Ciclovia Alpe-Adria-Radweg

Eagle-eyed readers of this blog will have noticed that it has not been published recently. I was in hospital receiving treatment for a blood disease. In my experience every time I meet the medical profession they discover something new and nasty in addition. In this case it was noticed my heart was only working at about 30% efficiency. I had noticed a tendency to breathlessness when climbing hills on the bike or on foot but put it down to colds, allergies and old age. If you feel the same way it is worth popping into your local cardiologist and having a check up. Once my heart had been repaired the oncologists could start giving me a cocktail of chemotherapy drugs. One of the side effects of my blood condition has meant that I  have a fracture of the spine because my lymph nodes are swollen and one these is too close to my spine. In this situation I need a little something to keep me cheerful. Unfortunately I am now too old to flirt with the nurses, so I have been looking at a cycling holiday next year. Whether I need a new electro-bike to help the heart or a new electro-trike to not only help the heart and offer support for my back is not clear, but I have found a suitable route: The Alpe-Adria Cycleway: www.alpe-adria-radweg.com. This runs from Salzburg down to Grado on the Med between Triest and Venice, and one can take a train through the Alps. The first question to be answered is will the Drs recommend that I cycle, at all? I have looked in various forums without becoming much the wiser.

The first problem to be solved is how do we get to Salzburg? We can take a direct train from Mannheim. The e-bike would be no problem. DB German Rail accepts e-bikes.  Most long distance trains do not take trikes or tandems, however. Three manufacturers: AZUB, HPVelotechnik and ICE offer folding trikes which mean not only are they cheaper to transport, but you can get them onto a train, possibly with difficulty. Folded bikes go free of charge when folded. I am going to assume that the same applies to folded trikes.

The second possible problem is getting back from the coast after the trip, but it turns out that this just costs money. We can use a minibus with trailer option from Grado back to Udine, Villach or even Salzburg (www.alpeadria.bike). 

It is a gentle occupation looking at various websites about the areas along the route, hotel accommodation and the railway connections. It is probably the modern day equivalent of reading Cooks International Timetable and a good Atlas, which always struck me as some of the most interesting literature in the world.

Piste Cyclable / Radweg / Cycleway along the River Moselle in France November 2016

• Schengen (L)/Perl (D)/Apach (F) to Thionville: Well established well signposted route.
• Thionville to Metz: Fairly new excellent well signposted route with a link into the city centre of Metz.
• Metz to Pagny-sur-Moselle: Continuation of above route. Follow the bike signs for Woippy from cathedral square and turn off right before the canal bridge to follow the right bank. The route changes from bank to bank but is well signposted as far as Arnaville. The route follows towpaths, forest tracks and minor roads. Once you cross the departmental border into Meurthe-et-Moselle signposting and the smooth tarred path disappears. You can follow a rougher route south to Pagny-sur-Moselle where you can cross the railway lines at a level or grade crossing by pushing the button to warn the signal box of your intention or continue on along a stretch of single track path to reach the new Moselle lock and Pagny-sur-Moselle. It can take a few minutes for the rail track to be clear.
• South of Pagny-sur-Moselle: I suspect from reading the literature (http://veloroute-charles-le-temeraire.fr/etapes-veloroute-charles-le-temeraire.php) on this route that unless you are an experienced road cyclist that you would be well advised to catch a train in Pagny-sur-Moselle to Nancy. The Charles le Téméraire Cycle Route follows the D952/657 to Frouard and we did not enjoy the route as far as Pont-a-Mousson. Even on e-bikes the traffic was hairy.

We researched the route between Metz to Pagny-sur-Moselle as part of the updating of our Riesling Route guide. As the winter weather gets more unpleasant we will retire to our office to update and rewrite the book. Keep your fingers crossed.

Hire a bike in Berlin and drop it off in Copenhagen

If you hire a car in Madrid and wish to drive to Oslo, you can leave it in Oslo at a branch of the company. It will cost you a few pounds/dollars/euro/krone more, but you can do it. Normally it is not possible to rent a bike in one place and return it somewhere else. We have written about this problem recently.

We are planning a tour along part of the Berlin-Copenhagen cycle route and by chance I discovered that you can rent a bicycle in Copenhagen and return it in Berlin or vice versa. 

Fahrradstation (a Berlin bike hire company) in collaboration with MTB-Tour (Værløse, Copenhagen) offers the opportunity to rent a reliable bicycle in Berlin to ride this beautiful and famous international cycle route and then easily return it in Copenhagen. As well as the other way round!  You can enjoy a one-way ride without worrying about returning the bike to the starting point.

Choose your two-wheeler among a range of:

• trekking bikes
• mountain bikes
• e-bikes

but also childrens' bikes and tandems!

Bike	7 Days	10 Days	14 Days
MTB	€ 199,-	€ 229,-	€ 259,-
Trekking Bike	€ 199,-	€ 229,-	€ 259,-
E-Bike	€ 299,-	€ 349,-	399,-
Child's Bike		€ 169,-
Tandem			€ 399,-

For any further information and for reservation, contact Fahrradstation  at berlincopenhagen@fahrradstation.de.

Comparing ADFC Route Quality Ratings

The ADFC, the German cycling club has started a rating system for cycle routes. These are mainly in Germany but a few are in Austria. We wrote about these last year. Since then more routes have been added. We will write about these shortly.
We were glad to see that the Tauber Valley Classic Route along the floor of the valley received a five star rating, but surprised to see that the Romantic Road Cycle Route only received three stars. The Romantic Road joins the Tauber Valley Classic Route for 70 of its 420km. We looked at the results in detail:

We have cycled both routes often. What struck us was that the Romantic Road got much lower values in four areas:

• Ease of riding. It is true that the Tauber Valley Route has just about no barriers with only one flight of steps and thus deserves the 5 stars. There are some barriers on the Romantic Road. It is the longer route by far.  We don't think it deserves such a low marking.
• Surface: The Romantic Road has some stretches that are not tarred, whereas the Tauber Valley route has far fewer, but the former is much longer.
• Sign posting. We don't think the Romantic Road sign posting is poor. We have never had problems following the route. Sign posting can be improved easily, but it is the responsibility of local authorities, rather than the Romantische Strasse Touristik Arbeitsgemeinschaft GbR, the tourism body responsible for marketing and coordinating activities along the whole route.
• The route design. This has a low weighting and it is not easy to assess.

We suspect that there will be improvements in the above areas which will improve the ratings of the Romantic Road Cycle Route.

Czech cycleways

We went to a lecture last year at our local bike shop given by an employee who had cycled alone from Viernheim to Istanbul and returned via a different route with his girl friend. She described the return journey though the Czech Republic and mentioned the difficulty they had cycling on the rough paths there. We were surprised to hear this, but our experience is similar, although we only walked along a few km of Czech cycle route a few weeks ago. The tracks were bumpy, covered with layer of 1" sandstone pebbles, more suitable for the robust bikes the continental Europeans call trekking bikes than the thin tyred Audax road bikes many Brits and North Americans use for touring. Signposting was very good.
We did however find a new EU sponsored cycle- and footpath running from Doubrava, Czech Republic to Bad Elster west of the Bily Halstrov/Weiße Elster river as part of the Elster Cycleway from As (Czech Republic) to Halle an der Saale (Germany) which had a smooth high class tarmac surface. Maybe things are looking up.

Czech cycle route signposting on a minor road

The best longer cycling routes in Germany and Austria? ADFC Quality Routes

The ADFC is, as regular readers of this blog know,  the German cycling club interested in touring and cycle paths rather than the sporting aspects. The Germans are, of course, great classifiers and the ADFC is no exception. It grades cycle routes into 3 classes using the following criteria. This service is not free, the trail organisations pay most of the costs of the assessments. The weighting for the overall rating is shown after each criterium in brackets.

• Rideabilty: width, current barriers, bollards, steps, hazards (15%)
• Surface: material, number and distance of sections where it is necessary to push the bicycle, transverse grooves, pot holes (15%)

  

   Surface is important....

  
  
  
  

  

  because this can be the result.

• Signposting: type, signposts showing the wrong direction, missing lettering, illegible writing, signposting contrary to the Road Traffic Acts (15%)

  

  Information overload, but who cares?

• Route: noise, smells, dust, detours, altitude, monotony (5%)
• Density of motor vehicle traffic: car-free - heavy, dangerous crossings (20%)
• Tourist infrastructure: accommodation structure, campsites, catering, Bed + Bike accommodation, tourist information office, information boards, bike parking, bicycle box, playgrounds, bad weather shelters, picnic areas, (15%) 
• Access route to public transport: Frequency of bike carrying long-distance trains with bicycles, Frequency of bike carrying regional public transport with bicycles, bike buses (5%)

  

  Ferries can also be useful!

  
• Marketing: Existing maps and information, website (10%)

In addition the route should have a clear name and/or be well known. This probably means that the “Black Pudding Route” would not be accepted whereas the “Gelsenkirchen Black Pudding Route” would be. On the other hand the Romantic Road would be allowed because the route name has been used since WWII. These rules does not always seem to be taken too seriously.
The nonappearance of routes like the Rhine, a particular favourite of ours does not mean that it cannot meet the standards required. There is probably another more mundane reason for this. The ADFC charges over €800 to check 50km of route, which is cheap in view of what the club delivers. The advice given in their reports can be used as way of improving the routes. The costs to have a longer route checked are quite prohibitive especially in these days of belt tightening by public authorities. The Rhine Cycle Route, for example is 1230km long.
The Five Star Routes

• River Main (Germany) 600km from Bischofsgrün (Source of the White Main) E of Bayreuth or Creußen (Source of the Red Main) S of Bayreuth – Mainz, confluence with the Rhine).
• Lake Neusiedler See (Austria, Hungary) SE of Vienna 121.5km, circular

The Four Star Routes
Germany

• Albtäler 187km SE of Stuttgart on the Swabian Alp, circular
• BahnRadweg Hessen (Railway Cycle Route Hesse) 245km on former railway lines in Middle Hesse ENE of Frankfurt am Main
• Bischofstour (Bishop's Tour) Havelberg to Wittstock 108km NE of Berlin
• DahmeRadweg Berlin S to the source of the River Dahme near Kolpen 123km
• Deutsche Fußballroute NRW (German Football Route North Rhine Westphalia) 800km Aaachen to Münster
• EmsRadweg (River Ems Cycle Route) 375km from Hövelhof to Emden
• Fulda-Radweg (River Fulda Cycle Route) Gersfeld to Bad Karlshafen 260km
• Ilmtal-Radweg (Ilm Valley Cycle Route) 125km, Allzunah am Rennsteig  to Großheringen/Kaatschen-Weichau
• Kyll-Radweg (Kyll Cycle Route) 130km from Kronenburger See, Dahlem (Bhf.), Losheimer Graben to Trier
• Lahntal Radweg (Lahn Valley Cycle Route) 244km Netphen (Source of River Lahn) – Lahnstein (Rhine confluence)
• Märkische Schlössertour (Chateau in the Oder Valley Route) 180km Circular Route SE of Berlin
• Oderbruchbahn Radweg (Oder Railway Route) 133km from Fürstenwalde through Müncheberg, Seelow to Wriezen, E of Berlin
• Oder-Neiße-Radweg (Oder Neisse Cycle Route) 628km from Nová Ves near Jablonec (Czech Republic) to Ahlbeck
• Oder Spree Tour 250km SE of Berlin
• RegnitzRadweg (River Regnitz Cycleway) 85 Kilometer (Valley), 75 Kilometer (Canal) Nürnberg – Bamberg/Bischber
• Rhönradweg (Rhön Cycle Route) From Bad Salzungen to Hammelburg, 180km
• Radrouten Historische Stadtkerne - Route 2... (Cycleway through historic towns and cities) NE of Berlin
• Ruhrtalradweg (Ruhr Valley Cycle Route) 230km, Winterberg – Duisburg (Confluence with the Rhine)
• Saar-Radweg (Saar Valley Cycleway) 98 Kilometer, Sarreguemines (Frankreich) through Saarbrücken to Konz (Confluence with the Moselle)
• Spreeradweg (River Spree Cyclepath) 410 Kilometer, Eibau – Berlin
• Südschwarzwald-Radweg (Southern Black Forest Cycle Route) 240 Kilometer (+ 69 Kilometer variations) circular route. See this blog 2 March 2013.
• Tour Brandenburg A cycle tour around the province of Brandenberg. 1111km, Circular Start, for example, in Potsdam, Berlin or Cottbus.
• Tour de Fries (Friesland Tour) Circular tour from Wilhelmshafen 287km
• Von Main zu Rhön (From the River Main to the Rhön) 263km Circular

Austria

• Danube Cycle Route 629km Passau to Vienna
• Drauradweg (Cycle route along River Drau) (Austria) 366km from Toblach/Dobaccio (Italy) to Marburg.
• Murradweg (Cycle Route in the Mürr Valley) S of Salzburg to Croatia 457km
• Tauernradweg (Tauern Cycle Route) The route follows the Salzach und Saalach Rivers from Krimml to Passau. 308km
• Traisental-Radweg (Traisen Valley Cycle Route) Traismauer (Donau) to Mariazell. 111km

Three Star Routes
Germany

• Alte Salzstraße (Old Salt Road) Lübeck to Luneburg 116km
• D-Route 3 / Europaradweg R1 (D Route 3/European Cycle Route 1) 960km, Vreden – Küstrin-Kietz across Germany from W to E or E to W
• Fürst-Pückler-Weg (Fürst-Pückler-Cycle Route) 500km, circular route SE of Berlin through the Lausitz
• Grünroute (Green Route) 358km, Düren – Hasselt (Belgium)
• Gurkenradweg (Gherkin Cycle Route) 260km through the Spreewald
• Kohle-Wind & Wasser-Tour (Coal, Wind and Water Tour) 250km circular route SE of Berlin through the Lausitz
• Die Niederlausitzer Bergbautour (Lower Lausitz Mining Tour) >500km circular around Cottbus
• Radweg Berlin-Kopenhagen (The Berlin Copenhagen Cycle Route) 648km total, 260km in Denmark
• Radrouten Historische Stadtkerne - Route 1... (Cycleway through historic towns and cities No. 1) N of Berlin
• Romantic Road from Würzburg to Füssen
• Saarland-Radweg (Saarland Cycleway) 362km, Circular route around Saarland
• Seenland Route 184km in the Lausitz SE of Dresden
• Der Uckermärkische Radrundweg (Uckermark Route) circular 260km ENE Berlin almost on the Polish border

Vienna as a cycling city

Earlier in the year we wrote: "We are hoping to spend some time in Vienna this summer and intend to hire bikes for a few days". We have just returned from Vienna and we must be honest: We failed to fulfil our intention of hiring a velocipede or two to make the odd trip out into the woods and fields around the city. The friends we met there are not cyclists and so we decided that we would shelve our cycling plans in the interests of harmony. However we made some enquiries and kept our eyes open.
The city has 1200km of cycleways, 30 000 bike park racks and over 100 City Bike pickup points. Obviously Vienna is not yet a cyclists' city like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but it is well on its way. Without being unpatriotic it is farther down this road or cyclepath than London for example. However the city is not as flat as the two forerunners mentioned above.
There is an excellent cycle map available free of charge from the tourist office, which is much better than the general city plan also given out by this organisation. There is a navigation app for cyclists which can be downloaded from the city's cyclist website: www.fahrradwien.at (in German, of course). The website also offers a route planner, a list of events and hints for cycling in the city.
Public transport in the city is so good that I think if I l lived in Vienna I would be using this a good deal rather than cycling.
If you are visiting Vienna in the next few weeks, it is worth nipping into the MAK to see an exhibition of classic bicycles called "Tour du Monde". You need to be quick though it closes on 6 October 2013.

Neil discussing cycle routes in the city centre with two touring cyclists.

A new cross country cycle route in Germany

Planning cycle routes in and around Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim is complicated, because the area is at the junction of three German provinces: Baden-Württemberg, Hessen and Rheinlandpfalz. I was therefore pleased to read that the Verband Region Rhein Neckar (VRRN - Regional planning organisation) had set up a new cycle route from Lamprecht west of Neustadt an der Weinstraße to Osterburken in the Odenwald through Ludwigshafen, Mannheim and Heidelberg. Its symbol is a yellow square. The route runs for 171km across the region. It is not a new route, but older routes have had additional signposting and have been incorporated in the route.
I was less than pleased to read that although the section east of Mannheim is finished, the western 55km will be finished next year in 2014. It would appear that road signposting is very tightly controlled in Rheinlandpfalz. It does not give one much hope of utilising the Dutch Knooppunt system in Germany. This is a real pity.

Bike Hire in the Ruhr

As we have written before, we are rewriting our Rhine II downstream from Basel to Rotterdam cycle touring guide as an e-book. We have altered our philosophy. We no longer attempt to describe both banks in detail but lay down a route which is mainly on the left bank. If there is anything very interesting on the other bank,  Heidelberg, for example, we will run our route through the city. We will however describe the Ruhr in very general terms, but not run our route through it. If you find yourself in Duisburg, Essen, Dortmund or one of the other Ruhr cities when Schalke or Borussia are not playing then think about taking a cycle ride. The Ruhr like Gary, Indiana or the Black Country used to be an area of heavy industry: coking plants, steel works and coal mines. These industries have declined since the 1960s leaving some magnificent industrial architecture and a number of railway mineral lines that have since been converted into cycleways. Check out Ruhr Tourismus: www.ruhr-tourismus.de . Bikes are available to hire at various sites. We will add to this list over the next few weeks. 

Radstation am Bochumer HBf (Main railway station)

North exit of HBf Bochum

Kurt Schumacher Platz
Bochum

ViA Bochum

T: +49 234 41411-24,
radstation(at)via-bochum.de

Very reasonable prices for 7 gear trekking bikes for daily (9 Euro daily) or weekly hire (5 Euro daily). 

Radrunde Allgäu (Around Allgäu)

A high percentage of Germans like to cycle on holiday. Many Germans like to go on holiday in their own country. This is good news for the rest of us as it means tourist authorities all over Germany are hard at work laying out new cycle routes and improving those they have already.  The Allgäu is a area between Baden Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Tyrol, which is much visited by people who want quiet rural holidays. In order to cater for normal cyclists six counties, three provinces: Baden Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Tyrol, and two countries Austria and Germany have developed an amoeba-like circular route around the Allgäu and incorporated two earlier routes across the middle. The Allgäu is the cheese producing region of Germany, home to thousands of light brown cows with soulful eyes, green meadows, high roofed farmhouses and forests with the Alps in the background. We have cycled along the eastern edge to Füssen on the Romantic Road and written two guide books about the route: "Cycling the Romantic Road from Würzburg to Füssen" (eBook) available from Smashwords and Amazon.
“The Romantic Road from Würzburg to Füssen Culture-nature-romance A Cycle Guide from North to South and South to North” available from Bergstrasse Bike Books (http://www.bicycletouringeurope.eu/)

The route is 450km long, mainly tarmac with some hills. The Iller and Allgäu routes cross in Kempten and link the parts of the Allgäu route together. It is due to open on 2 June 2013. Our summer activities are already planned unfortunately, but given the chance I suspect we will go.

The sketch map is taken from the website www.radrunde-allgaeu.de (in German) which is published by Allgäu GmbH, Gesellschaft für Standort und Tourismus, Allgäuer Straße1, 87435 Kempten, Germany. 

The Swabian Potato Cycle Route

There are a number of culinary bike tours in Europe and we hope to describe some of them over the next few months. We will kick off with the Swabian Potato Cycle Route. It is a 215 km long family-friendly loop south from the Danube in the four districts of Günzburg, Augsburg, Ulm and Neu Ulm through the Allgau Bavarian Swabia. It is hilly in parts.  Ten inns along the route have joined together and each one offers very innovative and interesting potato dishes.
It is a round trip, so you can simply enter where you want.
http://www.radtour-schwaben.de/ (In German, but the sketch map of the route is understandable whether you speak German or not,)

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.

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.

Saarland Tourist App

A newish app for cyclists and walkers from from the Saarland Tourist Authority struck us as an excellent idea. The app shows a zoomable 1:25 000 map of every cycle and walking trail in the province with extensive descriptions, profiles, photographs, sites of interest and restaurants/cafés. In addition the happy or not so happy wanderer on finding damaged signs or not finding missing signs can take a photograph and send a message to the tourist authority describing route problems. If gps is turned on, the location is sent automatically. When we find a missing sign, we tend curse and promise to send an eMail when get home, but we often forget. Unfortunately the app is only available in German the moment, but profiles, maps and photographs don't demand much knowledge of the language. You could of course send an eMail to info@tz-s.de requesting a version in English. This type of app would be of use to folk like Sustrans as well. The app is available free of charge from the Apple iTunes store and the GooglePlay store. Check www.tourismus.saarland.de to find direct links and lots of information on the Saarland. The website is in German, English, Dutch and French, but only the German version offers a link to the app.

Vennbahn

We both enjoy cycling along national borders, crisscrossing from one country to the next. For us Britons it is fascinating that within a metre that laws, language, coffee flavour and cakes change completely. In Britain one needs to cross over or under the sea to experience this change. We are also fascinated by the concept of the enclave, an island of one country in another. The Vennbahn cycle route from Aachen (D) to Trois Vierges (LUX) offers the chance to experience slightly artificial enclaves and frequent border crossing on a former railway line, i.e. with very few steep hills. The enclaves arose because two German counties were annexed by Belgium in 1920 under the Treaty of Versailles. In addition Belgium was granted the Vennbahn railway between Aachen and Luxembourg. At the time the line connected the Ruhr coal mines and steelworks with the iron ore and steelworks in Luxembourg. It was of commercial and military importance. Unfortunately the line ran in part to the east of the border of the new Belgian cantons and so a number of German villages found themselves to be enclaves, because it was necessary to cross the railway line back in to the Fatherland. This gave rise to interesting smuggling activities, coffee, for example after WWII when coffee was very expensive in Germany and cheaper in Belgium.
We are hoping to cycle the 125 km route from Aachen to Luxembourg later in the summer. The problem in the moment is what do we do once we arrive in Luxembourg. Although there is an extensive network of cycle routes in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg the routes in the north are steep if memory serves correctly. More research is required. We could take a train from Trois Vierges to Trier and go home cheaply on a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket, but it seems to be a lot of railway for a little cycling.

River Rhine Cycle Route

The German Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (a German cycling club) produces an annual guide to cycling in Germany in German unfortunately. We received our copy last week and I was interested to see that finally, at long last that the club has recognised that the Rhine Cycling route runs through six countries and it is possible to cycle in, for example France or Germany. In the past the information on the Rhine route suggested that there were no facilities in France, that the Rhine route started at Konstanz and finished at the Dutch border. There are serious amounts of information in English available under http://www.rhinecycleroute.eu/UK_front-page?set_language=en.
We are in process of rewriting our Rhine 2 book from Basel to Rotterdam as an e-book. If all goes well it should be available from Amazon and Smashwords by the middle of May, this year.

Cycle Touring in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia

We have recently found two websites that are of interest for cyclists planning to cycle in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: www.cykloserver.cz for information about cycle routes and route planning and http://www.cyklistevitani.cz/ for cyclist friendly accommodation.

From Node to Node

If you've read our eBook: "Following the Rhine gently upstream Rotterdam to Basel, a Cycle Tourist’s Guide" available from Smashwords and Amazon you will have noticed that we are great fans of the Belgian and Dutch knooppunt system. This system uses a series of numbered points to link cycleways across a region. It's a great idea and means that navigation can be reduced to a list of numbers on a sheet of paper. The problem for the British and the US Americans as well would be that you need a basic network of cycle paths to start with. Obviously the system would work well in Germany and I was pleased to read recently that Rhine-Neuss County in North Rhine Westphalia in in process of setting up a node system for cyclists. It should be in operation this summer. Great news. It is to be hoped that other local authorities in Germany follow Rhine-Neuss County's example.

Middle-Northern Black Forest Cycle Route

Or to give the route its German title Naturpark Radweg Schwarzwald Mitte Nord is a 260 km (160 mile) cycle route with a total climb of 1800 metre (5850 feet) designed to be cycled by normal relatively unfit cyclists in four to six days. In addition those not equipped with muscles like Eddy Merckxx can hire pedelec e-bikes that give a boost on the hills. These can be hired along this circular cycle route and there are battery charging stations in cafés, restaurants and pubs giving you the chance to charge your own batteries while your bike's batteries are being topped up. There is more information on www.naturparkradweg.de  (in German, but don't forget Google Translator) and you can contact the Black Forest tourist authority:

Schwarzwald Tourismus GmbH
Ludwigstraße 23
D- 79104 Freiburg
phone: +49 761 89646 0
fax: +49 761 89646 70
mail@schwarzwald-tourismus.info

The website offers a GPS track for the route. 

Useful Links for cyclists touring in Germany

I read a blog today about route finding for cyclists in Germany. Somehow the authors managed to miss out our favourite links and some useful websites. Just to make up for the missing pearls:

Two from us: We are not being immodest. They do offer a lot of information about cycling in Alsace, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

http://www.bicycletouringeurope.eu/

If you need to take a train with your bike then our contribution to the AtoB website (http://www.atob.org.uk/bike-rail/bikeeurope-germany/) could be of interest.

www.bicyclegermany.com Maxa and Tim Burley's website with the distilled wisdom of over a decade's cycling in the Fatherland.

www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/germany.shtml An excellent review of cycling facilities in Germany.

http://www.germany.travel/en/leisure-and-recreation/cycling/cycling.html The German National Tourist
Office's website has extensive descriptions of the major signposted cycling routes in Germany.

http://www.radroutenplaner.nrw.de/RRP_home_02_en.html lets you plan cycle routes in North Rhine Westphalia.

http://www.radwanderland.de/cgi-bin/cms?_SID=df9edb615996e8707829748c76bdfc1dee426a4a00140470070523&_bereich=ansicht&_aktion=detail&schluessel=radwanderland&_sprache=en  lets you plan cycle routes in Rhineland Palatinate, not only in its wine country.

We mentioned the joys of cycling in Saarland recently on this blog: http://europeancycling.blogspot.de/2012/03/saarland.html#comments.

http://www.radroutenplaner.hessen.de/rphEN/rph_index_01.asp?Inhalt=rph_home_01.html lets you plan cycle routes in Hesse.

http://www.niedersachsen-tourism.de/en/aktiv-vital/rad-fahren/tipps-highlights/index.php offers information about cycling in Lower Saxony.

http://www.sh-tourismus.de/en/cycling-in-schleswig-holstein offers info about cycling in the North of Germany and into Denmark.

http://www.m-vp.de/english/8026.htm gives details of tours in NE Germany.

http://en.wikiloc.com/trails/cycling/germany/sachsen offers info about cycling in Saxony.

Unfortunately the tourist authorities of the province of Saxony Anhalt are of the opinion that only Germany speakers are interested in cycling there: http://www.sachsen-anhalt-tourismus.de/xxl/de/829429/index.html .

We just returned from a week in Thuringia and can heartily recommend it. There is some information under to be found  http://www.thuringia-tourism.com/travel-hotel-holiday-tour/radweg-thueringer-staedtekette-105795.html.

http://www.saxonytourism.com/go-active offers information about cycling in the province of Saxony.

The Brandenburg Tourist Office's website (http://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/pages/cycling.html) offers a compact description of the major cycle tourist routes in the province.

Berlin offers a lot to the cyclist: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/interactive/2011/aug/19/cyclingholidays-berlin-routes-maps-socialist-architecture-war-potsdam?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487  and http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/apr/22/bike-blog-cycling-berlin.

Bavaria is not only a very big province, it offers a wide range of cycle routes: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=2876&v=NV.