Cheaper by train from Stuttgart to Berlin

Deutsche Bahn - DB (German Railways) face little competition in the field of long distance passenger transport. There have been attempts by companies other than Deutsche Bahn to run long distance trains across Germany, but only one has remained and this offers a reduced service in comparison to the start of service: HKX between Köln and Hamburg.

A new service from Stuttgart to Berlin via

• Berlin
• Wolfsburg
• Hannover
• Göttingen
• Kassel
• Fulda
• Hanau
• Frankfurt
• Darmstadt
• Heidelberg
• Vaihingen (Enz)
• Stuttgart

has just started on 15 December 2016: Locomore. This is cheaper than Deutsche Bahn, German Railways. Fares are planned to be under the cost of a standard DB fare with a half price BahnCard 50. Heidelberg - Berlin costs between 20 and 65€. The standard DB fare is 136€ (68€ with a BahnCard 50), though with luck and early planning one can buy a DB ticket for 29€. Locomore tickets can be bought online, per telephone or directly in the train. Tickets bought in the train are the most expensive. The long distance bus fare Heidelberg - Berlin (Flixbus) costs from 19€ but at popular times like Christmas customers are looking at prices above 50€.

The trains are comfortable and reasonably fast: the Heidelberg - Berlin journey with Locomore takes 5h 48m whereas DB ICEs take 5h 15m, The bus takes at least eight hours. The Locomore trains take bikes. Bikes must be reserved in advance.

More information under https://locomore.com/en/. Will it be a success? Who knows? The company has some teething problems at the moment and is only offering a service four days a week until 6 April 2017, but passenger levels appear to be as expected.

Hiring bikes in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Fulda, Giessen, Wiesbaden

To mark the European Day of Cycling;
We have updated the Frankfurt page of the Cycling/Useful stuff/Bike Hire/Germany chapter on http://www.bicycletouringeurope.eu/.
We have written new pages for Darmstadt, Fulda, Giessen and Wiesbaden in the Cycling/Useful stuff/Bike Hire/Germany chapter on http://www.bicycletouringeurope.eu/.

Bike Hire in Mannheim and Middle Hesse

We've just updated our Bicycle Touring Europe website with a chapter on bike hire in middle Hesse (NE of Frankfurt am Main) and an addition to the bike hire possibilities in Mannheim: http://www.bicycletouringeurope.eu/cycling/useful-stuff/bike-hire/germany/index.html.

The hire bike problem

We are in the middle of our once a decade chuck out of pamphlets and paper. The danger is that one stops to read the stuff that is being thrown out and then you are doomed. However I found a piece of literature today that it struck could be an answer to the hire problem. BikePoint in Frankfurt, a bike workshop offering employment for the young longterm unemployed sells general reconditioned bikes for between 30€ and 200€. If you are going to do a longish tour - the Danube for example, you could set off from Frankfurt, cycle to Donaueschingen on to the Black Sea and leave the bike there. Then come back without worrying about finding a train to bring you and your steed back.The advantage over a hire bike is that you don't have to return to Mainhattan to return the bike.

Radreisemarkt (Cycle Touring Fair) Frankfurt I

Every year about this time the Frankfurt branch of the ADFC the German cycling club organises its Radreisemesse. If you live in or near Frankfurt it is worth popping along and paying 2 Euros to visit the stands set by various largely German tourist offices, the ADFC itself, bike shops and tour companies. We will report over the next few days or weeks about what we saw and what we think is interesting.
If you want to hire a bike, a pedelec, a trike or even a tandem in Frankfurt am Main then take a look at Mosch.spezialradreisen if you can read German or drop an eMail to post(at)spezialradreisen.de. This company organises cycle tours all over the world, but when the bikes are not needed for tours you can hire bikes from it. They seemed like a pleasant bunch of folks and their trikes: HP are top drawer machines.

Bike Hire in Frankfurt am Main

Sometime ago we were asked to help someone find a bicycle hire company in Frankfurt am Main. The questioner wanted to cycle round the Riesling Route (a route suggested by Judith and I: Mainz - Rhine Valley - Koblenz - Moselle Valley - Trier - Metz - Nancy - Strasbourg - Karlsruhe - Mainz). I contacted the tourist office and at that time I had great difficulty finding anything at all apart from DB German Railways city bike scheme: Call a Bike which offers very distinctive city bikes that one can pick up anywhere in the city and drop them off elsewhere paying only for the time one uses them. They are not much use for cycle touring, but are ideal if you wish to explore Frankfurt’s miles of cycle routes.
Since then we have kept our eye on the market and several new more companies have come to light offering bikes more suited to the touring cyclist:

Die Radprofis. Kai Hundertmarck und Theo Intra
Westerbachstraße 273
65936 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 34 27 80
www.intra-radsport.de

Hex Hex Fahrradladen
Owner: Berthold Gentzler
Gutleutstraße 156
60327 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 23 34 44
Fax: +49 (0) 69 / 23 34 94
www.hexhex-fahrraeder.de

Fahrrad Station Frankfurt
Inhaber: Susanne Sitzius
Ginnheimer Landstrasse 133
60431 Frankfurt am Main
Tel: 069/95114061
info@fahrradstation-frankfurt.de
www.fahrradstation-frankfurt.de

GoetheRad - Fahrradverleih am Goethturm
Sachsenhäuser Landwehrweg 1
60599 Frankfurt am Main - Sachsenhausen-Nord
Tel: +49 (0) 176/50 52 85 99
goetherad@googlemail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/goetherad/Home
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 2PM to 6PM 

You can of course also hire bikes from the above by the day.

I don’t know if all of these organisations can speak English, but I expect so.

If you are going to cycle for a week or so, it is worth taking your favourite saddle and click pedals if you use them.

Frankfurt Fair

No not the swings and roundabouts type but the exhibition grounds. I worked next door to the Frankfurt exhibition grounds. My employer ran the ACHEMA, the biggest chemical engineering exhibition in the world. Every year I had to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair. The big exhibitions all have one thing in common, there is a vast amount of waste at the end that is thrown away or not as the case may be. I can remember talking to a student on our stand at the ACHEMA. The exhibition grounds offer short term employment to a lot of students. This character said that the flat that he shared with several others, had wall-to-wall carpets. During an exhibition they had spied out one or more stands with suitable carpets and at the end they went to the stands to chat up the tear-down team. They offered to take up the carpets as long as they could have them. The horny handed tons of soil were pleased to save themselves some effort and readily agreed. The last day of the book fair was infamous for the wholesale disposal of books some of which were sold for a bob or two under the hand and some of which were chucked in the bins. One of my friends used to plan out his final day's trip through the site by noting where the stands of interest were during his visits on the days previous.
I was reminded of all this during our trip yesterday to Frankfurt. We went to celebrate an ex-colleague's 49th birthday and car parking in the bit of Frankfurt where they live is nie on impossible, so we tend to park next to the DECHEMA, by the Messe, the exhibition grounds. As we arrived the Home Textile Exhibition came to an end. The scenes on the platform of the Messe Station were reminiscent of TV documentaries about oriental markets. People were carrying immense bundles out of the exhibition and staggering up the stairs. We actually saw one chinese guy staggering under the load of a bamboo pole with 4 cotton bale sized packets of sheets, towels or cloth hanging in pairs from the ends. Others moved in short jumps depositing a one bundle and nipping back to pick up a second one, before dumping that to return to the first etc. On our return at about 11:00 p.m. we met the cleaners, mainly from 3rd world countries, moving in groups clutching cases, bundles and parcels using the base cap - food dump technique to transport their goodies home. Who can blame them? The Messe does not pay well, at least, at the bottom of the tree and the chance to improve the comfort and looks of their homes cannot be sniffed at.