Knooppunt Navigation Nodes in Sauerland and Siegerland-Wittgenstein

Yet another tourist authority in Germany has set up a knooppunt sytem whereby cyclists cycle to and from numbered nodes rather than following lines of signposts across the country. South Westphalia has taken this courageous step. This is the area east of Dortmund stretching south. There is a downloadable app available for Android and iOS. More information can be found on radeln-nach-zahlen.de, in German.

We have just been to the National German Cycling Conference in Mannheim and I chatted to executives from the Sauerland Tourist Authority. I asked how well the system has been received. It would appear that the Germans arrive and think what does this bring me? After one or two visits they are very enthusiastic about the system. The other main group of cyclists in the Sauerland are the Dutch. They come from the Netherlands and understand immediately how the system works. It is what they have at home. They too are very pleased.

Are bike lanes invisible?

Like most regular cyclists I find my way blocked by oafs who park in painted stripe bike lanes: post vans, plumbers, shoppers, coaches, long distance buses, etc and I could go on and fill the whole blog with moaning, but I won't. I have learned to ignore these types who are too idle to walk ten metres when there is a perfectly good spot opposite the shop. Remonstrate and there's a good chance they will punch you or run you or some other cyclist off the road. It is not worth the high blood pressure. Forget it! These people have no idea and no manners. There was bike shop owner in Bolton who used to park his delivery van on a cycle lane on a busy main road in front of his shop. I am pleased to say that he is no longer there and the shop is shut.
What I didn't realise is that bike lanes are also invisible to city transport planners. The City of Mannheim, Germany is building a new tram line in the north of the city which has necessitated shutting 5km or so of track for six weeks during the school holidays. The service is now being covered by buses. At the end of the interruption passengers need to change from the tram to a bus and sometimes wait until one appears. The bus tram interchange at the southern end is by the Mannheim University Hospital just north of a bridge over the River Neckar which is also a main route for cyclists leaving the city centre to get to the northern suburbs and to the hospital. The cyclepath runs on past the site of the temporary bus stop. Unfortunately the road rises over the bridge and then drops past the hospital, so most cyclists let the pig out, i.e. speed up, as they drop down the slope. The two photographs below show that collisions and disturbances are pre-programmed. These were taken on a Saturday afternoon when there are fewer passengers. There are more during the week. Notice how the little hut has been cunningly placed to reduce the amount of space available on the footpath. The red brick area is the cyclepath.

Cyclepath (red)

The bus and tram arrive and the passengers cross to reach the bus, ignoring the cyclepath.

Cycle route planning in Germany with GPS download

Germany is a federal republic and cycle routes are the responsibility of the provinces, so formerly you had to check a number of sites if you wished to plan a cross country route. However those provinces that have online official route planners have got together under the VeRa website: http://www.radroutenplaner-deutschland.de/. Although it is in German it is easy to use. When you open the website there is a map showing the various provinces. Those that are brightly coloured offer route planners that cover the province and a few kilometres over their borders. Click on the map to use its cycling information systems. These programs also offer the possibility of planning routes into other provinces. Using the Baden Württemberg planner, for example, you can work out a route from Basel, Switzerland to Cologne through four different provinces.  

At the time of writing the following provinces offer route planning with GPS download: 

• Baden-Württemberg: German only, iPad Android App available.
• Bavaria: German only.
• Hesse: English available iPad Android App available.
• North Rhine Westphalia: English available.
• Rhineland Palatinate: English available.
• Schleswig-Holstein: English available.
• Thuringia: English available.

Bremen can be accessed via VeRa. The website is in German only with no GPS. It is a very small area.
Berlin also has a route planning program available, but not via VeRa: The http://www.bbbike.de website offers a German language route planner with the option of Android and iPhone apps

The NRW online route planner extends into Belgium and the Netherlands

We have mentioned the excellent NRW route planner before, www.radroutenplaner.nrw.de/. You can use the planner to map routes thirty kilometres or so into those bits of Belgium and the Netherlands that border NRW. It makes planning trips along the Rhine, for example, easier.

A Cycle Route Planner for the Netherlands.

Although we are Luddites when it comes to GPS we have noticed in recent months that route planning software has improved greatly. We wrote about the North Westphalian Route Planner earlier this week. By chance while checking the links in "Cycling in Europe, Hints and Tips for the Touring Cyclist" our new free pamphlet, I found a Dutch Route Planner for the Netherlands and a few km over the borders: http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner/. It is excellent. You have a choice of four languages: Dutch, German, Friesian and English. There is a bar across the top of the map with a "Languages" tab. Click on that to get the language you want. You can click on the map to set up the start and finish points, add intermediate points to adjust your route, see the location of the Knooppunt nodes, find all sorts of useful information for the tourist like cyclist friendly accommodation, bike shops, bike hire shops and even park benches (picnic spots?). It is quite wonderful and can offer hours of virtual cycling pleasures in the warmth of your living room when the icy wind is whistling off the frozen ponds outside. It could be even better if it connected to the North Westphalian Route Planner, but maybe one day…

Using the NRW Cycling Route Planner

The German province of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) has an online cycling route planner: http://radservice.radroutenplaner.nrw.de/rrp/nrw/cgi?lang=DE. This meshes in with the Hessian Route Planner offering bicycle routing down as far as Mannheim and Heidelberg. It offers a choice of languages: German, English, French, Dutch and Polish.

We are off to the Lower Rhine shortly to visit the Floriade horticultural exhibition in Venlo and check out a route across NRW along the Rhine as part of the research to update our book: "The Rhine End to End Part 2: Basel to Rotterdam". The guide will then be published as an e-book. We decided to use the online route planner to lay out our route and report on our experience.

Using the English version it is necessary to spell city names in German not in English, e.g. Köln not Cologne. The mode of operation of the English and German versions is different. In both versions one defines the start and finish points and calculates the route which is shown on screen.  There are preferences one can apply: ignoring hills or avoiding them; following any convenient route or road, the province's bicycle network, all the named routes (e.g. the 100 Castle Route) or a specific named route.
In the English version to modify the route you insert intermediate points in  order and then recalculate the route. You can have a problem if you need to modify a route early on as you will need to delete all the intermediate points to pop in the new ones. Zooming in and out means finding an intermediate point  and clicking on it. This all gives rise to a lot of work.

Unfairly the German version is a lot easier to use. Once you have set up the route in that you can add an intermediate point anywhere and the map immediately is modified. If you need to put an additional intermediate point in the middle of the field the other points renumber. Zooming is easier as well. There is a layout similar to that of Google Maps. In addition clicking any point on the route gives you distance from the start.

You can download GPS tracks, instructions or printed maps from both versions. I found the German version easy to use and very useful.

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.

Cycling in Denmark

Since its capital city, Copenhagen, is rated as one the best, if not the best city in the world to cycle, Denmark is obviously a good place for cycle touring. We were very pleased to discover a new route planning website for the country: cyclistic.dk on a recent visit to Copenhagen.