,  01968 Senftenberg / Niemtsch, Tel: +49 (0)160 350 2949, Email: info @ lausitzer-liegeradverleih . de (Leave out blanks), Website: http://www.lausitzer-liegeradverleih.de (in German), Brands: ICE, KMX, We have no information about prices. The Lausitz lies between Dresden and Cottbus near the German - Polish border with good access to the River Spree, the Oder - Neise cycle route and extensive landscaped lakes formed from opencast mining sites. 


Ostsee3rad, Olaf Reinike, Lindenweg 41, 23974 Alt Farpen, Tel: 0151 50589799, Website: https://ostsee3rad.de (In German), Email: info @ ostsee3rad.de (Leave the blanks out!), Cost: 25-50€/day, 125-250€/week, 70-100€/additional week, Brands: Anthrotech, Hase, ICE, KMX,
Pick up and drop off of the trikes from a railway station:
ostsee3rad will deliver trikes to the mainline station in Wismar and pick them up at the end of your tour. This service is free of charge for a rental period of at least five days. The company can also transport your luggage to your hotel. Price on application.
One way trips:
The company is prepared to pick up trikes and their riders either after a day trip or a longer several day tour along the coast. Costs on application.


mietrad.de, Schillerstraße 43 - 45, 27472 Cuxhaven, Tel.: 04721/554100, Website: https://www.cuxhaven-mietrad.de/, Email: info @ mietrad.de (Leave the blanks out!), Cost 20€/day. Discount for multiday hire, Brand: Hase


Tetrion Spezialräder, D-46537 Dinslaken, Tel: +49(0)2064-472566, Website: http://www.tetrion.de (in German), E-mail: tetrion @ tetrion . de (Leave the blanks out!), Brands: Flux, Flevobike, Hase, HP Velotechnik, KMX, ICE, AnthroTech, Traix, No information about prices.


TRAIX CYCLES, Dortmunder Str. 1, D-48155 Münster, T: +49 (0)251.20891037, Fax: +49 251.20891039, http://www.traix.de (In German and English, but there is no mention of trike hire in the english version, E-mail: info @ traix.de (Leave the blanks out!)  Cost: 12-85€/day, 60-425€/week, Brands: Hase, HP Velotechnik, ICE, KMX. With 4500km of cycle ways, nine major cycle routes and some of the cyclist friendliest towns and cities in Germany the Münsterland is one of the best places to cycle in the country.


VELOCITY Stahlroß Fahrradladen GmbH, Belderberg 18, 53111 Bonn, Tel.: (0)228 / 981366-0, Website: www.velo-city.de (in German), E-Mail: miet-me@velo-city.de Cost: 30€/day, 60€/weekend, 120€/week, Brands: Hase, HPVelotechnik. Hire period limited to one week, which if my calculations are correct, is enough time to cycle the ca. 400km from Bonn to Aachen via the Rhine and Ahr Valleys and the Vennbahn followed by a trip back across country to Bonn, as long as your leg muscles are up to the mark.


VMW VeloMobilWerk, Sebastian Kittlitz, Dorfstr. 36, 85435 Erding Tel.: +49 (0)8122-558860, Fax: +49 (0)8122-558861,
Radhaus Erding, Sebastian Kittlitz, Landshuter Str. 39, 85435 Erding, Tel.: +49(0)8122-9660064
Website: http://velomobilwerk.de/ (in German),  E-Mail: info @ velomobilwerk.de, (Leave the blanks out!), Erding lies north of Munich. The area offers extensive cycle routes. VMW offers KMX and Sinner trikes with and without electrical assistance for 30 Euros a day.


Zweirad Heins,  Beckersbergstrasse 78, 24558 Henstedt Ulzburg, Tel: +49 (0)4193 / 758423, Website: www.zweirad-heins.de (in German), E-mail: info @ zweirad-heins . de (Leave the blanks out!), Cost: No information, Brands: Hase


NETHERLANDS


Cycling in the Netherlands is superb, but flat and windy with great cycling facilities and signposting. I always feel like taking the various European Ministers of Transport and of Health there and "Look, this is how it's done! This is how you get people cycling."


Advanced Cycle Engineering, Weurden 60,  Winterswijk 7101 NL,  Tel.: +31 543530905, Website: www.ace-shop.com (in English, Dutch, German), info @ ace-shop.com (Leave the blanks out!), Cost: Trike 40€ / day, E-Trike 61€ / day, Discount for multiday hire, Brands: Hase, HPVelo, ICE, Winterswijk is just over Dutch-German border on Rhine Plain west of Münster, Germany. With 4500km of cycle ways, nine major cycle routes and some of the cyclist friendliest towns and cities in Germany the Münsterland is one of the best places to cycle in the country.



Maia Dordrecht, Stevensweg 79a, Dordrecht, 3319AJ, Tel.:  +31 78 616 6302, Website: www.maialigfiets.nl (in Dutch), E-mail: info @ maialigfiets.nl (Leave the blanks out!), Cost: 39.50 - 69.50€ / day Discount for multiday hire, Brands: AZUB, Hase, HPVelo, Dordrecht is near Rotterdam.


Maia Leiden, Energieweg 67, Zoeterwoude, 2382ND,  Tel.: +31 71 203 7999, Website: www.maialigfiets.nl (in Dutch), E-mail: leiden @ maialigfiets.nl (Leave the blanks out!), Cost: 39.50 - 69.50€ / day Discount for multiday hire, Brands: AZUB, Hase, HPVelo, Leiden is between The Hague and Amsterdam


FRANCE


Roulcouché, 32 bis-34 rue de la gare, 775 80  Guerárd,  Tel.: +33 (0)164047332, Website: www.roulcouche.com, E-mail: info @ roulcouche .com (Leave the blanks out!), Cost: First day 40-50€, Following days 20-30€, Brands: AZUB, Hase, Guerárd is 45km east of Paris.

Cyclist-friendly accommodation in Europe

This list is intended to help you find databases giving cyclist-friendly accommodation in Europe:

Germany the ADFC cycle club set up one of the first databases showing cyclist friendly accommodation: www.bettundbike.de in German only.

Austria - In 2013 the Radtouren cooperative project was started with the support of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Vienna. Information on cyclist-friendly Radhotels are available at https://www.radtouren.at/en/cycling-accommodation-providers/ in English and other languages.

The Czech Republic - based on Bett + Bike. Accommodation is accredited by tourist authorities and must meet certain minimum criteria http://www.cyklistevitani.cz/Uvod.aspx in Czech, English and German.



Denmark - https://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/bedbike-0 

France - The https://www.francevelotourisme.com/contenus/preparation-et-conseils/accueil-velo/searchpoi_view website offers information about the Accueil Vélo (Welcome Bicycle) project. It is of course all in French.

Italy - Hotels and guesthouses can register on an internet list.Approximately 1000 houses are represented. The hotels and guesthouses describe themselves as cyclist-friendly. The accommodation is not checked and certified. http://www.albergabici.it/en/ in English.

Luxembourg - LVI the Luxembourg cycle club has certified "bed + bike accommodation”. It uses the same logo as the ADFC website and the same criteria. www.bedandbike.lu in French and German.

Montenegro - the first accommodation with the "Montenegro Bed & Bike" sign on the door was located along the national "Top Trails" in the north and the central region of the country. In addition to the well-known bed + bike standards, there are other services such as free jersey washing, luggage transport, booking of the next accommodation and other useful ideas. www.bedandbike.me I am tempted to go, but as the boss just said, “It’s a long way to go just to get your shirt washed.”.

Netherlands - Try https://www.hollandcyclingroutes.com/practical/cycle-friendly-places-and-lodging

Norway - Check http://www.cyclingnorway.no/en/cyclist-welcome/

Slovenia - There is cyclist-friendly accommodation: Hotels, B&Bs and campsites in Slovenia, but you will need to contact the National Tourist Organisation to find out more: www.slovenia.info

Switzerland - Cyclist-friendly accommodation can be found on www.veloland.ch. Hosts must meet certain minimum criteria, which are very similar to those of Bett + Bike

River Cruising coupled with bicycling

River Cruising is a fast growing tourist activity in Europe and several companies specialise in combined cycling and cruising holidays with a wide range of prices. As usual you get what you pay for. Some companies offer barge trips wheres other companies have larger cruise ships.
A sample of the type of trips available:
Aktieve Vaarvkanties offers barging and biking tours in the Netherlands / Bavaria, Germany  / Lorraine, France on a converted barge that takes eighteen people in nine double cabins with ensuite facilities. 

Aktieve Vaarvkanties

Barend Visserstraat 9
8861 HB Harlingen 

T: +31 6 22418892

info@actievevaarvakanties.nl http://www.boatandbike.eu/ 

Arosa offers bicycle day excursions (surcharge) on its river cruise ships: https://www.a-rosa.de/en/river-cruises/index.html.

Bicycle Tour Europe offers barging and biking tours in the Netherlands / France / Belgium on a converted barge that takes sixteen people in eight double cabins with ensuite facilities.
www.Bicycle-Tour-Europe.com | P/O Bo 1097, Postalcode 1000 BB, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Bike & Barge Holland Tours offers barging and biking tours in the Netherlands / Germany (Bremen-Berlin) on a converted barge that takes twenty-eight people in fourteen double cabins with ensuite facilities.

Address:
13440 179th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052-1103, USA

Phone:
425.636.8071
800.437.4771

Email: tours@bikebarge.com

http://bikebarge.com/index.php

European Waterways Ltd offer barges for charter by small groups.
European Waterways Ltd 
The Barn, Riding Court
Riding Court Road, Datchet
Berkshire, SL3 9JT
United Kingdom
http://www.gobarging.com/cycling-cruise

Bicycle-Tour-Europe offers week long trips in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours has partnered with Trek Travel to offer guests bicycle tours on Europe itineraries.
Guests aboard the seven-night, all-inclusive Bike & River Cruise sailings will be able to enjoy Trek Domaine 5.9 carbon road bikes on explorations that range from 15 to 60 miles with daily route support and experienced bicycling guides. These tours come in addition to those which Scenic already provides and are available from May to September on the Gems of the Danube and Rhine Highlights itineraries.
Gems of the Danube, aboard Scenic Amber, allows cyclists to ride through Furth and Erlangen, sampling local beers, the vineyards of the Wachau Region, the Vienna Woods, and Budapest’s Buda hills and its architecture. Non-cycling tours include a walking tour of Cesky Krumlov or Salzburg, a Budapest city tour or thermal baths, and spa experience and a Scenic-exclusive concert in Palais, Liechtenstein. Prices start at $6,499 per person per double with departures on May 10, 22, and 31, June 26, July 26, and August 30.
The Rhine Highlights, aboard Scenic Jewel, visits four countries. Highlights for bicyclists include cycling through the Alsace wine route for tastings of Rieslings and Pinot Gris, the Rhine Gorge with its scattered castles and vineyards, the bike trails of Cologne, and Amsterdam’s countryside for a cheese-tasting tour. Non-cycling tours include a Scenic-exclusive private tour and classical concert at the Baroque-period Mannheim Palace, a “Sweet Tastes” tour of Heidelberg, and a trip to the fairy tale town of Cochem. Priced from $6,599 per person per double, departures take place on June 12, August 16 and September 13.
Scenic Space-Ships offer private butler service, unlimited complimentary beverages and spirits, full-size private balcony staterooms, Scenic Tailormade handheld GPS guided tour systems provided to every guest, and up to six dining options.
Visit www.scenicusa.com

Public holidays and weather in Europe

I have spent many a pleasant hour or so reading "Crazy Guy on a Bike" - a website run as a place where cyclists can recount their adventures and pick up advice where to stop, cycle, eat or find the best beer in town (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com). Recently I was looking for information on cycling in the Netherlands and North Germany. Various of the articles mentioned difficulties with finding accommodation, somewhere to eat, shopping and the weather. I suspect there a few steps to take and a few facts to realise before you swing your leg over your bike and set out for the European Continent.

• Accommodation: Check out accommodation before you go. Either use a search engine to find tourist office websites along your route, try to go to a tourism fair, check out our "Cycling in Europe entry" entitled "Cyclist- and bicyclist-friendly accommodation in Europe" or drop a line to the national tourist office of the country of interest. 
• On the web you may well need to wade through a number of hotel booking websites to find an official tourist office website, where you can also find B&Bs and or holiday flats. You can also try using Name of City.de or .dk or .fr,  etc. which will lead to the official sites. There are also regional tourist offices. Checking these sites will give you a feel for the average price of accommodation in the towns and villages on route. 
• If you are writing to the national tourist offices, once you get the addresses of the regional or city offices write to them. Normally you will be showered with information. Read it all. As an example, we found some years ago that the average price of hotels in a string of French towns could vary by up to 50%. This will also give you a feel for how much accommodation is available. This will help you save time when looking.
• Once you are underway, if you are not booking ahead, try to start looking for somewhere to stop at 16:00 (4 o'clock). You will rarely find anything at a reasonable price much later.

• Eating: If you find a place way out in the country that is super remember you might want to eat in the evening and if the house concerned is 5 or 10km from the near restaurant or inn, that's what you will need to cycle to get some food. It might be worth enquiring whether your landlady can prepare you an evening meal.

• Public Holidays: These are taken more seriously than in the UK. Shops and tourist offices will be closed on these days. Public transport will still run, but may be with a restricted service.  It is definitely not like the UK where shops are open on public holidays, so make sure you have enough supplies. Public holidays do not match those of your country.

• The weather: It can be as cold and wet in the Netherlands as it is in East Anglia, so take appropriate gear.  The wind is your constant companion in the Netherlands, Denmark and much of Northern Germany. If you are cycling in hilly country you are unlikely to climb more than a few thousand metres per day, i.e. hills come to an end sometime, however a continental head wind can last several days and can easily reduce your normal speed by 20 or 30%. The prevailing winds come from the west. Bear this in mind when you are route planning. Just as an example if you want to cycle along the Elbe then cycle upstream with the prevailing wind behind you, rather than cycling downstream. The major continental rivers have few gradients along much of their routes. 

Cycling in Amsterdam

Cycling in Amsterdam is like cycling in any major city with the exception that the city has more cyclists than you can imagine and about 400km of cycleway. There are parked bikes everywhere you look, fastened with one or often two heavy chains to street furniture. There are manned bike garages at some railway stations where you can leave your bike guarded or have it serviced while you travel up to town. Fietser (cyclists) zoom round the city, scattering all before them, up and over canal bridges, the only hills this side of Nijmegen, in their own lanes. Most of the bikes are Oma fiets (grannie bikes) single or three geared sit up and beg vintage 28” wheeled transport machines, some with just back pedal brakes. Second hand bikes are easy to come by. You can pick them up at street markets along with the important heavy duty chains. These bikes are real beasts of burden. We have seen them carrying a week’s shopping, one or two children, cellos or lawn mowers.

At rush hours the cycle lanes resemble the Charge of the Light Brigade. If you are a pedestrian crossing a zebra crossing as soon as the lights change you need to pick up your feet and run. Nobody wears a helmet apart from the shaven legged men and women on road bikes, often carbon fibre sculptures costing several thousand Euros. Nobody includes another problem on these cycleways, the Broomfietser (scooter or mopeds). These characters weave their way across the city, ignoring red lights, speed limits and pedestrians. In spite of the 400 km of cycleway some cyclists will jump a red light, cycle the wrong way down a road or across pedestrian zones to save a few seconds. It makes a pedestrian’s life interesting. After a while I developed paranoia both about cyclists and the expletive deleted Broomfietser. It probably kept me alive though. If it sounds like chaos it is, but it works. Bike traffic flows and in the main most of the cyclists are good humoured. 

We didn’t cycle when we were there. The friends we met there, were worried by the sheer volume of two wheeled vehicles. If you ever decide to cycle there, the best advice we can give you you is to get off the cycleway when you decide to stop to look in a shop window or your knowledge of Dutch will increase by leaps and bounds. 

Bike Hire in Amsterdam

Obviously in a city where 60% of all journeys are made by bicycle, it is easy to hire a bike in Amsterdam. There are bicycle hire companies all over town. These bikes are well maintained and prices are roughly the same. Competition is such that companies offering poorly maintained or expensive bikes would rapidly go out of business. Practically all of these hire bikes are brightly coloured and bear an advertising slogan or logo from the shop or hotel they were hired from. There is however at least one exception:

Bike City

Bloemgracht 68-70
1015 TL AMSTERDAM (Across the Prinsengracht canal from the Anne Frank House on a side canal.)
Telephone: 020 626 3721
Fax: 020 422 3326
Website: http://www.bikecity.nl 

For city use this company rents out black solidly built three and seven gear city bikes with two hand operated brakes. You are indistinguishable from local cyclists. The three gear bikes can be hired from upwards of half a day. The seven gear city bikes are slightly sportier, intended for use farther afield and have a minimum hire period of two days. The company does offer some slightly cheaper single gear bikes with coaster or back brakes which are adequate, as long as you are used to riding this type of bike. 

Bike City also has ten aluminium framed Hybrid Bikes with a minimum rental period of a week which are a cross between a mountain and a city bike that come with Ortlieb panniers front and back, 28" wheels, an eight speed derailleur, a 5-function speedo, lighting front and rear, SPD combi pedals, a bottle holder, a pump, toolkit and 2 locks. (Bike theft is a major industry in the Netherlands, so make sure you lock your bike to something substantial before leaving it, no matter who you hire from.) If you are holidaying in Europe and want to have a week or so's cycling, then you can hire the bikes, pack the panniers, leave your suitcases behind and set set off to explore Holland from the Rhine delta around Rotterdam and Maastricht in the south up to Groningen in the north. Cost in 2015 is 172.50€ for the first week and 22.50€ a day after that. You have to return the bikes to Amsterdam. You will need to pick up your cases anyway.

A disclaimer just for the record: We have no connection with this company and have received no payments either in cash or kind for this blog. I was very impressed by the company's website when we were planning a trip to Amsterdam with friends. For various reasons we did not do any cycling when we there, but as our friends were stopping nearby we visited the shop and I talked to the one of the team. 

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

"Cycling the River Rhine from Basel to the North Sea"

The book is finally there,  on Smashwords.com or on your local Amazon site. The book costs US$8.99.

Low life in Dordrecht

On our recent research trip for the new edition of Rhine 2 from Emmerich to Hoek van Holland we had noticed that our maps were out of date and so I nipped into the VVV information centre in Dordrecht to buy more up-to-date maps to check the routes when we finally finish the book. While I was away Judith chatted up a bicycle policeman and asked him about bike theft. He replied that Dutch roadsters were a favourite of Dutch thieves. "Odd or special" bikes like our Bromptons were not of interest to the bike thieves. They were too difficult to get rid of. The reverse is true in London.  Bromptons are standard bikes there and seem to be very high on thieves' hit lists.

Judith experiences the long arm of the law.

Cycling in the Netherlands

If you would like to read a description of one of our typical research trips to prepare a new cycle guide, then check out  http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Rainydays.

Bicycle Hire in Dordrecht, Netherlands

The bike shop at the bike parking facility at the NS railway station in Dordrecht hires bikes. Single gear bikes cost 7.50 Euros a day. Three gear bikes 9.50 Euros a day. E-bikes cost 20 Euros a day. More details on the website. The hire information is in English.
Bike Totaal Zwaan, Stationsplein 6,  T: 078 635 6830,  www.czwaan.nl

Maia Ligfietspunt
Stevensweg 79a
3319 AJ Dordrecht
T: 078 - 616 63 02,  06 – 209 28 962
E: info@maialigfiets.nl This company offers a wide range of recumbents, recumbent trikes, tandems, bakfiets cargo bikes and even conventional bikes for hire. The website http://maialigfiets.nl is in Dutch. Look for "verhuur".

The VVV Zuid-Holland Zuid Tourist Information has e-bikes for hire. Spuiboulevard 99, T: 078-632 2422,  www.vvvzhz.nl

Booking a self-guided bicycling holiday in Europe

Two German companies have done what we suspect should have been done for years. Various companies in Austria and Germany offer cycling holidays, but their publicity materials are in German.  
Radweg-Reisen  offer self-guided tours for English speakers in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands on amongst others the :

• Altmuehl Cycle Path,
• Drava Cycle Path,
• Rhine Cycle Path Mainz-Cologne,
• River Main Cycle Route,
• The Weser Cycle Path,
• The Loire Valley Castles.

Radweg-Reisen GmbH, Fritz-Arnold-Straße 16a, D-78467 Konstanz, Germany,
Phone +49-(0)7531-81 99 3-0, www.radweg-reisen.com

The Mecklenberger Radtour company (http://www.mecklenburger-radtour.de/en/cycling-holidays)  offers guided and self-guided tours for non German speakers all over Germany and Austria. It is well worth checking out if you would like to tour by bicycle in either of these cyclist friendly nations.
If you fancy cycling in Europe but are worried about the language, booking hotels, finding a hire bike and/or planning routes then try one of the holidays offered by these companies. The prices seem reasonable to us.

Good Ideas for Bikes in Cities: Cycling after illness

In the West at least people are living longer, but not always that healthier, so there is a need for new and modified bicycles and tricycles to solve problems caused by disability.

• Heavy Pedals Lastenrad Transport- und Verkauf OG in Vienna (www.heavypedals.at) construct a cargo trike that will carry a wheelchair. The company offers courier services in Vienna and sells and has a range of cargo bikes and trailers for hire. 
• Anton Wiegers builds recumbent bikes and tandems, including the Janus Tandem where the captain and stoker face in different directions. He also constructs kits (Opus 3) to modify bicycles to be used as tricycles in cases where illness has removed balancing capabilities. He usually has a number of bicycles available that can be hired for a (half) day trip. If you fancy especially whizzing around quiet country roads backwards give him a call to book an appointment and to ensure that the bicycle of interest is available. Altena-Bike, Anton Wiegers, Korn 19, 4271 BM Dussen, NetherlandsT: 031 (0)416-391420 Email: info@altena-bike.nl Web: www.altena-bike.nl (In Dutch but much of it is understandable)
• In about a months time SPEZI Special Bike Show in Germersheim will be opening its doors (26-27 April 2014). The exhibition is good place to talk to experts about special bikes or trikes. Many of the major constructors are present. 

An excursion from Kleve

We have written about knooppunts, a grid based navigation system for cyclists in the Netherlands, in the past. We mentioned as well that some of the German communities on the Dutch borders have invested in this type of waymarking. These include Emmerich and Kleve both of which are on the Lower Rhine. Kleve is well known to the British because of its connections to Anne of Cleves, one of Henry VIII's wives. However the town has connections to another European blue blooded family: Orange Nassau the Dutch royal family.
The tourist office in Kleve has laid out the 53km circular Oranierroute starting in the Tiergartenstraße  following: knoopunts 26 - 4 - 3 - 88 - 86 - 80 - 81 - 80 - 85 - 10 - 25 - 32 - 31 - 6 - 30 - 96 - 81 - 94 - 5 - 26. If you follow this tour you can visit the Huis Bergh chateau, one of the biggest  in the the Netherlands, climb to vantage point to look across to Kleve, take a barefoot walk, have a short ferry trip to Millingen aan de Rijn before returning to Kleve. There is no shortage of cafes along the route. There is a website: www.kleve-tourismus.de where you can download a flyer in German about the route. A word of warning though the map is rather indistinct.

Cyclist friendly accommodation in the Netherlands

We are beavering away trying to get our updated, revamped Rhine 2 Cyclists' guide from Basel to Hook of Holland finished. For various reasons it is unlikely that we will be able to cycle from the German-Dutch border by Emmerich to Hook of Holland to check the route this year, unless global warming means that November is very warm and lack of global warming means the month is gale free. What we have decided to do is to prepare the book by working out a route using the knooppunt system. Dutch cycling facilities are so good that we don't need to go there to check the route.
We still need accommodation lists and were pleased to find the Fietsers Welkom! website published by Fietsplatform (Dutch cycling platform). This is an  “umbrella-organisation” (public-private partnership, foundation)bringing together the Dutch tourist’ union ‘ANWB’, the Dutch cyclist’ union ‘Fietsersbond’, the Union for cycle-touring clubs ‘NTFU’ and the national organisation for the cycling industry in the Netherlands ‘RAI’. With the support of the national and regional authorities Fietsplatform tries to improve the facilities for recreational cycling/ cycle tourism in the Netherlands.
The Fietsers Welkom! website is very similar to the German Bett und Bike website published by the ADFC and the Luxembourg bed + bike website published by the LVI. Landlords agree to the following conditions:

• Open from May / September, at least five days a week from 11:00.
• Campsites set aside an area for cycle tourists.
• Hotels, B&Bs and campsites accept guests for one night.
• The hotels, B&Bs offer a locked bicycle garage.
• Simple tools and puncture repair outfits are available, as is obviously, a first aid kit.
• Cyclists can refill their water bottle for free.
• Bike maps are available for inspection and/or on sale.
• Batteries of electric bikes can be recharged for free.
• Wet clothing is no problem. The hotels,  etc. offer a dryer or drying rack.

On first inspection the Fietsers Welkom! website is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It offers a searchable map of the Netherlands with accommodation, knooppunt and the Dutch long distance cycle routes. It is in Dutch, but it is obvious how you use it, just go to 'Kaart'.

I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the search engine could do with tightening up. It is possible to search an area by entering its name, but if the name of the place you are looking for, comes in the title of the accommodation or in the address, one is overwhelmed by a flood of several hundred addresses, most of which are false. Try looking for "Hoek van Holland", for example. One finds 860 addresses. Cut the search item back to "Hoek" and you still find 60 addresses. If I remember rightly "hoek" means "corner" in Dutch. In such cases you will need to look on the map and click on the hotel or campsite symbols. You can zoom in and out of the map. It would be a good if there was a scale on the map to estimate distances.

If you are touring in the Netherlands you can download an App from iTunes for €2.69 both for navigation and finding accommodation. I haven't tested this because we don't have an iPhone. 

Hiring e-bikes

We have a problem at present. We want to finish our new e-book version of "Rhine 2"covering the Rhine from Basel to Rotterdam. Our printed version is now both out of date and print, but does still attract orders via older versions of the website (www.bergstrassebikebooks.com) which can be found on mirror sites in the Internet. We do have the upstream version "Following the Rhine gently upstream Rotterdam to Basel, a Cycle Tourist’s Guide" available from Smashwords and Amazon, which will be updated this winter.
The problem is that we need to cycle about 280km across the Netherlands from the German border to the Hook of Holland. We cannot do this until the middle of November.  In the Netherlands November means gales from the west, the way we want to go. To be sensible, we need an e-bike each. We can hire them, but of course when we are done we will need to return the bikes. This means a train journey with changes. Do the operators on the Dutch railways offer accompanied transport of e-bikes? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could hire a bike in Arnhem or Nijmegen and drop it off in Rotterdam? It is possible to hire bikes in cities in Switzerland and drop them off elsewhere in Switzerland. We have two possible cures:

• We could persuade Batavus or Gazelle to lend us a bike each for the publicity.
• We could buy a couple of Dutch e-bikes from the Gazelle Outlet Shop. These bikes in the Netherlands are cheaper than in Germany. The problem then is our local bike shop owner would probably scrag us and rightly so.

A new source of campsites?

If like us you prefer quiet small campgrounds, it's worthwhile casting an eye on www.campinmygarden.com. The website aims to link house and garden owners with campers seeking a micro camp site. At the moment only the UK in Europe is well covered, but give the site time.

Another Dutch German bike route, The Berkel Route

The River Berkel starts west of Münster and flows 168km east through an area of quiet countryside to finally joins the River Ijssel in Zutphen. This area is not well known as a tourist area, but offers a number of treasures:

• Billerbeck with the gothic Ludgerus Cathedral, the Romanesque Johanniskirche and the historic merchants' store houses.
• Coesfeld set in a park landscape.
• Gescher with its bell museum.
• Stadtlohn famous for its potteries.
• Vreden borders on the Zwillbrocker Venn nature reserve which offers a flamingo colony.
• Borculo and Eibergen both offer water mills, chateaus, ancient churches and in addition the biggest labyrinth in the world the village of Ruurlo. 
• Zutphen offers defensive gates and merchants' houses.

However having written this list from E to W I would suggest that wise cyclist follows it from W to E. The west wind in the Netherlands is a serious matter. In addition once you arrive in Billerbeck you can travel on to Münster which was recently voted the most cyclist friendly city with over 200 000 inhabitants in Germany.