Bicycles, Tandems and Recumbent Trikes on Trains in Germany and Neighbouring Countries Part 1. Overnight sleeper trains

Rail services in Germany are divided into two groups: Long distance (Fernverkehr) - non subsidized provided by an operator and regional trains (Nahverkehr) - local services provided by an operator and subsidized by a regional transport authority but ultimately by the provincial government. The long distance services are there to make a profit. If these services don't pay their way they will sooner or later no longer appear in the timetables. All of these services co-operate to some extent. Deutsche Bahn (DB) long distance trains mesh together with the various regional services as if they were only one operator. Journeys involving travel on both long distance DB services and regional services can be booked on the DB website (https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml). Both long distance and regional services can have capacity to carry bicycles and even tandems and trikes.

However although the DB website shows other companies' night train operations, it is necessary in the case of Alpen-Sylt-Nachtexpress, BTE and Urlaubs-Express to book using the company websites shown. After a period of decline overnight trains offering sleeping accommodation are returning to the rails in Germany.

Sleeper Services  

Services at present (Summer 2020) are restricted. 

Deutsche Bahn (DB) Deutsche Bahn operates the majority of long distance passenger trains in Germany (https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml), but although the operator does run some overnight trains in Germany, it no longer offers sleeper train services. Its rolling stock was sold off to among others Austrian Railways (ÖBB). The DB daytime services will be covered in another chapter. 

Austrian Railways (ÖBB) operates long distance sleeper trains in Europe (https://www.nightjet.com/en/) under the name "nightjet". The site offers a download showing the routes taken (shorturl.at/clETU). ÖBB took over some of the DB rolling stock when DB stopped operating sleeper trains. One can travel with a bicycle, tandem or trike on the following ÖBB overnight trains. The slots need to be reserved:

• NJ 466 Vienna - Linz - Zurich 
• NJ 467 Zurich - Linz - Vienna
• NJ 490 Vienna - Linz - Hanover - Hamburg
• NJ 491 Hamburg - Hanover - Linz - Vienna
• NJ 40420 Innsbruck - Munich - Hamburg
• NJ 40491 Hamburg - Munich - Innsbruck

"For recumbents, tandems or bicycle trailers, two spaces must be booked. These can only transported  in special luggage compartments."  
(My translation of an email from ÖBB in German.) 

It's not many train pairs but it is a start. It strikes me to charge for two slots is a more sensible solution than a blanket "NO!". I suspect many train operating companies have issues with bicycles.
In addition the nightjet trains running between Hamburg and Zurich in both directions (NJ 401 and NJ 40470) will take a limited number of "normal" bicycles but nothing larger. These  slots need to be reserved.

Unfortunately this photograph (© ÖBB, reproduced with permission) does not show the luxurious accommodation for bicycles and the like, but bicycles travell in carpeted comfort under the Deutsche Bahn flag.

Interior of the bicycle storage space on a DB sleeper train

  





































Although the ÖBB Nightjet trains can be booked using the DB website, my feeling is that it is better to book using the ÖBB website. It is also advisable to book as early as possible as these trains are popular and the number of cut price tickets is capped.

Alpen-Sylt-Nachtexpress The private Alpen-Sylt-Nachtexpress runs overnight twice weekly in each direction in summer from and to Westerland, Sylt via Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich to Salzburg. (https://www.nachtexpress.de in German. Use a translator program.) The Alpen-Sylt-Night Express is made up of 10 couchette carriages (including a special carriage for people with disabilities or reduced mobility) with sufficient room for baggage. A train team  is present on board  for information and service. The list of baggage carried is long and comprehensive: 

Prams, Strollers // yes and free of charge

Wheelchair // yes and free of charge
Rollator (wheeled walking frame)// yes and free of charge
Kiteboard // yes and for a fee
Surfboard // yes and for a fee
Stand Up Paddle Boards// yes, if it is in a bag and for a fee
Foldable canoes // yes and for a fee
Sunshades / beach umbrellas of normal size // yes and for a fee
Bicycle // yes, as long as space is available and for a fee

At present only bicycles can be transported, because of problems of limited space and access through narrow doors. The operator intends to offer a bigger baggage car allowing transport of tandems from September. It still doesn't look good for trike transport, although it might be possible to transport folding trikes. If you are interested in travelling on this train write to the operator in English enclosing details of your folded trike/trikes.

Urlaubs-Express (https://urlaubs-express.de/ in English and German) is run by Trains4you a private charter train group. The car carrying trains run once a week in each direction. Bicycles and tandems can be transported at present in lockers or lashed to supports on the vehicle carriers. Trikes could be secured in the same way and carried on the vehicle carrying rolling stock. This means that bicycles etc can only be transported between the start and end of the journey. However, the company is considering putting bicycles in compartments in one or more passenger carriages which would mean that cyclists with bicycles could join and leave the train at intermediate stations. The company's trains are listed on the DB website, but one needs to book using the Urlaubs-Express website. Beware if using the DB website when travelling von Munich, for example the DB website suggests taking a DB train from Munich Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) and changing in Augsburg whereas as can be seen below the train starts in Munich East station. This year the company is running services between:

Düsseldorf - Innsbruck (- Verona) - Düsseldorf. The service to Verona has been cancelled this year, but it is planned to run it again in 2021.

Düsseldorf (Vehicle loading/unloading) – Köln (Cologne) – Koblenz – Frankfurt/M – München (Munich) – Kufstein – Wörgl – Innsbruck ((Vehicle loading/unloading) (– Bozen (Bolzano) – Verona) until 17 September 2020. Outward Journey: Friday Night/Saturday, Return Saturday Night /Sunday

Düsseldorf - Villach - Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf Hbf (Vehicle loading/unloading) - Cologne - Koblenz - Frankfurt/M - Munich East - Salzburg - Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein -  Mallnitz-Obervellach -  Villach (Vehicle loading/unloading). Outward Journey: Sunday Night/Monday, Return Journey: Monday Night/Tuesday

Hamburg - Innsbruck - (Verona) - Innsbruck - Hamburg
Hamburg-Altona (Vehicle loading/unloading) - Hamburg Hbf - Lüneburg - Hanover Hbf - Göttingen - Fulda - Munich East - Kufstein - Innsbruck Hbf (Vehicle loading/unloading). The service to Verona has been cancelled this year, but it is hoped to run it again in 2021: Bolzano/Bozen - Verona P.N. (Vehicle loading/unloading) 
Hamburg - Villach - Hamburg
Hamburg-Altona (Vehicle loading/unloading) - Hamburg Hbf - Lüneburg - Hanover Hbf - Göttingen - Fulda - Munich East - Salzburg - Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein -  Mallnitz-Obervellach -  Villach (Vehicle loading/unloading) on various dates.
Hamburg – Munich – Hamburg
Hamburg-Altona (vehicle loading/unloading) - Hamburg Hbf - Lüneburg - Hannover Hbf - Göttingen - Würzburg Hbf - Augsburg Hbf - Munich East (vehicle loading/unloading)   

 

Bahntouristikexpress BTE (https://bahntouristikexpress.de/autoreisezug-en.html in Danish, English and German) runs a car sleeper train service directly from Hamburg Altona to Lörrach on the German-Swiss border near Basel in summer most nights of the week. It is not clear whether the company will transport accompanying bicycles, tandems or trikes. We have written to the company, but have yet to receive a reply.

 

Touring Lake Constance

Somewhere in the last few months we were at a tourism or cycling exhibition and I stuffed a postcard from the Vier Länder Region Bodensee (Four nation region Lake Constance) into a one of those useful free cloth shopping bags you find at continental trade fairs. I am just in progress of emptying the bag out and filing a lot of the information material in the round file. The postcard has a link to www.touren.bodensee.eu where you can find tours, a route planner with GPS download and accommodation suggestions for cycling, walking and canoeing trips in the Austrian, German, Liechtenstein and Swiss parts of the region. The website is an excellent place to start planning a trip to this cyclist-friendly scenic region. It has the great advantage that the tours are international and do not end at the border which is a typical snag for information issued by national tourist offices.

An interesting article about e-bikes

Slight plug to start with. We wrote a book on cycling in Switzerland some years ago now. It was published by The Cicerone Press in Northern England. Cicerone originally published books about hill walking and mountaineering. Later the company branched out additionally into books about cycle touring and fell running. The company produces a digital newsletter for which we have contributed the odd article. I was just sent the latest version of the newsletter in which there is a article on e-biking in the Alps. Paean of praise would be a better description. We are in process of buying e-bikes or maybe e-trikes so I found the article: https://www.cicerone.co.uk/e-bikes-are-just-for-softies an excellent introduction into using e-bikes. If the £2000 to £3000 price tag of a decent e-bike puts you off buying an e-bike, do not forget that you can hire e-bikes reasonably cheaply in just about all tourist areas on the continent which cuts out the problems of transporting the bikes from home.

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

Beer soft drink mixtures for cyclists Part I

Many continental beers at 5% alcohol content are stronger than British draught beers at 2% alcohol. As in Britain it is usual for cyclists especially to dilute their beer with lemonade. However what do you ask for? Asking for a shandy in a Munich beer hall will get you some funny looks and no shandy.

Here is a list of the names that various dilute beer mixtures are called:

The easy one  for our American cousins in Britain is Shandy, a mixture of about 50% beer and 50% lemonade. It would appear that our US friends drink Shandygaff which is the same thing. One of the most refreshing drinks of this type is a Ginger Beer Shandy, which could well become an export hit in post-BREXIT Britain. This too is a 50:50 mixture, but note it is a Ginger Beer not Ginger Ale. Since most beer lemonade shandies come pre-bottled these days Ginger Beer Shandy is not easy to find.

In southern Germany you ask for a Radler - a cyclist and in the north you ask for an Alsterwasser if you want a beer lemonade mixture - the Alster is the lake in the centre of Hamburg. However in some parts of Bavaria, but do not ask me where, a Radler is known as a Russ. On the River Elbe the familiar beer lemonade mixture is called  Ententeich or Entenpuhl - duckpond. On the River Weser in the northwest of Germany the beer lemonade mixture is called Fliegerbier - Pilot's Beer. In and around Münster in Westphalia the locals drink a beer orangeade mixture called Wurstwasser - sausage water. Why, I don't know. I drank it once on a very hot day in the winegrowing area of the lower Mosel Valley. It was all the pub had. I suppose it was really twice - for the first and last time.  If you are in Berlin in summer ask for a Berliner Weisse (German: Berliner Weiße) mit Schuß which is a cloudy, sour, white beer of around 3% alcohol which is coloured with a shot of Himbeer raspberry or Waldmeister green artificial woodruff cordial. In north-eastern part of the former German Democratic Republic a beer raspberry flavoured soft drink mixture is known as a Potsdamer.

In Austria you ask for an Almradler a mixture of beer and Almdudler. The original Almdudler is a sweetened carbonated soft drink made of herbal extracts. Almdudler is the "national drink of Austria". In the western Austrian province of Vorarlberg you need to specify whether you want your beer diluted with lemonade Süsses Radler or with mineral water Saures Radler.


Dutch cyclists drink Sneeuwwitje - Snow White, a beer lemonade mixture but don't ask me how you pronounce it.

The Belgians around Antwerp call for a Tango - a beer with cola when they wish to dilute their excellent beers.

In Switzerland and in Luxembourg one asks for a Panaché (from the French panacher meaning to mix). If you wish to dilute your beer with cola then add the word "coca"- Panaché coca. In the Saarland, the German province, where French is the first foreign language taught in schools, one asks for a Panasch to obtain a lemonade beer mixture.

One can, of course, use non-alcoholic or low alcohol beers instead of a full strength beer. If you are not taken with the flavour of alcohol-free beers, this is an excellent way of disguising their too hoppy flavour.

These days a lot of German breweries like those in the UK pre-mix Radler. You'll get a bottle of Radler rather than a mixture of lemonade and draught beer.

If when you are touring in hot weather you hit a wall of tiredness we find a quick lift is offered by a cola-orangeade mixture known in most of Germany as a Spezi, but in Mannheim and district as a Kalter Kaffee - cold coffee.

Where Marmots dare

We have had several requests to republish "Marmots" our guide to Swiss Route 3. It has been out of print for some years. The route is covered in slightly less detail in "Cycling in Switzerland" From Cicerone, along with all the other Swiss National Cycle Routes. Finally we gave in to the requests and we updated the accommodation, bike shop, bike hire and transport sections; checked the route cartographically and modified the page layout of the book to produce an e-book. It is available for US$ 8.99 from Smashwords. We will also produce a version for Amazon, one of these days. Kindle users too should remember that one can download a Kindle compatible formated file from Smashwords.

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

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.

Safer tram lines?

One of the more exciting aspects of urban cycling in continental Europe are tram lines. Judith's knee still bears the scars she received when she fell off her bike, after the front wheel jammed in a tram line, some years ago. Tram lines are cunningly designed to take and hold a bicycle wheel. Whether it is front or back you will suddenly find sideways motion is impossible and the bike stops moving, all at once, with embarrassing results. They also offer a surprising wide flat area of metal which is slippery in wet weather and can lead to breakaway of the back end of the bicycle. This is interesting, but to be avoided.
VBZ, the Zurich traffic authority has started a pilot project to see if  tramlines can be made safer. It has filled a short stretch of tramline with rubber. The tram compresses this, but cyclists can ride over the filled section without the unpleasant effects mentioned above. The first results of this test phase are due in spring 2014. For more information in German see: www.stadt-zuerich.ch/masterplanvelo.

e-Bike Holidays in Switzerland

Over the years we have cycled a lot in Switzerland. When we talk about these trips with friends and acquaintances both cost and the mountains are mentioned. "Too expensive and we can't climb Alpine passes!" However I have recently picked up a Swiss national tourist office brochure with details of an eight or nine day trip across Switzerland from Lake Geneva via Interlaken and the Jungfrau region to Heidiland and the River Rhine through the mountains but over them. In 2013 the cost was about £1000 including e-Bike hire, luggage transfer and, bed and breakfast stopping in normal hotels. A similar trip stopping in youth hostels would have set you back about £825.  The e-bike flattens out the passes. Check out the trips in 2014 on http://www.swisstrails.ch/.

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.

Basel Cycle plans

We have cycled through Basel fairly often and it is an interesting place to cycle, what with other cyclists, trams and motor cars, lots of motor cars. We are rewriting our Rhine II Basel to Hook of Holland guide as an e-book so I have been doing some research to update our notes. I was interested to read that Basel City has produced a new cycle plan which aims to separate the commuter cyclists and tourists, children etc. (http://www.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-stadt/so-will-basel-zur-velofreundlichsten-stadt-der-schweiz-werden-126338189). The link is in German. As well the planners want to ensure that the needs of cyclists are taken into account in new road schemes. When this wonder is going to happen is not clear, but don't hold your breath.

Sleeeping in straw in Switzerland

Cycling in Switzerland is not all mountain passes and expensive hotels. There are flatter routes: The Rhine Route from Chur downstream, Route 5 the Mittelland Route from Zürich to Lausanne and Route 8 the Aare Route from Meieringen through Interlaken, Thun and Berne towards the Rhine. Swiss Trails (http://www.swisstrails.ch/swisstrails_engl/default.html) offer reasonably priced trips with luggage transport and bike hire along these routes with prebooking of farms offering sleeping in straw. It's a great holiday and would be wonderful for children, because they can also take part in the life of the farm. Quite often the farmers, more often their wives will run you and the family up an evening meal. It's an excellent and economical way to see the country. You will of course need to take a sleeping bag and a torch per person.

Google Maps for Cyclists, Great but…

Whilst cleaning the layers of papers, mail, scribbled notes and similar off the desk in the office, I came across the August September  issue of  "Radwelt", the ADFC members' magazine. I scanned through it to see if there was anything of interest I could use in the blog before I flung it in the bin. A big mistake, because I started to read it so the pile of papers on the desk stayed the same. I found a paragraph on the new Google Maps cyclist routing function. Basically the "Get Directions" function has been extended to include bicycles.  The bicycle routing app does not yet work in Germany, but has been opened for use in Switzerland and in Austria. If you request a cycle route in Germany, you receive the message: "We could not calculate directions between …" although you are shown the cycle paths and routes in the area of interest. These still need a lot of work, at least around Viernheim, where for example the signposted cycle route along the old railway line to Lampertheim is not shown.

I checked out cycle routes in Switzerland. As test routes I used Grindelwald to Meiringen and Andermatt to Basel.

• There are two cycle routes between Grindelwald and Meiringen: 
• Grindelwald to Interlaken and follow National routes 8 and 9 to Meiringen on the south side of Lake Brienz. 
• Grindelwald via Grosse Scheidegg and Rosenlaui to Meiringen.
• Both of these routes are to be found in our Cicerone Guide: "Cycle Touring in Switzerland", ISBN: 9781852845261.
• Google Maps suggests neither route. It shows a route down to Interlaken and then along the main road between Interlaken and Brienz on the north side of the lake. You can pull the route using the cursor across the screen to follow one or both of the suggestions above. This is fine if you know the area, but less than useful if you don't.

• There are again two signposted cycle routes between Andermatt and Basel
• Swiss National Cycle Route 2 along the Rhine.
• Swiss National Cycle Route 3 through Lucerne and Aarau
• The Google route follows neither following "Route 2" through Schwyz, Arth and Rheinfelden. What this Route 2 is not clear. It could be Road 2. You can pull the route using the cursor across the screen to follow one or both of the suggestions above. This is fine if you know the area, but less than useful if you don't.

Before one uses Google Maps to work out cycle routes in Switzerland, we would advise cyclists to obtain a copy of Switzerland Touristic Cycling Map (1:301 000) from Kümmerly + Frey ISBN3-359-00533-1 or check out the maps section of www.veloland.ch. Once Google Maps suggests a route then check to see if it does really follow cycle routes and modify it accordingly, if needed.

PS We have informed Google and await their reaction.

Bicycle Rental in Switzerland

The Swiss are amazing. Their country is not a natural place to build railways, so they build them up to the top of mountains. They live in a country that does not naturally spring to mind when one thinks of cycle touring. The country is full of mountains and lakes, so common sense would suggest that it is a great place to go mountaineering, hill walking, sailing, or sailboarding or board sailing but cycling? The gut wrenching pictures of the top of the Tour de France climbs come to mind, but can we expect grannie to make it? Yes, we can! You too can, actually. We did, too. The Swiss have done the impossible and turned their country into a cyclist’s paradise with 4500 hire bikes.

If you arrive in the country without a bike and want to hire a bike for a day or two, the good news is there are bicycle rental stations all over the country at railway stations, hotels, youth hostels and camp sites. The bad news is the bikes are not cheap. In 2012  the basic bikes: touring bike, MTB and children's bicycles cost CHF 33 a day for one day if you return the bike to the same rental station and CHF 40 if you drop it off at another station. The rate drops to about CHF 22 a day if you hire for a week, about CHF 17 if you hire for two weeks. (At the time of writing one Euro was worth: CHF 1.20, $US 1 about CHF 0.93 and £1: CHF 1.50.) The bike rental company is called Rentabike. Its website: www.rentabike.ch. The website unfortunately is only in French and German. If you cannot speak either language use Google Translator. We have never hired from Rentabike. We don't live that far away from Helvetia, so always take our own bikes. Helmets are supplied. What we have noticed is that it is a good idea to take a few tools and a puncture repair outfit. They are not supplied. However it is probably not a advisable to wave your repair kit under the noses of the hire station personnel. They might not appreciate you taking their bike to bits.

Although the major Swiss bike rental company is Rentabike, there are others. We picked up a leaflet about a bike shop in Basel (Basle) called Obst&Gemüse GmbH, Kasernenstrasse 32, CH-4058 Basel, T: +41 (0)61 683 07 80, hello@obstundgemuese.org, www.obstundgemuese.org. The shop will rent you a Bakfiets, a Bullitt or a Christiana cargo bike for a weekend. If you have ever fancied buyuing one of these, but thought you would like to give it an extended try, here's your chance.

Free Bike Hire in Zurich, Switzerland

From May to October, you can rent one of over 200 robust City Bikes in Zürich completely free of charge, seven days a week. Bikes can be picked up at the following locations by presenting valid ID and a returnable deposit of CHF 20.00. The bikes cannot be reserved in advance. It is intended that they are used for daily hire, nipping around the city out along the lake rather than trundling up an Alp or two for a couple of weeks. You can pick up the bikes at any hire station and return them to any other. Daytime hire is free, but an overnight hire costs 10 CHF. 

There are two hire stations opened all the year round by the Hauptbahnhof in Zurich: 
Bike Station North, Swiss National Museum: daily, 8am-9.30pm 
Bike Station South, Sihlpost: daily, 8am-9.30pm 

and a number opened in summer from May to October: 
Globus City: daily, 9am-9.30pm 
Bellevue: daily, 9am-9.30pm Bahnhof Enge: Mon-Fri: 10am-9.30pm, Sat-Sun: 9am-9.30pm Bahnhof Oerlikon, Swissotel: Mon-Fri: 12am-9.30pm, Sat: 9am-9.30pm, Sun: closed Im Viadukt: Mon-Fri: 11am-9.30pm, Sat-Sun: 9am-9.30pm 

A new Kindle Book

We have recently published our cycling guide to Lake Constance on Smashwords as an e-book (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/173312) and on Amazon as a Kindle book (http://www.amazon.de/Mainly-cycling-around-Constance-ebook/dp/B0091J39UY/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1345821327&sr=1-2). Our print version is now out of print.

Lake Constance on a bike, a tandem or a trike

We are rewriting our Lake Constance book - "Only in High Gear" as an e-book on Smashwords and on Kindle. It really is a superb place for a family cycling holiday:
Almost no hills.
If a day goes on too long there are ships aplenty to climb on.
Every lakeside community offers swimming beaches.
Three countries to choose from.
What we have noticed though is that the cosy world of cycle touring is not immune to financial trends. The high cost of the Swiss Franc means that the Swiss hotel trade has been hard hit as tourists stay away. We have noticed that some hotels have closed. We try to suggest ways round the cost of holiday making in Switzerland in the guide - where to eat and where to stay.
We hope the book will be in the electronic bookshops in about a month.

Powering along. With electrobikes on holiday

Electrobikes are losing their image as OAP-Ferraris as their price and weight fall, and range and reliability improve. In continental Europe two trends are particularly obvious and encouraging: Fixed centre hire and touring.

Fixed Centre Hire

More and more bike hire firms and day tour operators are offering electrobikes to rent for day trips or for the holiday duration. Alpine resorts, in particular, wish to market not only the peace, quietness and possibilities of contact with nature for their area, but also its air quality. Heavy road traffic has negative effects on all of these. A group of resorts in the Alps has gone so far as to offer “Soft Mobility', low carbon footprint sustainable tourism. These are known as the Alpine Pearl resorts (www.alpine-pearls.com/home.php). Here guests are encouraged to take car-free holidays, to travel to the resorts by public transport, i.e. rail and leave the car at home or at least parked whilst in the resort. Holiday makers are offered subsidised public transport and facilities for human powered activities. The electrobike fits in well with this concept and currently eight of the 20 Alpine Pearl communities offer electrobike hire: Bad Reichenhall in Germany, Berchtesgaden, Werfenweng in Austria, Arosa and Interlaken in Switzerland, and Tiers, Welschnofen and Deutschnofen in the semi-autonomous province of South Tyrol in Italy. 

Many other resorts too have learned to appreciate the value of electrobike hire. These resorts offer cycle and even MTB trails that can be used by the electrically assisted cyclist. Typically the organisers set up a number of battery exchange or charging centres across the area in beer gardens, monastery breweries or cafes where the thirsty can recharge both their bike's batteries for 1-2 cents an hour and their own batteries for the cost of a beer and roast pigs' legs or coffee and cake.

Interestingly Switzerland and Japan are world leaders in electrobike ownership and about 70% of the electrobikes in Switzerland are Swiss Flyers. 

Touring 

Tour companies are offering electrobikes as an extra to encourage people who have not ridden a bicycle since Adam was a lad to take part in their holidays. In this way weaker members of the group can keep up with members of the Charles Atlas calf brigade. The tour companies hope to widen their customer base and make their customers' holidays a little less strenuous.

NB The prices shown in the tables are not written on tablets of stone and can vary, but should be taken as a guide. At the time of writing the pound was worth about 1.15 Euro and 1.4 CHF, but if we knew what was going to happen in the money markets we would not be writing this, but be down the bank changing our savings. There is too a distressing tendency for foreigners to insist on writing their websites in foreign languages, The cure is to use Google Translator, Babel Fish or similar translation program, or send the company or tourist office an eMail in English. They will reply in English. Absence of a resort or tour company just means that we haven't seen their names on various Internet lists, but not that electrobikes are not on offer. In our experience most of the members of a guided cycle group will be able to speak English and they will be overjoyed to practise it.

Fixed centre hire

France

Burgundy Electrobikes to rent from the tourist office in Auxere: http://www.ot-auxerre.fr/Tourist-office.html

Switzerland

Between Rapperswill on Lake Zurich, Walenstadt on Walensee and GlarusTourismus Amden-Weesen

Dorfstrasse 22, CH-8873 Amden, www.amden.ch, 

eMail: tourismus@amden.ch Flyer ?

Emmental (Emme Valley) between Bern and Lucerne Gemeindeverwaltung Trubschachen, CH-3555 Trubschachen, 

www.trubschachen.ch/tourismus.html (in German), eMail:gemeinde@trubschachen.ch Flyer 25 Flyers (CHF40,-/day) Three tandems (CHF70,-/day)

NW of Lucerne, Willisau-Hasle-Rüegsau Reisezentrum Willisau, CH 6130 Willisau www.willisau.ch, eMail: emailinfo@willisau-tourismus.ch Flyer 2 Battery exchange stations

East Switzerland Appenzell Appenzellerland Tourismusmarketing AG Schäfligasse 12

CH-9050 Appenzell Telephone +41 (0)71 788 08 18 

www.appenzell.ch/en/pages/what_appenzell_has_to_offer/cycling_biking/elektrobiken/?

eMail: info.ag@appenzell.ch  Flyer At least 40 bikes and 20 recharging stations

Engadine SE Switzerland Albula Valley (Bergün), Lenzerheide, Davos 15 Hire stations with about 40 electrobikes and 20 battery charging stations Flyer Between CHF 30 and 40 per day, depending on length of hire

Engadine SE Switzerland near St Moritz Flying Cycles GmbH 

Tolais (opp. station) l, CH-7504 Pontresina

eMail: flyingcycles@bluewin.ch Flyer 

250 eBikes all over Switzerland at the railway stations in 

Airolo, Andermatt, Basle, Bern, Biel, Disentis, Fiesch, Illanz, Interlaken West, Locarno, Lucerne, Meiringen, Murten. Neuchâtel, Noiraigue, Oberwald, , Romanshorn, Saignelégier, Samedan, Willisau Rent a Bike AG, Merkurstrasse 2, CH-6210 Sursee www.rentabike.ch (In German and French, English language promised) Flyer Daily hire costs between CHF 42 and 50. Bikes can be returned to other railway stations.

Southern Switzerland, Locarno, Ascona, Lago Maggiore Electrobikes are widely available from 32 centres, e.g. from hotels, the information desks of the Ente Turistico Lago Maggiore (Tourist Offices) in Locarno, Ascona and Brissago amongst others. www.maggiore.ch/idee/bike/common_details.jsp?lang=en&id=87017&index=1 Flyer 

Switzerland: Erstfeld on the Gotthard Pass railway line. Velo Infanger, Gotthardstrasse 107, CH 6472 Erstfeld (300m from station) Flyer  

Germany

North Germany, Cuxhafen Mietrad, T. Larschow, Schillerstr. 45, D-27472 Cuxhaven

www.mietrad.de Flyer Between 30 and 15€/day

Bavarian Alps/Austria Salzgammergut Movelo GmbH (www.movelo.com) offers over 50 electrobikes in SE Bavaria around Berchtesgaden and near Lake Chiemsee at about a dozen hire stations (info@movelo.com) Flyer 

Bavarian Alps Three companies in and around Bad Tölz SE of Munich offer electrobike hire with 11 charging points:  Flyer 

Germany Schwäbisch Alb Kurverwaltung (Tourist Office) Bad Urach, www.badurach.de Flyer 30-40€ daily

Italy: South Tyrol Tiers/Tires, Welschnofen/Nova Levante and Deutschnofen/Nova Ponante (www.alpine-pearls.com/home.php) Flyer 

Tours

Austria Danube Valley, Styria, Switzerland Lausanne St Gallen ROTALIS - Reisen per Rad, D-85604 Zorneding www.rotalis.de, info@rotalis.de Modified hire bike 140€ extra per trip (about a week)

Austria Danube Valley Passau Vienna Colditzer Reisebüro Töpfergasse 5 D - 04680 Colditz, Germany   www.fahrrad-wandern.de/danube_cycle_path.htm Flyer About 700 € per person for seven nights bed and breakfast with baggage transport. An electrobike costs about 90€ a week. 

Switzerland All nine Swiss National Routes SwissTrails GmbH Chlupfstrasse 8, CH-8165 Oberweningen www.swisstrails.ch/swisstrails_engl/veloland/veloland.html Flyer

Switzerland Jura Saignelégier to Neuchâtel via Mont-Soleil, Tête de Ran and Couvet. Goût & Région Case postale 131 CH 2108 Couvet www.gout-region.ch (Only in French and German) eMail: info@gout-region.ch Flyer About CHF 370 to CHF 500 per person with baggage transport for two nights bed and breakfast. 

Switzerland Meiringen, Grosse Scheidegg, Grindelwald, Interlaken, Kandersteg, Brig, Rhone Valley, Grimsel Pass, Meiringen Alpavia GmbH, Bahnhofstrasse 35, CH-3700 Spiez www.alpavia.ch eMail: info@alpavia.ch Flyer A trip round the Jungfrau and Eiger. Good value for money at CHF 1280 for 6 nights HP. 

What a difference 5 km can make.

We are planning to cycle to Basel (Basle, Bâle) as soon as it stops raining. Once we are there we will need return by rail to Viernheim. Basel has three railway stations, belonging to three different organisations: Basel SBB, the Swiss station, Basel Badischer Bahnhof, the German station and Bâle SNCF, the French station. The platforms of the latter two are legally German or French, but the buildings themselves including ticket offices etc. are on Swiss soil. This means if you pay by credit or debit card that the tickets will be slightly more expensive.
However what amazed me was the price difference between travelling from Basel SBB and Basel Bad to Mannheim. As long as you are prepared to travel on regional trains fairly slowly the trip between Basel Bad and Mannheim costs 29 Euro for up to five people plus 4.50 Euro per bike for the bicycles, i.e. 38 Euro in our case. Travelling between Basel SBB and Mannheim via Basel Bad will cost you 63.30 Euro plus ten Euros/bike for an International bicycle ticket, i.e. well over twice as much. The five minute ride from Basel SBB to Basel Bad will cost over 40 Euro.