Bikes and trains in Belgium

Our memories of Belgium, well I suppose, more exactly Flanders, are of a delightful place to cycle with well sign posted cycleways and friendly tourist offices. Obviously the quality of the beer and chocolate are other plus points. Belgian Railways too are bike friendly. You can put your bicycle on most trains and use most stations. The stations where changing with a bicycle is not possible are Brussels Central, Brussels Chapelle and Brussels Congres. Taking your bike with you costs 5 Euro per bicycle and trip and 9 Euro per tandem/bicycle with trailer and trip. There are similar day tickets for 8 and 16 Euro. You can buy a one trip ticket online or pick one up from a ticket office. You need to buy the day tickets from a station. You must load and unload your bicycle under the supervision of the train crew. If you can avoid travelling with a bike at peak times it makes life easier for all.

‘Cycle points’?
Cycle Points are a Belgian speciality and the result of cooperation between Belgian Railways and various social organisations. They are located in or around a railway station and offer a number of services: surveillance and maintenance of bike parks, bicycle rental to train passengers, commuters, students and tourists, corporate bicycle rental and minor repairs.

The first Cycle Points opened in the course of 2007, in the stations in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Courtrai, Bruges, Leuven and Mechelen.
Other stations in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia are to follow.

German Railways, yet again

Sorry about this but we saw a news item that struck us as important enough to publish a quickie blog about it: The ADFC the German cycling club has issued a map online that lets cyclists travelling through Germany find which long distance trains still take bicycles. There is a growing trend for Deutsche Bahn to replace ICs and ECs with ICE (Very High Speed Trains) that do not take bikes. If you then wish to travel with your bike on one of the routes where only ICEs run, then you will need to either have a folding bike or take to the regional trains, by far the majority of which take bikes. These are however much slower and long journeys can involve changing 6 or 7 times. Check the map at www.adfc.de/bahn. The map is in German, but is fairly obvious what it means. Click on "Netzkarte" and then you can see the words "Interaktive Entdeckerkarte". Below this there is a row of words: Täglich (Daily) Donnerstag (Thursday) Freitag (Friday) Samstag (Saturday) Sonntag (Sunday)Gesamtübersicht (Total). You can download various maps as pdf files. You will still need to check the German Railways website (www.bahn.co.uk) to find out the times of the trains.

Taking your bike on a train in France

French Railway services are divided into two groups: Grandes Lignes (main line) and TER (regional services). The two services work together and in practice there is no difference between the two groups. If you only wish to travel a short distance you can click on a link on the SNCF home page (www.voyages-sncf.com) that leads to a map of France to allow you select your region of interest. Not all but some of the main line services will take bicycles, including some of the high speed TGVs, whereas about 95% of all regional trains do. You can find out which mainline trains take bikes by clicking on conditions of service (in French) or check the SNCF bike site as well (in French). The English language conditions of service do not mention this. Probably no Frenchman expects les Rostbifs to know anything about cycling. If there is room in your train of choice you can pop your bike on the train and away you go. You can also reserve bike places on long distance trains beforehand. The local TER trains do not accept any form of reservation, but bicycle transport is free. One word of warning though, mainline trains do not take tandems. However we would recommend that when travelling on the TGVs that you reserve bike places. Not only are there but few, but also bikes block 4 additional seats that can be used by travellers without reserved tickets, of whom there can be quite a few. They are not likely to give up their seats unless you can wave your reservations under their nose.
It is suggested in various websites and downloads that one should use the German Railway website www.bahn.co.uk to find trains in France that offer places for bikes. The German Railways website offers a button “Transport of bicycle required” so you can filter out all the trains that do not transport bikes beforehand . However any database is only as good as the data put in it. Unfortunately www.bahn.co.uk only recognises that the TGVs running between Paris, Strasbourg and Munich can carry bikes. All the other TGVs are assumed not to carry bikes. In addition there is no mention at the time of writing that at least one extremely useful sleeping car train from Paris to Toulouse takes bicycles. We would suggest you use www.voyages-sncf.com for your preparations. Obviously this situation could change in future.
If these thoughts are not enough click on http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/CyclingInFrance to find Leo Woodland's guide to cycling in France with a good description of the perils and pleasures of taking le train with your velo.

Electrobikes only for the elderly or infirm?

We subscribe to AtoB magazine (www.atob.org.uk) a rather quirky, amusing and timely publication for folks interested in both cycling and public transport issues. In its early days folding bikes, like the Brompton and Birdy and the pitfalls of privatised railways in the UK, took centre stage. Over time general themes like individual energy use, environmental concerns and climate change have been cleverly worked into the mix of articles. Folding bikes of every provenance plus trailers for child transport are given test rides and their advantages and disadvantages described, sometimes upsetting major suppliers of course. Initially bikes assisted with electric motors were rarely considered since any that existed tended to be heavy, inefficient and unreliable. However, as with folders and separables like the Moulton or BikeFridays, ebikes like the Powerbike are gradually becoming almost mainstream devices. Many AtoB readers complain frequently about the inclusion of these ebikes in the reviews, clearly regarding them as not real bikes and only fit for the elderly and infirm. Legally they are defined as bikes and can therefore be ridden without a licence and also use cycleways or highway sections designated for cyclists. They are almost as quiet as bikes in use, tyre noise being the main sound.
A close look at the population structure of most Western European countries quickly reveals that a sizeable proportion is already over 55 and this chunk is expected to grow as most birthrates decline. Opinions vary as to the age at which the term elderly can be applied. I’m now around the age at which I first became aware of my Grandmother as a person, a little old lady in a black dress, but anyone who calls me elderly is likely to get slapped on the face or challenged to a bike ride. Like most people we hadn’t thought much about the potential benefits of ebikes until our local bike shop hosted a demonstration. It took place at the Senior Citizens Centre, a spacious airy building in the town centre about as far removed from similar establishments I’ve visited elsewhere that one can imagine. Coffee, tea, soft drinks are served at sensible prices and cakes, home made by Frau X or Y are delicious. The place was packed as the bikes were displayed and their advantages discussed. A young woman with a heart problem also appeared, with her trusty steed now somewhat outmoded, but which had enabled her to work as a peripatetic music teacher, without a car. She is also able to tour with her family, something impossible for her using a normal bike. Her ebike, she said, had given her her life back, which I can believe.
The real action then took place as the ebikes and a trike were wheeled outside and after a quick demonstration were grabbed, mainly by menfolk to start with. There were a few wobbles but then with a rush they were away to make the streets of Viernheim into the Hockenheim Ring for bikes. Riders have to keep pedalling, so there is some effort involved keeping the circulation going. Several ladies joined in on the next round and returned with beaming faces, though the trike was deemed a little strange to ride. Two models were available, one the Vital-Bike with a detachable lithium battery and charger. It comes with some variable features and has a range of about 50km between charges. The other Hercules bike looks almost like an ordinary town bike but has the battery built into the frame, making it perhaps more difficult to charge away from home, since few hotels really like bikes in bedrooms. (We’ve been forced to do this occasionally, where there was no secure storage, but can’t recommend it). Only for the elderly and inform then? Well perhaps, but there is anecdotal evidence of people who haven’t ridden a bike for years buying an ebike then selling it a year or so later because they had regained enough fitness to return to a normal bike.
There is another twist to this tale. Our local bike shop has been suffering more and more from competition from what one can only describe as bike supermarkets in big sheds, where glossy machines apparently displaying all the must have devices, gear ratios and navigational systems or whatever are offered for the price of a cup of tea and a scone. Of course most of us realise that you get what you pay for and these supermarkets offer little in the way of after service, but if your child’s bike has been stolen twice most folks will take the risk and get the next one for 250 Euros and a bar of Ritter Sport chocolate. In Andreas’s shop bikes for adults range from perhaps 550€ at the bottom end and it is easy to exceed a couple of thousand if you want something for racing or long distance touring.
Some bike shops have simply disappeared, others sell motorbikes and scooters, but Andreas has branched out into the ebike business. In his first week after the demonstration he sold three ebikes and hopes to develop into a centre for the Rhein-Neckar region, with 2 million inhabitants including Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen. Good for business, good for keeping the not so fit on the move and good for riders of human powered machines who need local bike shops for supplies and maintenance.
Technical details and some ideas on ebike touring follow in subsequent blogs.

Brushing off the cobwebs

The last two winters have been very mild here in Germany’s Rhine Valley so our folding bikes have been used throughout the darker months. We do our local errands and occasionally dash off on the rough tracks in nearby woods on crisp sunny days. In February a run of frosty mornings followed by spring-like afternoon temperatures tempted us to lift down our mountain bikes, pump up the tyres and dislodge the odd spider. Not that the run over the farm roads to visit friends in the next town but one really merited the MTBs but, maybe we’d run into a cowpat or find the road blocked by earth tremor. It just seemed the right kind of weather so we pulled on the wind proofs and persuaded our elderly legs into can-can position over the crossbars and headed north. Without saying a word both of us set off at a cracking pace round the edge of the town and alongside the drainage ditches running parallel to the Odenwald Hills to our right. Birds were twittering in the bushes, the hills rose in greens and browns, and we arrived at our friend’s house slightly out of breath and ready for coffee, cake and conversation. The return journey’s pace was more moderate, perhaps as a result of being tempted by strawberry topped tart and delicious cheese cake. As we returned the bikes to our cellar, both of us were convinced that spring really was around the corner and we’d be biking longer routes very shortly.
We should have known better for the weather gods still needed a bit of winter fun and a series of violent storms blasted through our area, destroying lots of trees and causing a few deaths. The German weather service give names to low and high pressure systems, which people can give as presents to their loved ones. We’re not sure that we’d like to be remembered as ‘low Neil’ which wreaked death and destruction across half a country or ‘high Judith’, responsible for the worst drought since records began, but there’s no accounting for folk. Expeditions by bike were minimal, necessary journeys close to home as the weather nastiness rose to a crescendo over Easter. Snow, which had held off all winter finally coated the garden and the Odenwald hilltops were white for days as temperatures hovered in that unpleasant range just above freezing. On Easter Sunday we caught the tram into Mannheim, bought an English Sunday paper at the station and marched for 40 minutes along the Rhine upstream before and even more rapid about turn to catch the tram home to warmth, cups of tea and a (home-made) hot cross bun.
A week later temperatures were back at mid February level and we could cycle by Brompton into Mannheim to buy our weekly fix of news from home. It was wonderful, after our enjoyable bike ride, to read about the tribulations of the new T5 at Heathrow. Schadenfreude can be so enjoyable, especially when no one has been hurt physically. What a turnaround could have been achieved for ordinary public transport, plus storage facilities for cyclists at bus and train stations, with all those billions of pounds. There would be no prestige, little razzmatazz but quite possibly all might have gone according to plan, and saved the planet to boot!

Swiss Public Transport made easy for cyclists

Swiss public transport is the best in the world. It starts with travel information. There is only one website offering travel information for any means of surface transport: www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm. The keyword is integration. The system delivers public transport, but the individual components can be state, privately or regionally owned. It is very bicycle friendly.

By far the majority of trains take bicycles. The cost: a single adult fare up to 10 or 15CHF, above which you can buy a day ticket for the bicycle. Stations have ramps and lifts to help you get your bike up to the platform. Even quite small stations are manned. Ticket machines are multilingual: English, French, German and Italian.
Postbuses take bicycles, either inside, on hooks at the back of the bus or on a trailer. Bicycles cost 6CHF per bus trip in 2006. Theoretically you need to book a bicycle place on a bus the day before. In our experience, outside the high season this is not necessary. The drivers are helpful in securing bikes outside or on trailers. It is bad for their image to spray the countryside with bicycles.

There are various travel passes available: Swiss Pass, Swiss Card and regional tickets that offer you free or reduced price travel. However the only ticket that could be of interest to the cyclist is the Swiss Card that offers you free transport to your destination from the border crossing point and half price travel after that. If you intend to spend most of your time in the saddle then paying the full price is probably the best option. The Swiss Tourist Office has more information.

Minor idiosyncrasies and things we have learned, the hard way:

Because the easiest way to buy a ticket is to use a machine, make sure that you have enough small notes or coins. Although these machines also take Euro notes they only give change up to 20 CHF.
Out in the boondocks buses replace branch line trains often after 20:00. For some reason known only to the Fat Controller, these buses do not take bikes and do not always stop directly at the stations.

At some small stations, trains will not stop unless someone wants to get off or you push a button next to the ticket machine. Once on the train check whether you should push one of these buttons to tell the driver that you wish to alight. Be ready to dismount, standing by the door, once the train stops.

If disaster strikes and you need to make a complicated journey then check where you need to change trains before making the journey, otherwise you may end up wasting 55 minutes on a Swiss Bogsworthy Junction.

Getting on and off trains

You may well only have two minutes to get your party and the bikes on the train. Be prepared. There are marked areas on trains reserved for bicycles. The stations often have blue posters showing where to put your bikes on the train. These special compartments on the train are indicated by a bicycle logo on the window. On the double decker IR trains these are at one end only. Check the blue posters or ask station staff to find out where they are likely to be. Staff normally speak some English. Walking through the double decker trains clutching a bike is difficult especially up and down narrow stairs. There is no access on one level from carriage to carriage along the train. If you find you are in the wrong place it is quicker to run with your bike along the platform, rather than stuffing it anywhere and attempting to move once the train is in motion. It is likely you will need to hang your bikes from a hook.
Take luggage off the bicycles. Check you’ve got it all before the train leaves. Leaving the bar bag behind with your camera, and passport can quite spoil your day. If you have problems get one member of the party to lean on the open door button. The train cannot leave with a open door. There is often a button on automatic doors for disabled passengers which means the door stays open longer, use it!
If you travel on a train with a baggage car, the staff expect you to hang your bikes up yourself, though they will help you get them on the train.

Ships

Lake ships take bicycles. A crew member will show where to put your bike. It is a good idea to have a bungee with you to fasten the bicycle to the mainbrace or similar.

PS There is a lot more information about Swiss cycling in our new book:"Cycle Touring in Switzerland" ISBN: 9781852845261 from the Cicerone Press, Milnthorpe UK.

Politicians

I have often thought than if a politician told you the time, you should also check the time on your watch or handy - mobile/cell phone. I don't think politicians lie, but they just wish to tell you what they think you want to hear. This is of course leads to a lack of joined up thinking. At the moment the good citizens of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland or Germany to me and thee have a prime example dangling before their noses. The federal government wishes us all to travel using devices that emit less carbon dioxide, e.g. the railways. Somehow the fact that the number of passenger airports has increased over the last few years and that Frankfurt Airport is to have another runway is ignored, although these changes will automatically lead to more flights and more air pollution - read carbon dioxide.
On the other hand regional public transport is subsidised by the federal government - good. This should lead to it being more attractive. However the federal government is strapped for cash and is now cutting this subsidy down so that in a few years time there will be no subsidy.Thus making regional public transport less attractive and encouraging folk to get in their carbon dioxide spewing monsters to travel about.
The federal government is strapped for cash and wishes to flog off the silver cutlery in the form of 40% of the federally owned railways. The railways have started to make themselves attractive to investors by cutting on useful services such the Intercity trains that take bicycles replacing them by InterCityExpress trains that do not take bicycles. The poor cyclist can take a series of local trains that stop at every halt to travel across the country. If one wants to travel to various areas to enjoy a cycle tour in various parts of the country without taking so long that one is pensionable age before one arrives it necessary to take a motor car.
Joined up thinking?

Germany Part II

One piece of good news and one piece of very good news.
The good news
DB AG announced recently that bicycle transport on the IC/EC line between Nürnberg (Nuremberg) and Karlsruhe and between Frankfurt am Main and Salzburg via Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, Munich and will be transported free of charge between 15 August 2008 and 15 November 2008. You will still have to reserve the bike places, but it should save 9€ a bike.
The very good news
German Railways will allow booking of bike tickets online sometime in 2008.

Putting you and your bikes on public transport in Europe

Although many of us have a dream of cycle touring where we set off from home to end up in Gibraltar via Tromso or go coast to coast across the USA, most of us have limited time to go on holiday. Even we pensioners cannot leave our modest little home in the West for too long, because the lawn needs mowing or the flower beds need weeding, so the first question we need to ask when we are going to do a spot of bicycle touring is how do we get there? In Western Europe the answer to this question is normally the train, although the railways sometime make it difficult to transport cyclists and their accompanying bicycles, not to mention tricycles! We will look at public transport for cyclists and accompanying bicycles in various European countries over the next few editions of this blog.

A very useful starting guide to European railways is www.seat61.com.

Part I Germany

Let’s look at Germany first:

If you are short on time then the basic message that comes out of all this is that long distance travel with a bicycle by train in Germany is possible but choice is very limited and you need book early in order to travel in summer. Regional services up to about 200km with accompanied bicycles however are superb. The German Railways web site is www.bahn.co.uk.

There are very few long distance bus routes in Germany. The government decided to protect the railways in the 1930s and passed legislation so there is a restrictive licensing procedure to open new bus routes. In view of the fact that the present government wishes to sell off part of the railways, it is unlikely that permission will be granted to any possible competitors to open up new bus routes. There are a few bus routes to Berlin, a long distance bus route down from Hamburg to Mannheim and the Romantic Road bus line from Frankfurt am Main to Füssen near Ludwig II’s fairy tale castle via Munich and Oberammergau. As far as we know only the latter has provision to take bikes, but the other buses may well do so if there is room in the luggage compartment. We are only going to look at railways.

Germany’s railways are state owned, at least at present though Deutsche Bahn is to be privatised, but fortunately not in the same meshuga way that the British Government privatised its railway system. The railway is to be split into a track and an operating division. The track is staying under state control and 40% of the operational system will be sold off. It is hoped to raise vast amounts of capital. Unfortunately the fact that railway systems that have been privatised have invariably gone down the pan is being ignored. New Zealand had to renationalise the tracks after a disastrous experience with a privatised railway company and it looks like there is a good chance that the operating railways there will be restored to public ownership, as well. I was amused to find out that even in that home of private railways, the USA, at least one of the commuter lines that feed New York is publicly owned by the Connecticut Department of Transport. End of rant!

At present Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) operates most of the subsidised suburban and regional services. Other organisations, consortia of public authorities with DB, and the private foreign companies like Connex or SBB Swiss Rail run other subsidised services. The subsidy is paid by the provincial governments. DB operates its long distance services without subsidy at a profit. Different types and classes of trains are used in these services.

Long distance express trains:

These trains have a fixed frequency and mostly depart at the same time after the hour every one or two hours from early morning to the evening at least for the core of the journey.

Intercity Express (ICE)

These are the flagships of the DB and are high speed train units travelling at speeds up to 300kph and do not take any bicycles except folding bicycles in a cover. Some of the services to and from France are on TGVs and Thalys (THA). Some of the TGVs take up to 4 bicycles, though this information could not on be found on the otherwise excellent DB web site: www.bahn.co.uk. (Check the French Rail web site: www.voyages-sncf.com.) THA is another high speed train running between Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne and Paris operated by Thalys an independent company owned by French Rail (SNCF), Belgian Rail (SNCB), Netherlands Rail (NS) and DB. This too does not accept bicycles. except bagged folding bikes. All of these high speed trains only offer services to major cities like Frankfurt, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg and Munich.

Intercity/Eurocity (IC/EC)

These are conventional trains hauled by a locomotive and offer accommodation for up to 16 bicycles. The bicycle compartment is in the end carriage behind the driver’s compartment. ICs run not only between major centres, but also important regional centres in Germany. An IC/EC travelling between Mannheim and Ulm would stop additionally in three smaller towns or cities. ECs are international trains offering the same services in Germany and abroad. They are slightly slower than the ICEs. Tickets for these trains are cheaper than the tickets for the ICE.

The regional trains

All of the regional trains take bicycles. These trains tie in with the ICE and IC/EC trains to service smaller towns and cities. These trains are subsidised. Although one can use DB tickets regional transport authority tickets can also be used. It is possible to travel long distances across Germany on the these trains, but it does involve changing trains more often than we would want.

Interregio Express (IRE) and Regional Express (RE)

These trains do not stop at the smaller stations but do offer a reasonably fast service between regional centres.

Regionalbahn (RB)

These trains stop at every station and are thus slow.

S-Bahn/U-Bahn

Suburban and underground trains stopping at every station near the larger cities. Access to these is often restricted during rush hour.

Night Trains (City Night Line (CNL), D-Nacht, Euronight)

The night trains offer the possibility of travelling long distances with one’s bicycle without having to change frequently.

Where do the IC/EC go, when and how often?

IC/EC are the best way for the cyclist to travel with his bicycle. Unfortunately the DB appears to be phasing many of these out to replace them with ICEs for which it can charge more. The ADFC, the German Cycling Club, has produced a downloadable map showing the long distance services on offer (http://www.adfc.de/645_1). The map is in German but with the help of a dictionary it is easily understood.

Tickets

There are a number of special offers that offer less than half price fares as long as one is prepared to travel outside the high density travel periods of Friday and Sunday afternoon/evenings and travel by a specified train. Check out www.bahn.co.uk for details. If at least two of you are travelling by regional train only, then check out the ‘Schönes Wochende Ticket’ valid at weekends and the ‘Länder’ Tickets valid in each of the provinces during the week and at weekends.

Your bicycle will cost 9€ in the long distance trains within Germany. A trailer costs the same amount. A recumbent or a tandem costs 18€. A bicycle costs 4.50€ in regional trains in some regions, in others it is free. The DB puts out a German language brochure called “Bahn und Bike” with more exact information. If travelling on a long distance train it is necessary to reserve a place for your bicycle. This is what you need to enquire about first. This can be carried out on line. You need to do this part of the booking by telephone. If you wish to to travel in the summer, especially on a Saturday try to make a reservation three months in advance.

International bicycle tickets cost 10€ and include a reservation for a bicycle. These are valid from your starting station to your destination. Again recumbents and tandems cost double.

Somewhere to lay your head part II

Two of the complaints one hears about Switzerland is the cost of food in restaurants and the cost of accommodation. Our way round the former is to eat lunch in either Coop or Migros self-service restaurants, unfortunately only at lunchtime. We normally eat the meal of the day. We write unfortunately because one of the activities we enjoy in Switzerland is cycling and after a heavy lunch need to find a patch of grass, lie down and close our eyes. This is not too good an idea when we need to climb 1000m of pass or just cycle 50km of fairly level lakeside route. We eat a picnic at lunchtime and then eat out in the evenings. We wander round the town or village until we have checked out a number of restaurants to find somewhere reasonable. If we are stopping in a Youth Hostel we eat there. Most Youth Hostels provide a meal in the evening, but this needs to be booked in advance. The excellent Swiss YHA website (www.youthhostel.ch) lets you book a meal in advance when you book online.
There are several way round the accommodation problem. We spent several weeks last year cycling in Switzerland researching our book on Cycle Touring in Switzerland which will be published by Cicerone Press in Milnthorpe, England in April. (End of plug) Youth Hostels will also take grey haired members of society, but it is advisable to book ahead whether 20 or 120 years old. Prices vary but we have stopped in the Lausanne YH for 58CHF per person in a double room with shower/WC. Obviously beds in less well visited areas or less luxurious cost much less starting around 30CHF.
Another useful web site is the Swiss bed and breakfast site: www.bnb.ch. We stopped in a farmhouse near Grindelwald with a view across the Eiger North Wall in a double room with for about 40CHF a head recently.
In addition the Swiss Tourist Office has a brochure about affordable hotels which you can download from its web site: http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/mhs/.

Colourful panniers

We have been looking at new panniers for my Dahon Speed TR recently. The 24L offered by my trusty Carradice Camper Longflap saddlebag is bit small for trips of several weeks especially if we are camping. I towed a trailer on the last trip, but as soon as the going gets rough a two wheeled trailer is difficult to tow. One line of thinking is a single wheeled trailer, not only the BOB, but the much lighter Extrawheel (www.extrawheel.com/index_en.php). We have still not solved the problem, but I did notice that most bag manufacturers offer basically black bags with highlights in grey - OK a range of greys - mouse grey, lead grey, steel grey, ash grey, light grey and dark grey, but still grey. There are noticeable exceptions - Ortlieb and Vaude, but their bags tend to be a single colour.
I was very pleased to find the Dutch company Clarijs Covers (www.clarijscovers.com) who offer a range of plastic coated cloth panniers with cover, sides and ends in any of 18 colours and they will even put your name on the reflective strips. Red, orange and purple panniers are possible. The company also makes 'shoppers' (shopping bags) that fit into the larger panniers. The company will fit a ring on to the pannier to allow it to be locked onto the bike. I cannot see Dutch cyclists buying rubbish, so the panniers should be hard wearing offering a long life. It may actually reduce the attraction of the bike to thieves if your name is on a bag locked onto the frame.

The perfect squelch

We were in Carcassone with two touring bikes and a trailer. We had been camping but we'd decided to go to a B&B as the weather had turned distinctly cold. We parked the two bikes outside the tourist office at the end of a parking bay. I went into the office to get the addresses of B&Bs farther along the Canal du Midi. It was the wrong office and we were directed to another tourist office under the walls of the Cité. Meanwhile a small printer's van drew up outside and the driver suggested to Judith in no uncertain terms she put the bikes on the pavement effectively blocking it and he would stick the vehicle's nose in the space left by our bikes (thus also blocking the street.). He wanted to deliver some printing. Judith refused.
Driver:"Madame I am working. You are only on holiday."
Judith: "Without us and our money monsieur, you would have no work!"
Driver drove off in high dudgeon and blocked the footpath himself.

Bike, long distance touring for the use of

We get asked from time to time what the best bike is to cycle on long distance European trails like the Rhine or the Danube. "Shall I bring my road bike or my mountain bike?" We are of the opinion that a touring bike is better than either a road bike or a mountain bike, since it is easier to carry luggage and can cope with occasional gravel trails. Otherwise really which you choose depends on the kind of route you want to take. We're currently in the process of completing a book about cycling in Switzerland so we've seen a lot of Swiss cycle trails in the last 12 months and are currently at home in Germany having been defeated by 9 inches of late snow in the mountains above Lucerne! We have several meisterwerks in print in English, including one about the Rhine from Basel to Rotterdam, and there are plenty of cycle routes in the Netherlands between Nijmegen and Amsterdam. From Zürich Swiss national route 5 can be accessed just north of the city and links with Route 8 along the R. Aare to its confluence with the Rhine upstream of Basel. A more sporting route would be to swing west from Neuchatel onto Route 7 through the Jura to Basel. These routes link minor roads and are superbly well signposted, plus there are plenty of places to stay. They do use forest and farm trails where necessary, hence the point about touring bikes. If you decide to bring either of the other two then one point to bear in mind is that it is better to carry your gear on the bike rather than on your back and that it can rain in Europe in summer. We met two Canadians recently on road bikes who had had to hike along a rough trail plus puddles happen after rain so mudguards come in handy. People do cycle on major roads, apart from autobahns, we just don't care for the noise and the fumes. We've done our research on Dahon Speed TR folding bikes which coped with everything so far apart from the 9 inches of snow.

Untried or tried and found wanting!

Untried and untested
We’ve often written advice about trying out equipment and reading instructions in our guides before setting off on tours. Like everyone else we frequently ignore this ourselves. Bikes after all are bikes and the basic principles of repair and maintenance apply whether they are foldies or mountain bikes. Or do they? Bicycle mechanics would probably assure us otherwise as technical changes and new systems of gearing have moved apace recently. We’d set off for Switzerland to fill in some gaps on the lowland routes using our Dahon Speed TR folding bikes. It was Sunday and the morning mist rolled back as we sweated up the hill from the Lake Constance ferry point to the city of Konstanz itself.
At the hilltop Neil's chain jammed. The usual hooking with the knife can opener failed to free it. A nearby church porch offered shade and protection from helpful passers-by as it seemed probable that the back wheel would have to come out. At this point he removed the Sram gear changer, which just slips off and was just about to loosen the wheel nuts when I suggested taking the luggage off and turning the bike upside down to reduce tension on the chain. I have bad memories of early tussles with Brompton back wheels and of course the instructions were, in the interests of weight saving, back in Viernheim. Suddenly the chain came free and Neil restored the Sram fitting. Both of us shed some clothing and munched down a sandwich and pasty bought en route in Wasserburg.
We got back on the bikes prepared to whizz through Konstanz and out along the north bank of the Bodensee in fine style. Hmm - it turns out that to reattach a Sram changer needs a qualification in Fine Mechanics 101 and the patience of Job. For the uninitiated our Dahons have theoretically 21 gears. A handlebar lever operates the Sram hub gears in three ranges, whilst a twist Derailleur offers 7 variations in each range. It sounds complicated but works like a charm since you can flick the Sram into high or low when sudden ascents or descents present themselves. Inspection of my Sram revealed a yellow bar, missing on Neil's which also failed to offer him most of the 21 options. More fiddling brought some improvement and he opted to grin and bear it for the rest of the trip to Gailingen, a German semi-enclave surrounded by Switzerland on three sides on the north bank of the Rhine. The final section is along a walker's path through the woods, up a steep climb, fairly tortuous on a healthy bike and a real grind on a sick one, so we were relieved to reach our overnight destination. Unlikely under the circumstances of the missing gears on Neil's bike and the knowledge that Swiss bike shops are closed on Mondays. (Don't ask us, it was a Monday of course). We stocked up on necessities in Euroland Gailingen and headed along a green silent Rhine into Schaffhausen, pinning our hopes on a bikebuilder who had correctly fettled Neil's front fork assembly last year. He was 'away in Taiwan, at a bike show, back tomorrow'. All the other four shops were...closed so we continued, along, up and down past the Rhine Falls, eschewing the pay toilets at the Falls in favour of a woodland view. On through some delightful small villages until we hit a long rough section through lovely woods by Zurzach, every tree producing pollen by the ton, my eyes said, and eventually over the Rhine into Germany by late afternoon. My front fork assembly had reacted badly to the Rhine gravels and suddenly the bike was unrideable as it yawed and strayed from the intended course. This was no joke since hoards of Swiss shoppers were pouring by car into the Euroland shops (and more importantly the customs office where they reclaim the German VAT in Rheinheim), whilst German workers were returning home from better paid jobs in Switzerland. Fortunately we knew of a cycle repair shop here and I walked the last few yards, pushing my sick bike. The mechanic looked somewhat bemused as the handlebars waggled in all directions and I revealed the seat of the problem by folding back the handlebars. No one looked hopeful. However in 15 mins or so he returned, not convinced he had cured the problem and refused to take any payment. Amazingly to date I've had no further problems, nor have the handlebars slipped sideways on rough paths. Under the circumstances Neil felt he could not mention the Sram problem so he persevered up some horrible hills until we reached our overnight stop with friends. Early next morning another local mechanic did some more fiddling with the Sram until he persuaded another lever to click and hold and Neil finally had a full set of gears, very useful as the route includes many short steep climbs and downhills. So clearly we’ll have to bore even more holes in our toothbrush handles to compensate for the weight of the instructions next time we set off - and take our own instructions to heart!

Finding somewhere to lay your head

I am loathe to mention the products of organisations, other than our own or the one we are writing a book for, but I think I need to make an exception for one series of Esterbauer Books: “Bett und Bike”, which includes Bed and Bike Flandern (Flanders) (ISBN 978-3-85000-255-7). The ADFC, a German cyclist club laid down a list of specifications some time ago for bike friendly hotels. Hotels wishing to join the scheme have to agree to provide lockable bike accommodation, carbohydrate rich breakfasts for cyclists, accept folk for one night, public transport information and other similar things. This does mean that the smaller B&Bs where cheapskates like me prefer to stop, cannot match all of these criteria and so don't appear whereas the major chains and more expensive houses can offer all of these facilities, do. I would personally prefer to include say the hotels/guest houses/B&Bs that take folk for one night and encourage people to offer some of the other facilities. I do have the impression that the ADFC approach is also designed to improve the public image of cyclists as not always stopping in B&Bs and Youth Hostels. The latter however are included in the German volumes. The books cover Flanders, i.e North Belgium, all of Germany and a few hotels in Luxembourg. You can check out the accommodation lists by going to the ADFC website (www.adfc.de) but you will need some German. The Flanders book also does not mention the Trekkershutten which are simple wooden huts with four berths and cooking facilities mainly on commercial campsites. They cost around €40 a night. You need to take a sleeping bag, but that's all. We have used them and they are superb value for money. (www.trekkershutten.nl. Click on the “Zoek een Hut” button to see a map of where the Dutch ones are and then click on the Belgian flag at the bottom to see the ones in Flanders.) Flanders is a great place to go cycling. Lots of history, some but not too many hills and the beer is good too.
The idea has also spread to Switzerland. Veloland Schweiz the Swiss cycling Foundation has produced a similar guide called “Velo & Bett” (ISBN: 3-85932-522-1) covering the whole country. You can find the same information on the Veloland Schweiz website (www.cycling-in-switzerland.ch) as well.

Almond Blossom Time

Some places go mad about roses, New England boasts about dying leaves, Japan goes wild about blooming cherries and with Ginmeldingen it is almond blossom. Hmm, Ginmeldingen, perhaps not a place on everyone’s lips, and to be honest a really tiny place, close to the rather small Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, which lies about 25 km southwest of Ludwigshafen, in Germany. (Tip, find Heidelberg then look slightly northwest on the left bank on the Rhine.) This is where the Rhine flows northwards through a rift valley bordered on the west by the hills of Rheinland Pfalz and on the east by the Odenwald. The Rhine lowlands have sandy soils excellent for growing asparagus and salad crops but the east and southfacing slopes of the Pfalzerwald are excellent for wine production. This is the German equivalent of big wine country with large vineyards, many still in the hands of families, sloping uphill to the steeper wooded hill crests. For days our local paper had been praising the excellence of this year’s almond blossom, about a month a head of schedule and undamaged by biting winds or heavy rain. So we abandoned our garden tools and switched off the computer, made a sandwich, filled the water bottles and set off on our Bromptons to hitch a ride by tram and suburban train over the Rhine to the vineyards.
Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, with its mix of mundane shops and imposing villas of wealthy vintners was soon left behind as we rode uphill and onto the Weinstrasse, the Wine Road that links the wine villages and towns here. It is an ancient trade route, predating the Romans and some of the villages have a long history, as we soon discovered. Almost immediately we encountered our first almond trees, certainly very fetching with their pink and white flowers against the mainly blue sky. Some high cirrus had replaced the deep cloudless blue of the previous day but did not obscure the sun. Some of the almond trees have been here for years, burly multibranched specimens but others are much more recent and both the size and the colour of the blooms varied. Other cyclists on mountain bikes headed to the higher slopes but many were like us, out for a day’s jaunt in no particular hurry.
In Ginmeldingen itself, a spring line village with a small stream running down a deep valley flanked by an assortment of old and new houses and farms we came across a reference to Mithras, the ancient Persian god of light. A replica of a stone relief, deeply weathered, showing a bull and various figures sits in a wall close to where the original (now in a museum) was found during building work. Whether the cult was brought here by the Romans or Celtic traders is unknown but does emphasise how long people have been around and travelling through this region. Around Ginmeldingen the vine growers had set up branches and tables under the almond trees, for at the weekends there are dawn to dusk wine tastings and no doubt wine can even be transported home for those cyclists who have forgotten their panniers. In the week, the garden centres were open offering almond trees for planting at home and the cafes and restaurants providing hot meals throughout the day to those walking the almond trail with sticks and rucksacs or the day cyclists like ourselves.
We continued our gentle ride, now up into the vine groves where young men pruned the vines ferociously back to one or two shoots, now down towards the other little spring-line settlements. One of these is Deidesheim, with some very large villas and wine producers and where, the story goes former German Chancellor Kohl, a rather large and chubby man, used to pop in to the Deidesheimer Hof restaurant for a Sunday blow out of Saumagen (don’t ask but think haggis and pink porkers) and Sauerkraut. Deidesheim, like the other little towns around first belonged to various local princes, then the Bishop of Speyer, then the French and for a long time it was part of Bavaria. This happened when the local Wittelsbacher became King of Bavaria. Not until after WW II did this part of the world become Rheinland-Pfalz. Interesting how many politicians today seem to think any change of allegiance will be too much for the peasantry to understand. Most of mainland Europe has been waking up for centuries to find that not only do they have to fight for or pay taxes to someone they’ve only dimly heard of, their religion has changed overnight too, from Protestant to Catholic or vice versa. In recent years most of these little communities have grown comfortably well off, from the proceeds of wine, tourism or the booming market in fresh vegetables and salads. A network of fast roads links them to the Autobahn system and buses wait by the S-bahn stations to carry shoppers or workers in Ludwigshafen or Mannheim the last kilometre home. Property prices are lower than in the urban centres, thick dialects are still used but people are pretty close to mainstream 21st century life.
In Wachenheim, home of some major Sekt or sparkling wine makers we turned gently downhill and headed towards Ludwigshafen, Mannheim’s twin city on the left bank of the Rhine. Perhaps we’d lost our skill at route finding or perhaps there were simply too many local routes, we missed a turn here or there and when we saw a welcome S-bahn station in Maxdorf we decided to throw in the towel for the day. No doubt there are people who love Ludwigshafen, just as there are those who adore Hartlepool or Felixstowe but I have to feel very strong to want to cross the place from side to side by bike It is a bit of a concrete jungle. So we rode the rails into Mannheim and onwards to home and a well deserved cup of tea. However the local paper was right. It was too schön to miss.

Getting back on the bikes

We never really get off the bikes completely since our small German town is almost flat and even in a ‘normal’ winter there are few snowed in or iced up days. Last Friday temperatures were a spring like 12°C so we headed into Mannheim by bike to visit a friend in hospital. It’s a trip of about 10km or so, beginning in fields and woods and ending up on a cycleway alongside a busy city artery, then a short swing along the Neckar flood embankment into the blessed quiet of walkers and the occasional chugging boat’s diesel. On our return trip we opted for a spell along a leafy dual carriageway and then by allotments and underpasses back to Käfertal (Beetle valley!). Then parallel to the tramline, past the US army barracks and into Viernheim to shop and collect our post. It is not the most romantic bike ride in the world but we tried to keep the revs going, surged past a few surprised mountain bikers and certainly blew a few cobwebs away. Next day both of us were a bit surprised to notice tenderness in the nether regions, so we unearthed the padded bloomers before we set off again on our Bromptons. Close by there’s a chunk of forest, mixed deciduous and pines, a tiny remnant of a once great hunting forest belonging to the former monastery at Lorsch just to the north of us. It is crossed by a couple of Autobahns and for many years was a training area for US tanks and soldiers playing war games but most of it has now been returned for recreational use. Walkers, joggers, cyclists all with or without dogs find it a good place to be but once away from the major access points encounters fall off rapidly. Direction finding is not that easy but thanks to the Autobahns (crossed by bridges and tunnels and heard intermittently) it would be difficult to get lost completely. On Saturday we managed to find a new hill, an Ice Age sand dune, short and very steep and were surprised by two deer that exploded across our bows in a remote spot. Then we came upon a known place, the site of the Hunter’s Lodge, where generations of earlier Viernheimers picnicked, chatted and had assignations. Then it fell into disrepair, vandals burnt it from time to time and now there are memorial stones and a notice board with pictures of Victorian gents with trophies and guns, stern-faced matrons and serious children, just like those we have in our family albums of grandparents. Back home finally along the tarmac past the Small Animal Club, the Friends of the Carp and the Pigeon Fanciers clubhouses, with 18km on the clock and arms well shaken from the gravel trails.
More fine weather tempted us on Sunday to repeat the trip, this time on our Dahon folders, Big Apple tyres nicely inflated after a winter rest. Though we don’t really attempt to train both of us treated this as a time trial, upping our average speed by about 3 km/h over the Bromptons. We steamed up and over the new hill without difficulty because we changed down through our bigger range of gears in time. Since we remembered the way we were home in an hour and six minutes, thoroughly bounced about and with a top speed on the home tarmac of 30 km/h. No deer unfortunately but not bad for a couple of oldies who have spent the last few weeks desk bound writing up our Swiss adventures.

Cycling in Hungary

I was sorting through the pile of maps we got at the Mannheim Tourist Fair and discovered an excellent map of the cycle routes in Hungary. This map and comments are in German, but it would be worthwhile contacting the Hungarian tourist Office in London to see if there is a map in English available. Hungary is nothing like as flat as I thought, although there are large areas of flatness for family holidays. From what I have heard it is a reasonably cheap country and you are not likely to meet many Brits. It might be worth thinking about.

Rhineland Palatinate

The recent warm weather has meant that many of us are looking at old and new cycling areas. The Pfalz as the Germans call the Palatinate is a wine-, fruit- and vegetable growing paradise in south-eastern Germany. The local farmers have got together with the regional tourism authority to develop a new map that links the 1400km of cycling routes in the area between the French border in the south, Ludwigshafen in the northwest and Bad Dürkheim in the northeast with the farms offering direct sales of produce including wine. This coupled with the nearby cathedrals in Strasbourg, Worms, Speyer and Mainz, and Heidelberg just to the west means that this is an ideal holiday area both for families, and wine loving souls. Not that the presence of the former rules out the latter. The new map is called Radkarte Pfalz and can be obtained from Pfalz-Touristik, Martin Luther Strasse 69, D 67433 Neustadt/Weinstrasse, eMail info@pfalz-touristik.de. The web site is www.pfalz-radtouren.de.

Saarland

Saarland is not the smallest German province. That honour falls to the city states of Berlin, Bremen or Hamburg, but it is the smallest non city state. It borders France and Luxembourg. The French wanted to annex it in the 1940s when the iron and steel industries were flourishing and held a referendum to prove that the people of Saarland wanted to become French. It did not succeed and so Saarland remained a German province. Obviously the area has a long history of heavy industry–coal, iron and steel, but much of this is gone nowadays and Saarland is very green. Due to the proximity to France the cooking is excellent.
We went to the Mannheim Tourist Fair and picked up a brochure about the cycling in the Saarland, "Radfahren 2007" published by the Saarland Tourist Office: Tourismus Zentrale Saarland GmbH, Franz-Josef-Röder-Str. 17, 66119 Saarbrücken, Germany. It is in German, but the maps are easily understood. We noticed two routes in the booklet that could easily be combined to give an 800 km tour through Luxembourg, Lorraine and Saarland: Veloroute SaarLorLux and the Saarland–Radweg that runs round the border. There seems to be enough hills to satisfy the sporting fraternity and enough museums, historic sites and towns to satisfy the culture vultures. The local wines are excellent and the beer, at least in Germany is eminently drinkable.

New cycling map of Alsace

We went to a travel fair in Mannheim recently. We were surprised at the number of stands displaying information about cycling (20%). We picked up an excellent map (le tout Bas-Rhin a Velo) of the Bas-Rhin Departement (Colmar to the German border) for free. The map shows all the French and German cycling routes in the Rhine Valley. There is also a 68 page booklet about the area in English, German and French, also free that you can get as well by writing to the Agence de developpement touristique du Bas-Rhin, 9 rue du Dome, F67000 Strasbourg, France. The Haut-Rhin Departement (to the south) appear to have a similar map which you can obtain from their tourist offices. Probably the easiest approach would be to try the French National Tourist Office.

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.

Jura

We spent last week in the Swiss Jura and I was reminded that a lot of British cycling mags suggest that the Swiss Mountains are easier than the northern English hills, because the Swiss routes are longer but less steep. Sorry guys, if this is true then the hills in the Swiss Jura are part of the Lake District. The climbs on Swiss National Route 7 are steep and long.

Road men

I am not one to critise my fellow cyclists. Cycling is a broad church, but why do serious numbers of road bike riders insist on riding on the road next to a marked (painted) cycleway? I can understand the objection to riding on separate cycleways, as these can suddenly veer away from roads and cause halts while one crosses minor roads. If one is riding along a road with a painted strip for cyclists why ride outside of this?

Tour de Luxembourg

We have been members of the LVI the Letzelbuergische Velo Initiativ (Luxembourg National Cycling Club) for several years. We’d promised ourselves that we’d go on one their tours and finally we remembered to register in time. We set off the day before the trip began and put our bikes on the bus that runs between Mannheim and Hahn airport. The driver was a bit nonplussed - though their website says bikes are allowed - so we slung them unceremoniously on their sides in one of the luggage spaces and they arrived in Hahn OK. This meant that we were quite high up at the beginning of our ride. Unfortunately, as it says in “Northern Wheel” bike ride accounts, Judith then punctured! No her tyre not her! We then had a good, though long 100 km day, enjoying the rolling hills of the Hunsrück, the hills that lie on the left of the Rhine north of Frankfurt. Again much was gentle along an old rail line, then a few wild plunges up followed by downs by which time we were getting hungry and tired. At last we reached a road which hairpinned most satisfyingly down to the Mosel valley - a high wheee....factor. Quick turn right, ride a short distance then wheel our bikes up onto a bridge closed to cars while being rebuilt (this always feels really good), right at the other end, 4 km ride into the village where we'd booked the night at a vineyard where we've stayed before. Cocktail to welcome us, shower and change and then a large easy meal at a nearby restaurant. Collapse of stout parties and an immensely satisfying sleep.
From there we took an easy train trip into Luxembourg next day. We went for a tour in Luxembourg with a group of eight folks. It involved visiting the North, South, West and East of the country (only 80 km by 80 km) and as we discovered underway, the highest and lowest points - OK not down to sea level but the highest point is certainly higher than Scafell. Quite strenuous, though we managed OK and were not last getting up the hills, but we found the lengths of days and the distances a bit more than we normally do. 90 -100 km and from 9 am to 7pm! This included coffee breaks, several shandy drinking stops AND a proper meal at lunchtime - we've a picture of the piles of spaghetti involved. However, we had no route finding concerns and the group was very knowledgeable about their country and the places and people encountered en route. This was our aim since Luxembourg was usually one of the places we drove through or round as quickly as possible to get to Britain. Gust, the leader and President of the organisation gave us a personal tour of Luxembourg city before we set off and we then cycled through the European quarter at the start of the tour. We can assure you that the buildings there are undistinguished, undoubtedly cost millions of taxpayers’ money but the bike paths are superb. We left there on Thursday, the evening before the National Day so everywhere was a sea of flags, as of course was Germany at the time with the footie taking place. By good fortune there were no footie fanatics in the group and our long days ensured that the matches were mostly over before we reached our hotels, though we did go so far as to wave at a group of flag waving Germany supporters driving round and hooting their horns after a match. Our chance to see the England Equador match on the station in Koblenz was foiled by the TV mast being struck by lightning, but to all events and purposes we didn't miss much! The storms also delayed our train, signals failure near Bochum so we sat on the platform and watched the lightning. It had evidently poured down in Mannheim but apart from a few spots and further distant lightning displays we got home OK, though we had to ride in the dark. Most of the ride was on cycleways, a lot was along river valleys and the rest on quiet roads. Gust described most of the route as flat hills, though there was one epic climb up over some part of the Ardennes, 4 of us walked part of the way and there were other shorter steep climbs of 0.5 km where we got off. Basically the landscape is a mix of hills and valleys and if you are lucky you can get up enough speed on the downhill sections to spin at least halfway up the next slope. Much of the area is thinly populated but we also went through pretty small towns, including Esch, centre of iron ore mining and former steel town - visited by the TdF this year. We left the group there and set off on a rather tortuous journey home with several changes and then a long wait for our train in Koblenz. We stayed in good hotels, rather fancy French cuisine being the norm in Luxembourg so there was plenty of choice in the eating department. On our last full day we coasted up and down an old rail line for most of the distance, including a long delightfully cool section through a tunnel - lighted, fortunately.

Cycle mirrors and folding bicycles

We cycled down the Leine Valley in Germany last week. It rises or a least starts in Leinefelden in western Thuringia and flows into the Aller a tributary of the Weser 300 km farther on. It is a good run with the chance of visiting Göttingen and Hannover underway. The thing that amazed me was that we were both cycling on Bromptons. Normally we find that we have to answer numerous questions about the little treasures, but no I was asked several times a day about a mini clip-on cycling mirror on my glasses that I wear when touring. To the best of my knowledge they have been available in Germany for at least 20 years.

A church for cyclists

I don't want to give the impression that all German cyclists are very religious, but in addition to the Pope Benedict cycleway down in Bavaria, the protestant church in Vellmar, a village near Kassel in the north of Hessen, will be open 24 hours a day for the cycling season. The village pastor was interviewed on TV and said that he felt, that in the same way that Autobahn churches (of which there are a number in Germany) are open 24 h a day, cyclists should also have a church available day and night.

Gas or should it be gaz cylinders

We had an eMail yesterday from a cyclist wishing to do a lightweight camping trip through Germany who was worried about gas cartridges. What we found out was that according to the Camping Gaz web site: www.camping-gaz.com, the following disposable canisters are on sale in Germany: C208, cv270, cv 470 and cp250. If you look on the web site and put the name of a town and Germany in the form "Where to find cartridges" and then wait a bit, the web site will show a map of the area showing the shops that sell the cartridges. Under this map there is a list of addresses. If you click on the word map next to the address this will give you a detailed street plan of the area around the shop. However I then looked at Viernheim where we live and realised that our local camping shop that does sell Camping Gaz cartridges was not shown. I suspect that most camping shops, camp sites etc. will sell the cartridges.
There is a second type of gas cartridge that can be unscrewed. Typical brands are Coleman and Markill. Markill is a German company. There is a lot of Coleman stuff on sale in Germany. I suspect you will need to go to big camping shops to find the cartridges. Camping Gaz are easier to find. Markill make an adaptor for camping gaz cartridges. According to Coleman: If you contact your local European Office they will tell you where shops are to be found: See http://www.coleman-eur.com/. It might be an idea to cheat and contact Coleman Germany. Since the German importers have to deal with the States the employees will understand English, if you don't want to write in German.

The Special Bike Show again!

Once oil gets even more expensive one of the ways we are going to get about, if we are lucky, is on a bicycle. Whether it will be the conventional two wheeled diamond frame “cumbersome” bicycle or one of the slightly different but exciting or amusing bikes shown at Spezi the Special Bike Show in Germersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany on 29-30 April is not easy to say. Since many children are growing up without learning to ride a two wheeled vehicle, either there is going to have to be a massive adult teaching programme in years to come or trikes are going to be a lot popular.
Spezi started 11 years ago. The organisers, Haasies Radschlag, a bicycle shop in Germersheim, started by not only inviting well known manufacturers of bicycles, tricycles and accessories, but also new small one man companies starting up by brazing frames, the specialist builders of bikes, trikes and tandems for the disabled, the local cycling clubs and the human powered vehicle freaks. It has grown over the years without losing its friendly family atmosphere to become a major event with 80 exhibitors in three halls.
We understand that Bernds do not sell well in the UK which is a pity, although their tandems are offered by Cyclecentric in Cambridge (www.cyclecentric.com). Bernds (www.bernds.de/E/typ-geniesser.htm) still build a fairly conventional folding bike, but also now offer a low step through folder, if one has trouble getting one’s leg over. The same goes for the tandem which now offered as a step through version. Interesting that one can now write about a conventional folding bicycle.
We ogled the new titanium Bromptons and if we came up on the lottery, we would sell off our our heavier steel Bromptons and order the finest of the fine, but unfortunately to win the lottery we need to buy a ticket and common sense says we will win less, but more consistently if we don’t buy a ticket. Ah well!
We said hello to our friends at Altena Bike (www.altena-bike.nl/) who we first met at the York Rally last year. Altena builds recumbent bicycles and tandems that are built more for comfort than than speed. They have a new conventional tandem that looks very nice which is unfortunately not mentioned on their web site. As our one attempt to use a tandem was not a great success, I suspect buying one has a low priority at “Schloss Forsyth”.
Beyond Altena we looked at the Ice stand and were much taken with the concept of the folding trike (www.ice.hpv.co.uk/). Obviously the main advantage of the trike recumbent is that until one is quite skilled a recumbent bicycle at low speeds is a so-and-so to ride. You don’t have to balance a trike. However my own feeling is that the very nearness to the ground brings visibility problems for motorists, but on the other hand one’s bum is a lot more comfortable in an armchair than on a saddle.
We were also quite impressed with the Hase bikes and trikes (http://www.hasebikes.com/). If we were going to buy a tandem, the Hase Pino would be high on the list. Hase is well represented at this show. The firm organises a very popular trike race during Spezi and has a large stand at the entrance to Hall 1. Hase is going to organise a show similar to Spezi on June 17 in Waltrop in the Ruhr called Fez am Flöz (Fun on the Coal Seam). There is a good chance you will see us there. There is more information on the company’s web site, but only in German.
When we get rid of the car, we will have to use our bicycle trailer more (or take more taxis), so we have been practising recently. We have also been playing with the idea of taking the trailer packed with camping gear to somewhere far away and cycling back to Viernheim. We are thus interested in trailers and these were well represented at the show. Used, the European agents for the Scottish Carry Freedom had examples of the Y-Frame platform, the bARK/POD dog carrier and the City trailer (www.used-hq.de/en/cf-en.htm) on show. The latter is a hard shell bike trailer, suitcase or courier bag, probably of great use if you are a commuter in the concrete jungle, but less so for the tourist. The Y-Frame trailer however seems to be a useful all round touring, shopping trailer. Fitted with a dog box it turns into the bARK/POD. I suspect if we had a dog, I would be more interested in the dog pulling me rather than me pulling the dog. Our American friends have stolen a march on the rest of the world, yet again, with the dog scooter: see http://dogscooter.com and www.dogpoweredscooter.com for more thoughts along these lines. Roland and Weber trailers shared a stand. The two companies appear to be cooperating. The single wheeled Weber Monoporter and the two wheeled Roland Carrie both use the same base. Something new that I have not seen anywhere else is a railing that can be fitted to either trailer to act as fastening point when carrying odd loads. (www.roland-werk.de, www.weber-products.de)
Dahon were represented by a local cycle shop and had a goodly number of bikes on show. I must admit I can never quite work out the difference between the various Dahon models, although the web site (www.dahon.com/) does offer a method to find out which bike is best for you. We were most impressed by the new El Bolso bag. This is a nylon trapezoidal bag which is carried on the shoulder. El Bolso is easy to use. The folded bike is put on the ground; the bike placed in the middle of the bag; the bag picked up, and slung over the shoulder. It has a slip over cover so you can hide your bike, if necessary, from the officious eyes of Southern TOC guards, in case bikes are banned, yet again. Dahon state that the bag can be used for 16”, 20” and 26” folding bikes. I think a Brompton would rattle like a pea in a drum, but there would be adequate amounts of room for other less compact folders.
One of the vehicles that would appeal to the generation that has never learned to ride a bike is the Short Bike which is actually a trike. It is a hinged separable trike with a wide saddle and a backrest, a solid well-built baggage platform (which could be fitted with a child seat), Schwalbe Big Apple tyres, a drum brake, and 7 gear Shimano (hub?) gear. The makers claim the baggage platform can take up to 60 kg. See photograph above. One’s initial impressions on riding the thing are somewhat odd, as the rear wheels stay on the ground when turning but the front wheel/handlebars seem to tip over. I suspect with a bit of practice the trike would be very nippy and make a superb utility vehicle. The turning circle is small. It is not as sexy as a tadpole recumbent trike, but one is more visible especially as the trike is offered with a red or blue or yellow plastic fairing and the rider sits higher up making it possible to look motorists in the eye. It costs about £850 in Germany (www.shortbike.de).

Peak oil again, a rant!

One of the best ways to ensure sleepless nights is to turn on your computer, log into the internet, punch in the term “peak oil” into a search engine and read the sites you find. “Peak Oil” is the term used to describe the problems when the day comes when demand for crude oil exceeds supply. Some say it is very close, others give it 30 or more years. On the other hand, consumption has exceeded discovery every year since 1981. (BTW This information is taken from the web site of the Society for Chemical Industry, London, an organisation that is not normally considered a bunch of tree huggers.) Basically what you find is that the concept of peak oil does not mean that oil will run out shortly, but that the era of cheap oil is probably coming to an end. What’s cheap oil? Our feeling is it is still cheap, at least seeing the number of cars on local roads. Our neighbours to our left have two cars and those on the right an estate car, a Smart car and a motor bike. Yes we have one too, but we use it less and less. According to Will Hutton writing in today’s “Observer” petrol costs about £1 a litre at some filling stations. Taking inflation into account this is about twice as expensive as it was in the late 60’s.
However a barrel of crude oil costs about $70 at the moment, but the increases in the price of crude oil are amplified by small reductions in supply, even if it is only 1% , because each purchaser thinks that the loss of 1% of the supply i.e. 850000 barrels are his 850000 barrels. The present price of $70 is considered high but it is likely to rise as the Chinese and the Indians buy more and more. Since 2004, China ’s incremental demand for oil has been outstripping that of the rest of the entire world (Society of Chemical Industry, London). We are all dependent on oil. Without it we would starve to death in the dark at the moment. Britain needs to cut back on oil and natural gas usage, on fossil fuel usage in general, not only because the stuff is going to get more and more expensive, but also because it might save security problems in future. It does not seem impossible to us that a lot of guys making and plotting trouble in the Middle East have financial backing from others who make their money from oil. The guys selling oil receive obscene amounts of loot. The less oil we buy from the Middle East, the less money the nasties will get. This makes it more difficult for them to make trouble.
Obviously it would behove the British government to slow down the extraction of oil from the North Sea; try to improve energy efficiency by improving house construction (passive heating and insulation) and public transport, by encouraging cycling and walking, by cutting back on road building programmes and by starting to build an economy that is not based on oil and natural gas. Interestingly enough at the start of the exploitation of North Sea oil Robb Wilmot, the former chairman of ICL, suggested that it would be better to leave the stuff in the ground as it would be worth more in future! There were some moves to use other feedstocks for the chemical industry and other fuels (typically wood, straw, vegetable oils and other forms of biomass) in the mid 1970s and there are a series of American and European efforts today (www.errma.com, www.soci.org/SCI/groups/bsg/2005/reports/html/gs3459.jsp). About 10% of the feedstocks for the German chemical industry and 2% for the American are from renewable sources. These moves are important because the chemical industry not only supplies the frills that make shopping such an adventure - the packaging we have to puncture to get at the cool cotton shirt, but also the fertilisers and pesticides so that the cotton plants can flourish. Not all of these moves are going to be popular. As a good example: Aviation fuel is not taxed to encourage aviation, quite why I don’t know, but if it were taxed this would go someway towards leveling the playing field for other forms of public transport, such as the railways. However this would also begin to make those weekend trips to get dysfunctional in Dublin, legless in Lithuania or plastered in Prague or even to enjoy 4 days of Christmas shopping in New York expensive enough to think twice about doing it. This might not be a bad wheeze, but it would be unpopular with the airlines, the airports, the big and little civil engineering companies extending runways and a lot of punters, so do not expect HM Government to do anything to take steps to be able pull us out of the mess we will be in.
What does it mean for you in the medium term and what can you do? Without taking the drastic step of selling one of the cars, most of us can reduce our car mileage by 10% and our energy use by about 10% by doing a bit of planning. Just as an example or two: If you wish to show your green credentials by recycling the wine bottles, don’t make a special trip. If you need to do a school run by car then try to set up a car pool. Do you have to eat fresh strawberries in the depths of winter? Try buying locally grown food that is in season. Food tastes better then. Grow some of your own food. Start a compost heap. Your friendly council may well give you a composter and a booklet of handy hints to get it turning out first class compost, but then use it to improve the soil quality.
If your first thought when it is suggested that you sell one of the cars is “I can’t get rid of the car/s, because...”, then consider moving house to somewhere nearer work, the shops, school.... If you live way out in the sticks think seriously about selling up and moving nearer to a small town unless you have a functioning branch line at the bottom of the garden. If you already live near to the shops etc. try cycling or walking rather than driving. It has the advantage that you will buy less and still survive. It is worthwhile bringing energy usage (transport, insulation) into the house buying equation along with the quality of the local schools, for example. Think about putting solar water heating panels on the roof and improving the insulation. This can only increase the value of your house.

Lake Constance or Bodensee*

The 210 km cycle route around Lake Constance is one of the most popular cycling routes in Germany. It is fairly easy to see why. The route is basically flat and consists in the main of dedicated cycle paths away from traffic. From the apple orchards of the northern shore you have superb views of the Alps to the south. There are hotels, guest houses, B&Bs galore. Many farms in Thurgau (Thurgovia) on the southern Swiss side of the lake and also just to the north in Germany offer families the chance to sleep in the straw. It is a lot less prickly than it sounds. All of the towns and villages around the lake offer good swimming and boating facilities. The food in restaurants is well cooked, comes in immense portions and at least in Germany is reasonably priced. If your pins give out on you there are lake steamers and trains to carry you on. If you fancy a bit of culture: Bregenz, at the eastern Austrian end of the lake has an annual festival between the middle of July and the end of August, the high point of which is opera on a floating stage just off the prom. At the other end of the lake the village of Stein am Rhein is a masterpiece of painted houses and mediaeval twiddly bits and the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen are not that far away. Fans of engineering and good design should not miss the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. You and your bike can take the cable car from Bregenz and then either do the Diretissimo back to Bregenz or wander off along quiet roads into and out of the Allgäu (Germany) before descending into Bregenz at breakneck speed.

Alteration: 29 June 2012: We have written a jolly little book about the cycle routes around the lake called “Mainly in High Gear - A cycling guide around Lake Constance” which is now only available as an e-book from Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/173312) and from your local Amazon website.

*I can never understand why the lake is called the Bodensee (Lower Lake or Bottom Lake) in German. I suppose one could argue that it is at the bottom of a map of Germany, but the Swiss use the same name and the lake is at the top of their country on a map. The other thought is that the lake is in a depression, but then all lakes are in depressions. Ah well, just accept it.

Meetings and memories

Weeks of raw grey days, enlivened by short sharp thunderstorms finally gave way to temperatures in the comfort zone for cycling, around 15 °C. We took the chance for a short expedition, on the Bromptons, over the fields to Weinheim, a neighbouring small town, on the mainline railway, at the foot of the Odenwald hills. It’s a distance of about 8 km, mostly on tarmac. We approached Weinheim, as so often by bike, via the rather unappetising commercial zone, full of depots and truck parks, before reaching the residential bungalows with their struggling spring flowers and magnolias seemingly frozen in bud burst. We made for the station to buy the Saturday edition of one of the British ‘heavies’, a treasure to savour on our return. En route a car drove slowly past, with the window down. We expected perhaps, at best, a question about the bikes; at worst, abuse of the ‘get off and milk it’ variety; but no, it was my German teacher from the Viernheim night school whom I had last seen about 15 years earlier. We grinned, waved, said Hello and she was gone, leaving me amazed that heavily disguised by advancing age, sunglasses and helmet I was still recognisable. At the station we encountered a new interpretation of the Bromptons, 2 metres apart parallel in their parked positions: Tandems, I suppose, said a passerby?
Then we headed out of town roughly northwards, parallel to the Bergstrasse, an ancient routeway along the foot of the Odenwald hills, and the inspiration for our ‘mega’ publishing organisation. The Odenwald, a straight-edged line of hills were still mostly dark with leafless trees and occasional greener fields. On the plains we encountered two youngsters on unicycles, a recent special offer by one of the discount stores here. They were having a great time, riding fast off making circles and stepping off quickly from time to time. At a picnic bench, surrounded by apple orchards, still in bud a young family, small child in trailer, parents well wrapped in winter cycling togs, were having lunch. From their panniers they appeared to be touring, undeterred by the cool damp Spring. In front, over one of the bridges across a drainage channel, that slices in a straight line from the edge of the hills to the distant Rhine, there appeared a real tandem, that bore its riders away to the south. Above us wheeled hawks, hoping for mice on the channel banks and in the distance a couple of gliders circled lazily in the thermals after being catapulted aloft from the small airfield by Weinheim. Our route now turned into the forest that lies between Viernheim and Lorsch, an old monastic settlement to the north. Here it was, last year that we encountered a frightened riderless horse, clattering at speed along the field way. At that point we leapt from our bikes into the fenceless field without injuring ourselves. Shortly afterwards we encountered the limping horseman who had been thrown off shortly before. All parties being without mobile phones we could only report that the horse was heading back to the stables and assure ourselves that no real damage was done to anyone.
The forest, some 15 km long and 8 km wide with its myriad gravelled and unpaved tracks is a superb green lung for the people of Viernheim and the whole region. However, it was not always so. For the monks of Lorsch it was a hunting area, where dukes and kings also came for rest and recreation. Then anyone poaching game would have had an unpleasant end. For bona fide travellers using the ancient north/south track was not without its dangers as footpads and murderers sometimes lurked in the dark depths, as the memorial stone to BusMichael testifies. In more recent times large chunks of the woods were used by US forces as training areas and weapon storage in underground bunkers. Now these too have been reopened to the public and we cycled past the remains of giant fences, the wire in rusting rolls at intervals. Within these areas plants and animals have flourished largely undisturbed for 60 years, an unexpected plus point for military occupation. Viernheim is almost encircled by Autobahns, fortunately either in cuttings or bounded by soundwalls. Our route now took us over small bridges across two of these, through the Scots pines and the mix of oaks and beeches, glades of heathland interspersed in the area of ice-age sand dunes, which the forest covers. Just before reaching one of our landmarks, the Tank Road, a wide potholed route that follows the old railway line between Viernheim and Lampertheim we came across a group of youthful cyclists, clad in pinks and yellows and struggling a little to make headway over the chunky gravel. They seemed fairly cheerful, despite the occasional shriek as gravity almost prevailed and continued on their way, spurred by Mum, Dad or even Oma or Opa - here folks celebrate their 80th birthdays quite often on bikes! The Tank Road is very useful as a means of orientation for non-locals like ourselves since one tree or one crossroads in the forest looks much like any other! With 25 km ‘on the clock’ and lunch not taken we decided to take a few left turns to bring us home in good time. We reached the next landmark, the Kaefertal Waterworks after a brisk ride. Here another important act in Mannheim’s more recent history took place as US forces reached it in April 1945. By a stroke of fate the telephone was still connected with the civil powers in Mannheim. A German-speaking doctor with the US troops was able to negotiate a surrender without further bloodshed. On, over a small rise provided by a sand dune, encountering the usual mix of Nordic walkers, joggers, dog walkers and slow cyclists one finds near settlements, we pedalled the last kilometres home via the dog clubs, nests of pigeon fanciers and the like. After 30 km it was time to make tea, prepare a sandwich and settle down with the paper.

Viernheim her cyclists

Viernheim is basically flat and there is little ice and snow in winter, so it is a good place to cycle. The old town is criss-crossed by narrow streets and there is almost only on street parking. The newer suburbs have a blanket 30 kph speed limit. These features coupled with a number of cycleways means it is safe to cycle here. Both young and old cycle extensively. A bicycle is the quickest way of getting about within the town. Old people carry on cycling well past the age when in other parts of the world they would have hung up their bicycle clips. This does mean, however that there are many elderly cyclists about.
The standard Viernheim bike for the elderly is a ladies’ sit-up-and-beg model. Three speed gears are fairly common, though a goodly minority, normally the older bikes, have one speed only. Ninety-nine percent have a square wire basket on the rear carrier and a goodly number have a clip to carry a crutch or a walking stick. The bike owners have difficulty walking, but they have no trouble riding a bike. The wire basket is often used to carry a watering can. Grave gardening is a major big time sport in Viernheim and it is felt necessary to water every day in summer. (The soil is 99% river sand, so I am afraid that the majority of the water just runs straight through and ends up in the groundwater a couples of metre or so below the surface.)
The bikes are much used for shopping when the wire basket is loaded with two full carrier bags or with 12 litres of mineral water and two more carrier bags are hung on the handlebars. If it is raining then the sensible Viernheimer cycles with an umbrella up in the air and quite often with a dog on a lead attached to the other wrist. How one then controls a bike is a mystery to us. This could be the reason for the crutches, but also for a couple of idiosyncrasies that can often be seen on the streets of Viernheim, especially carried out by the female members of society. We call them the Viernheim Stop and the Viernheim Turn. The Viernheim Stop: The cyclists approach a problem zone and pedal ever slowly until they jump off the pedals and land with both feet on the floor straddling the bike. The Viernheim Turn: The cyclists perform a Viernheim Stop and then without looking round push their bikes left across the line of the oncoming traffic. Once in the position across the road they mount their bicycle again and cycle on. Somehow it would appear that elderly Viernheimers have only learned to cycle in a straight line.
Shortly after my wife arrived in Viernheim she was crossing the town centre pedestrian zone on foot when somebody behind her called out “Hello!”. As she knew very few people in Viernheim at the time, she assumed that the person behind her was calling to somebody else and carried on walking. She was amazed when she was almost run over by a lady cyclist. She remonstrated with the lady and asked why she had not used her bell. “…because it’s too aggressive”, came the reply. So Viernheim cyclists are prepared to run the risk of running someone over, rather than being thought aggressive.

The Way of St James

Small German towns often have a vibrant cultural and social life. Our small town, Viernheim (under 30 000 inhabitants), has a night school and a Catholic Family Education Centre offering courses and lectures on wide range of topics. There are concerts in the winter in several of the churches. Obviously the walking and the ski clubs have a number of slide show cum lectures on popular and also unknown mountain areas. However something that never fails to amaze us are the activities of a local climbing, canoeing and camping shop: Christian’s Outdoor Center. Christian organises a series of lectures in winter which do not only cover the usual rambles in the Alps or cycling along disused railway lines in Canada, but such topics as humour in mountain climbing and exhibitions of historic books on the Alps. (BTW Contrary to popular British received wisdom, German can be a very funny language. We have dined out on several occasions on the story of the American proposal of marriage on Mount McKinley, that we heard one night in his shop.)
Last Thursday 6. April 2006 Christian organised a information fair on the Camino de Santiago or Way of St James, the main part of which runs from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. Obviously the pilgrims in earlier times did not hop in car or on a train to get to the Pyrenees. They walked all the way. There are connecting routes across western Europe. Christian thus invited local people who have experience on these routes to set up a poster display. A number of them had walked and/or cycled from Viernheim or nearby to Santiago de Compostella, which is at least 3000 km.
One spoke of the spiritual aspects of the journey, starting with the decision what to pack. In her words the trip taught her its first lesson before she started, in deciding what was really necessary.
Another walker covered 25 km a day for 100 days from Heppenheim to Santiago via the Mediterranean coast, across the Basque country and then along the Atlantic coast.
Another followed the Silver Route from Seville to Santiago pulling a trolley with his belongings.
Another couple spent their holidays over several years walking part of the major route from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostella. As did the cyclist there who cycled and walked with his wife and friends all the way from Viernheim. We did discuss with him the cyclist’s problem with the Way of St James. What do you do with the bike after you have ridden to Santiago? The railways in the north of Spain will only accept bicycles if they are partially taken to bits and popped in a bag. Our fellow cyclist at the event said that they had put the bikes as they were on the trains and argued. The trouble is our Spanish is not that good. We could see three solutions:
Fly back and pay the extra for the bike.
Take a folder and there are then no problems on the trains.
There are long distance buses from Santiago de Compostella to the rest of Spain and presumably Hendaya/Hendaye that will take bicycles without having to unfold or disassemble them, but the buses need to be booked in advance.
There was also a Viernheimer who is organising a bus trip to the classic section of the Camino in late spring.
We also discovered, although we had actually come across this before, that there are two 130 km long Jakobswege (Ways of St. James) in Rheinland Pfalz west of Speyer. These strike us as good routes to follow with vineyards, hills, views across the Rhine Plain, decent wine and beer, hearty food and plenty of history from the Celts to present day technology. The Tourist Office in Speyer (touristinformation@stadtspeyer.de) can organise a week’s walking holiday (B&B plus a daily picnic) for around 300 € per person sharing a room.
We met an acquaintance who was due to set off for St Jean Pied de Port the next day to walk to Burgos and will be fighting her way through the rain at present. Personally we are not so taken with the Way of St James. It strikes us there are lots of routes much nearer to hand that offer one the chance to reflect on the meaning of life without having to use so much fossil fuel to have a philosophical moment.