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.

Bicycle transfer on Majorca

We received the following email from Mallorcan company. We thought the information might be of interest to cyclists planning a visit to Mallorca this winter and spring.

2016 CYCLING SEASON……….Majorca Airport Transfers is a reliable specialist provider of transfers for passengers travelling with bikes, from Palma airport to all locations on Majorca.  Each year our regular cycle training groups and individual customers come to Majorca from all over Europe, North America and Canada for training / competition events in Puerto Pollensa, Alcudia and Paguera.

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2016 FAHRRADSAISON..... Majorca Airport Transfers ist ein zuversichtlicher Spezialist für Fahrgäste die mit Fahrrädern in Fahrradtaschen oder in Hartschalenkoffern

reisen.  Wir können Ihnen einen zuversichtlichen Transport vom Flughafen von Palma zu Ihrem Urlaubsziel auf Mallorca anbieten.  

Jedes Jahr und in einem regelmässigen  Zyklus kommen aus ganz Europa , Nordamerika und Kanada Radsportfahrer die hier trainieren oder an Wettkämfen teilnehmen die hier auf der Insel stattfinden und unseren Servíce nutzen.

From our customer reception office in Palma airport arrivals hall, flights are monitored for any delays to ensure transport is always available. Transfers are by quality vehicles (mainly Mercedes) with secure sturdy box trailers for the bikes or minibuses/coaches for passengers and bikes.

We also have a low cost Shuttlebus service. Example. 1 passenger with luggage and 1 bike in bag or hard case just 46 euro return to and from Puerto Pollensa or Alcudia.

Whatever your transfer requirements with bikes please e-mail us for a competitive quotation.   info@majorca-airport-transfers.com

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Von unserem Kundenbüro aus, dass sich in der Ankunftshalle vom Flughafen Palma befindet, überprüfen wir Ihre Flüge so das Ihr Transfer auch bei Verzögerungen und Verspätungen gewährleistet werden kann.  Die Transfers werden nur in hochwertigen Fahrzeugen ausgeführt, hauptsächlich Mercedes sowie in Kleinbussen und Bussen für Fahrgäste und Räder, die mit einem sicheren stabilen Trailer extra für Fahrräder mit Sicherheitsboxen ausgestattet sind. 

Wir können unseren Kunden kostengünstige Transfers anbieten Zum Beispiel :  1 Fahrgast mit Gepäck und einer Fahrradtasche oder Hardschalenbox wäre der Preis 46 € für die Hin und Rückfahrt nach Puerto Alcudia oder nach Puerto Pollenca.

Wie auch immer Ihr Transportbedarf mit Fahrrädern ist, um Ihnen ein wettbewerbsfähiges Angebot zu machen, wenden Sie sich bitte per e-mail an uns. admin3@european-airport-transfers.com

EUROPEAN AIRPORT TRANSFERS SL

Majorca Airport Transfers - Menorca Airport Transfers - Ibiza Airport Transfers

Edificio Túcan,

Avda Túcan 33, Esc 3, 2ºD

07400 Port d'Alcudia

Tel:  (0034) 971 549497   Fax:   (0034) 971 549875

Móvil:  (0034) 664 267644

Email: info@european-airport-transfers.com

www.majorca-airport-transfers.com   :   www.palma-airport-transfers.com

www.menorca-airport-transfers.com  :   www.ibiza-airport-transfers.com

De conformidad con la Ley Orgánica 15/1999 de Protección de Datos y su reglamento de desarrollo, le informamos que sus datos personales se incluirán en un fichero responsabilidad de EUROPEAN AIRPORT TRANSFERS SL. con la finalidad de gestionar las comunicaciones necesarias, así como realizar acciones de publicidad y prospección comercial. Usted podrá ejercitar sus derechos de acceso, rectificación, cancelación y oposición, dirigiéndose a la siguiente dirección:

EUROPEAN AIRPORT TRANSFERS SL., Avda Tucán 33, Esc. 3, 2ºD, 07400 Puerto de Alcudia, Illes Baleares.

Putting yourself and a bike on a long distance bus in Britain, Germany and the rest of Europe

We have written before about travel by long-distance bus in Germany. The bus market in Germany has blossomed since last year when the restrictions on long-distance bus routes designed in the 1930s to protect the railways were removed. Some bus companies offer bicycle transport. The www.checkmybus.de website offers information about bus routes and bicycle transport. It is in German and English and easy to use.

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).

Bikes on buses in Germany

Germany now has long distance buses crisscrossing the country. Until this year long distance bus services were forbidden and had been forbidden since the 1930s when the Nazi government wanted to protect the railway monopoly. The present government has reversed this decision and long distance bus services have sprung up all over Germany.
The MeinFernBus company offers accompanied bicycle transfer for up to five bikes a trip. The company offers trips between Heidelberg and Nuremberg, Berlin and Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich and Cologne/Düsseldorf  to Freiburg. Prices are much cheaper than trains, but the journey times are longer. You can book your bike online. Bike transport costs nine Euros a trip. We realise that you are coming to Germany to cycle not to sit on a bus, but Cologne for example is a major hub for low price airlines and if you want cycle in the Black Forest or around Lake Constance then the Cologne/Düsseldorf to Freiburg services could be very interesting. The website is at www.meinfernbus.de in English and German.

Putting your bike on a long distance bus in Spain

It came to pass that we needed to travel to Oviedo from Irun and the quickest and cheapest way is to take the ALSA bus. ALSA are the biggest bus company in Spain and offer a good network of services all over the country. If you read the ALSA website you will see that you can reserve storage for up to four bikes, golf bags or surf boards per bus in advance and the bus driver must take them, unlike in the old days where the bus driver would accept the bike if he liked the cut of your jib and if not you were doomed to sitting by the side of the road until the next bus came along, which can be twelve hours. We had reserved room for our two Bromptons for ten Euro per bike at the same time as we booked our own tickets. I printed the tickets out at home. We arrived in good time at the bus station in Irun, a bus stop in front of the railway station and showed the driver our Bromptons expecting to load them directly into a padded luxurious pair of compartments. No, we had to put them in a cover, which meant folding them and then he insisted that we hadn’t paid for the bikes, so I had to return to the booking office for this to be validated. We had problems because the bus driver spoke no English and my Spanish is limited to buying a cheese sandwich and a draught beer. I went to the ticket office and the appropriate section of the ticket was ringed by an angry employee who was not happy having her time wasted. I returned to the bus, waved this under the driver’s nose and he grudgingly agreed to let us and the bikes on the bus, though we had to help him stack the bikes with our luggage in the space beneath the bus to protect the other baggage against our bikes. There was no talk of protecting our two thousand Euro or so worth of bikes. In contrast, the journey afterwards was superb in comfortable leather seats with coffee and snacks and a good in-bus entertainment system.
I am quite pleased that we had booked the Bromptons as bikes, although normally I am ready to fight for the principle that a folded covered folding bike is baggage and should not be charged as a bike, but if you don’t speak the language… One plan we had originally considered was to pack the bikes folded in their covers and in a blue IKEA shopping bag. I suspect this would have been a no no in this case.
When we got to Oveido I checked the ALSA website and found a sentence I had overlooked earlier:
“Because of the limited space, we admit 4 objects (bicycles and surfboards) total in each coach, one per ticket. They have to be good conditions to travel without causing any damage to other baggage, so it is obligatory for them to be well packaged in boxes or bags suitable for transportation.”, i.e. if you are going to travel with bike on a Spanish long distance bus then you will need to find a friendly bike shop beforehand for a cardboard box or take a bike bag with you. It is probably not a bad idea either, if you print out your ticket yourself at home, to highlight the bicycle booking.