Cycling on the left

The Germans like everybody else in continental Europe drive on the right. In the past as a Brit living in Germany I was subject to a certain amount of banter about why we drive on the left on the island. Reputedly the reason why much of Europe and the USA drives on the wrong side of the road is due to Napoleon. The story goes: Before the French Revolution the peasants in France walked on the left and the gentry rode in carriages on the right. Napoleon ordered his troops to march on the rights, because according to him what was good enough for les aristos was good enough for his lads. The Yanks took this idea over after the War of Independence grateful to the French because they had helped the colonists.
However my gut feeling is that the folk memory harks back to pre-Napoleonic times, especially amongst cyclists. I have noticed that if cyclists meet on cyclepaths they often pass starboard (right) to starboard. Germans walk with their bikes on their righthand side. They stick out into the road when pushing their bikes. This would be a safe option if Germany drove on the left.

Bike Hire in Stockholm

Stockholm has an excellent spread of cycle routes and is a great place to cycle in summmer. The City Bike system also given below seems to me to be complicated and I would rent a bike for a day or so from one of the other two companies given below.

Stockholm City Bikes

Buy a three-day (for 250 SEK) or season pass at the Stockholm Tourist Center or on the web and borrow a bike from 110 sites around the city from April to October for a maximum of three hours before picking up another bike. The three-day pass is also available at many of the hotels around the city. (http://www.citybikes.se/home)

Cykeluthyrningen/Rentabike

Strandvägen
Kajplats 18
114 56 Stockholm

Tel/fax: 08-660 79 59
Mobile: 076-22 676 83

info@rentabike.se

Website: http://jojje.no-ip.com/rentabike/english.htm

Open: Every day (May - Sept) 10:00 - 18:00  

Citybike - Nishiki Swan 

A low frame and the easily adjustable handlebar. The bike has 7 gears, a handbrake and a back pedal/coaster brake. 

Citybike - Nishiki Hybrid 

This is a city bike with a little more durability on tougher roads. It has 7 gears, a hand brake and a back pedal/coaster  brake. 

Citybike - Monark Nordic Tradition 

A classic city bike with 3 gears, hand brake and a back pedal/coaster  brake. 

Mountainbike - Gary Fisher 

100mm travel suspension fork from Rock Shox and a 24 gear Shimano deore shift system. Hand brakes only. 

Tandembike - Monark 

Our tandems are equipped with 4 gears, double hand brakes and back pedal/coaster brakes.

Day	City      240:-	MTB 280:-	Tandem 400:-	Children's 180:-
24 hours	280:-	340:-	500:-	200:-
2 days	480:-	550:-	750:-	350:-
3 days	650:-	750:-	1000:-	500:-
4 days	800:-	950:-	1200:-	600:-
5 days	950:-	1150:-	1350:-	700:-
6 days	1100:-	1300:-	1500:-	800:-
7 days	1200:-	1400:-	1600:-	900:-
1st hour	80:-	100:-	150:-	60:-
Per hour	60:-	80:-	100:-	40:-
Deposit	3000:-	3000:-	3000:-	3000:-

Prices are in SEK (2013)

Bike Sweden

T: +46(0)8-403 07 520
Narvavägen 13-17
114 57 Stockholm
Open hours:
May-September everyday 10-18
Oktober-April, call to book
http://www.bikesweden.se

A: City Bike
B: Mountain Bike
C: Trekking Bike
D: Children's Bike
E: Follow me
F: Child's seat
G: Trailer
H: Road Bike
I: Electric Bike

Price Group	A	B,C	D,E	F	G	H,I
Duration

3 hours	150	190	80	50	150	190
Whole day	190	240	140	50	190	290
24 hours	240	270	180	80	250	350
2 days	350	430	280	100	350	500
3 days	500	590	380	120	500	700
4 days	575	750	480	140	575	850
5 days	650	860	550	160	650	1000
6 days	725	950	600	180	725	1150
Week	800	990	650	200	800	1250
Extra days	50	90	40	20	50	90
Month	1850	2700	1320	300	1850	2950

A new cross country cycle route in Germany

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

Cycling in Sweden

We have recently come back from a trip along the Inlandsbanan - Inland Line, a railway line running roughly north south in Sweden. We spent some time in Malmö and Stockholm on our way to Mora and were surprised by the number of bicycles and the excellent bicycle facilities. Why we should have been surprised in the case of Malmö is not clear as it is only a hop, skip and a jump from Copenhagen which has probably the best cycling facilities in the world. Sweden is not a cheap place to visit, but empty spaces and wild life in the north or the greenery of the south coupled with good waymarking mean it is an excellent place to cycle. You can cut costs by using one of the Swedish Youth Hostels which also welcome grey and white heads such as ourselves. The official Swedish Tourist Website is here. This is a country where everybody speaks English. The only Swedish I know is "Hej, do you speak English?".
Cykelfrämjandet, the Swedish Cycling Club has followed the example of the ADFC in Germany and set up a Bed & Bike website. Some parts are in English, but the hotel/hostel/guesthouse descriptions are in Swedish. However this is why you have Google Translator on your computer.
If you are interested in a guided tour then check out www.swedenbybike.com. This website which is mainly in Swedish in August 2013, but a full English version is promised. The idea is you find a tour that looks interesting and then contact the tour operator via the website.
We will discuss bicycle service and hire in a later blog.

.

Tour de Flanders: The Flanders Ring

We are gradually uploading all our photographs and books to a cloud based system, just in case we have serious computer problems - the legendary Coca Cola drinking, peanut butter eating puppy comes to mind. We are using a number of different files in our cloud and so have been looking through our old photographs. I have just found the photographs we took on our trip through Belgium or more exactly Flanders in 2003 (www.fietsroute.org/indexuk.php). It was an excellent twelve day trip from Maastricht back to Maastricht with in part superb Knooppunt signposting. I suspect it is all now signposted in this way.

Historically, it was an interesting trip with visits to Waterloo and Ypres. One does get the impression that although Napoleon lost at Waterloo, the locals seem to think he should have won. There is little mention of Wellington. The main monument is the Lion's Mound (or "Lion's Hillock", "Butte du Lion" in French, "Leeuw van Waterloo" in Dutch). It is a large conical artificial hill raised to commemorate the location where the Price of Orange (William II of the Netherlands) was knocked from his horse by a musket ball to the shoulder during the battle. 

It is difficult to get away from WWI in West Belgium. We found the Peace Cycle Tour from war memorial to war grave cemeteries in Ypres very moving and even more so when we returned on a wet November day.

We were surprised to learn there were cyclist regiments who acted as a quick response force along the flooded sections behind Ostend in 1914 and 15.

Farther north on the River Schelde we and many other cyclists made good use of the ferries.

The food was very good. The chocolate was magnificent. The chips (French Fries) were excellent and came in washing up bowls and then the beer, aaah! the beer was wonderful.

Crossing the English Channel

There has been a fair amount of correspondance in the "Guardian" and on cycling forums recently about the decision by Eurostar to reduce the size of the biggest packet allowed as carry-on luggage to a maximum of 85cm. It was formerly 120cm. This makes crossing the Channel with a bike on Eurostar more difficult and more expensive especially for non-Londoners. Check the AtoB website (http://www.atob.org.uk) for details. One way round this is to take a ferry or use the bike shuttle operated by Eurotunnel Le Shuttle who run the vehicle carrying trains under the Channel. If you wish to travel to Paris and then farther by train there is a snag though with both options. SNCF (French Railways) are upgrading many of their long distance trains to TGV standard. Not all TGVs take accompanied bikes. The last bike-carrying TGV leaves Calais Frethun station by the entrance to the Channel Tunnel at 12:32, so if one wants to travel on to Paris take an early ship to Calais. The Eurotunnel option drops one too late in Calais. The DFDS service to Dunkirk is a better bet. The voyage needs to be followed by a 20km ride from the port to Dunkirk station. There is good service of bike carrying trains to Paris from there. The AtoB website reviews all the possibilities of crossing over and under the Channel. We try to keep it as up-to-date as possible.

Cargobike hire in Germany

We have written an article for "AtoB" on government sponsored projects to increase the use of human powered and pedelec cargo bikes in inner city deliveries. There were two interesting German projects: "Ich ersetze ein Auto" - "I am replacing a van" aimed at courier and taxi services and VELOTransport aimed at the general public and families.
One of the nuggets of information found on the VELOTransport website was http://www.velogistics.net/en/. This is an interactive map of western Europe showing where cargo-bikes and -trikes can be hired or borrowed. At the time of writing, the majority of hire points seem to be in Germany, but there is one in Bristol.

Ramblers' Holidays are offering trips to the Rhine Valley

I was amazed and amused this morning to get a newsletter from Ramblers' Holidays - the commercial end of the British Ramblers' Association. We have had a number of holidays with the Ramblers. All of them were good. Some were better than others. The newsletter was enclosed with a brochure on cruising and walking which was binned very rapidly. I have no desire to have to pack a penguin suit to eat dinner.
However the newsletter had an article by Martin Hesp, the Senior Features Editor of the Western Morning News about a holiday in Rüdesheim where he praises walking and cycling in the Rhine Gorge. We have been pushing the advantages of holidays in Germany for well over twenty five years: Prices are cheaper than in France. More people speak English. The food comes in large portions, but is very similar to British tastes. The wine is reasonably priced and much underrated in Britain. The beer is wonderful. There are excellent networks of cycle routes, backed up by good public transport.
Thanks Ramblers!
You can get a lot of background information about cycling in Germany by downloading our Cycling in Europe guide. If you get a taste for cycling in the Rhine Valley then check out our
"Following the Rhine gently upstream…" or "Riesling Route" shown on the right. The new version of "Rhine II" should be out by October, if all goes well.

E-Bike charging points in southern Rhineland Palatinate

Southern Rhineland Palatinate is a good place to cycle with its warm climate, vineyards, quaint villages with their stone built houses, an extensive network of cycle routes and solid rib sticking food. It is quite hilly in parts and so e-bike batteries can drain quite fast. The local electricity utility has stepped in to help the e-biker and installed free charging boards all over its distribution area, marked by the red points on the map below. To help with the orientation: The Rhine runs along the right edge of the map and Wissembourg shown in grey at the bottom is in Alsace, France.

Bicycle lights in Germany

At the moment if use you a bike in Germany at night you need to display lights, white at the front and red at the rear. By law these lights must be dynamo powered. If you use battery powered lights you could receive an on the spot fine of €15 from a policeman. Whether this applies to foreign tourists is not clear. The transport minister Peter Ramsauer wishes to change the law, so that battery powered lamps are legal. Reputedly this should happen this week. The ADFC the German cycling club is against a move to make battery and dynamo powered lights equal under the law, on the grounds that a dynamo is the safest source of power. This change in the law does mean that cheaper bikes in future will probably be sold without dynamos.
6 July 2013 The law has been changed and will come in to effect next year on 1 July 2014. Battery lights will need an indicator to show how much power is left in the battery when in use.

Bicycles on commuter trains in Germany during the rush hour.

Trains in Germany fall into two main groups: subsidised regional trains and non subsidised long distance trains. The majority of trains are run by Deutsche Bahn (DB). The company is required to run the long distance services at a profit. The InterCityExpress long distance trains (ICE), DB's high speed flagships do not take bicycles, apart from bagged folded folders. However we often travel with our bagged Bromptons on ICEs.  Some long distance trains: InterCity (IC/EC) and overnight sleeper trains (CityNightLine - CNL) have reservable bike spaces. A bike ticket costs 9€ per journey, even if you change trains underway. We recommend you to reserve bike slots three months in advance if you are travelling on these trains with a bike, because they are very popular with cyclists.
You can neither reserve seats nor bike slots on regional trains. Sometimes you pay to put your bike on the train. Sometimes it's free to transport a bike on the regional trains. It varies from region to region and which ticket you buy. It is worthwhile trying to avoid travelling on regional (commuter trains) with an accompanied bicycle during weekday rush hours (07:30 - 09:00 and 16:30 - 18:00). There are limits to the number of bicycles allowed on a train. Once this is exceeded you can be asked to leave the train with your bicycle. If the train is very full the conductor may stop you getting on the train with your bicycle. It is no use arguing because the conductor will keep the train in the station and call on the Bundespolizei (Federal Police) to remove you. Just get off the train and wait for the next one. Otherwise the train will be delayed for anything up to an hour . The other passengers on the train will not be happy. The reputation of cyclists will get a black mark and the reputation of your native country will go down the pan as well.

Bicycle (Bike, Cycle) Hire (Rental, Renting) in Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg like most of northern Germany is fairly flat. It is a university city, so there are a lot of cyclists and cyclepaths. It seems to be well equipped with bike hire shops. We have checked an earlier list and these companies appear to be still operating. The order does not play any role. We can make no recommendations. This is an edited version of an earlier list.

Hamburg City Cycles

Bernhard-Nocht-Str. 89-91

20359 Hamburg

Tel.:  +49-(0)40-74214420

Mobil: +49-(0)176-64330623

Web:   www.hhcitycycles.de

Cruiser and city bikes: 13€/day, 55€ a week. City tours offered. 
(These prices updated summer 2016)

Bardowicks Go-Kart-Hof und Fahrradverleih
www.go-kart-hof.de
Vierlande
Neuengammer Hausdeich 101
21039 Hamburg
Tel. (040) 723 38 66
Fax (040) 72 37 06 60
E-Mail: bardowicks@go-kart-hof.de
Tourenräder: 13,00 € pro Tag inklusive Transport, Tourenvorschläge, Karten

Fahrradverleih Altona
www.fahrradverleih-altona.de
Altona
Thadenstraße 90-92
22767 Hamburg
Tel. (040) 4 39 20 12
Fax (040) 430 73 15
Mobil (0171) 6 95 15 15
E-Mail: tom@fahrradverleih-altona.de
Opening times: Mo - Fr 10 - 18 Uhr, Sa 10 - 13 Uhr or by appointment
15 City bikes (7 Gear): 8,50 € per day, 22,50 € per weekend (three days), 51,00 € per week (Rebate from three bikes)

"Hamburg anders erfahren"
Stefan Petersen
Hire only on condition that the bicycles are delivered probably free of charge.
www.hamburg-anders-erfahren.de
Tel. mobil (0178) 640 18 00
Fax (040) 6 40 18 00
E-Mail: petersen@lassraeder.com
Over 200 bicycles;
City, Trekking and Mountain-Bikes: 12,00 € per day; 49,00 € per week; 150,00 € pro month (Minimum charge 40,00 € per order; (06/2013)
Road bikes, Child bicycles, Tandems, etc.: ask about rates or check the home page. The website has an English section, but you will to look at the German to find the prices.
Also: City tours, short bike tours

KOECH 2-Rad Technologie
www.koech2rad.de
Horn
Sievekingsallee 96
20535 Hamburg
Tel. (040) 219 46 34
100 bikes: 9,90 € per day/39€ a week for seven gear ladies trekking bikes with a back pedal brake.
Child bikes, trailers can be ordered, delivery possible

If you don't find what you want above then check the ADFC Hamburg's website. It is likely to be more up to date than our list.

Radsalon Mannheim 2013

For several years now the City of Mannheim in conjunction with the chamber of commerce and the city's marketing agency has organised the Radsalon, an annual cycling festival with an exhibition. This is held in a square in the middle of the main shopping area of the city and attracts not only bike freaks but shoppers out to pick up some new clothes. Last Saturday (22 June 2013) stands included the ADFC - the German cycling club, a secondhand bike sale, a number of local and regional bike shops, bicycle manufacturers, an energy agency, the car sharing club, free bike checks - as part of the Baden-Württemberg provincial campaign to encourage cycling and VELOTransport - a government sponsored project to encourage the use of cargo bikes by families and by small businesses.
I would like to have visited the Riese and Müller stand with its cargo e-bike and electro- and normal versions of these exceedingly clever bikes, but we had very little time to spare. We were on the ADFC stand advising folk about buying cycling helmets, discussing the advantages of membership and giving out our tour programme.
The VELOTransport stand was next door to ours and I did notice the lads on the stand were kept busy with visitors. In a quiet five minutes I had a quick chat with both members of staff and looked at the five or six cargo bikes and trikes on the stand. The VELOTransport project is designed both to demonstrate the usefulness of cargo bikes to young families aiming to dump the car or small businesses who need to move small amounts of stuff in city centres where car parking is expensive and restricted. The stand offered hands-on experience of these bikes. The group had cleverly visited a wide range of events over the last year including the biannual German Protestant Church annual meeting, an Ideal Home exhibition and a caravan show, so did not restrict themselves to cycle exhibitions. As a back up the project offers a well thought out and extensive database of bikes, trikes and equipment for cargo carrying available in Germany (http://www.velotransport.de/). The website is in German unfortunately, but a lot of the links are to English language websites and if not there is always Google Translator.
The highlight of the Radsalon is a mass ride around Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, across the Rhine in  Rhineland Palatinate. This year over 650 riders on all sorts of bikes and trikes took place. The trip across the Rhine was cancelled because of a major fire in Ludwigshafen harbour.

Before the Ride

The smoke from the fire was visible from Mannheim

A new source of campsites?

If like us you prefer quiet small campgrounds, it's worthwhile casting an eye on www.campinmygarden.com. The website aims to link house and garden owners with campers seeking a micro camp site. At the moment only the UK in Europe is well covered, but give the site time.

Rixen & Kaul Klickfix

We are fans of KLICKfix products. The company offers a range of devices to fix devices: bags, maps, water bottles, locks, etc. on bicycles. As we write guide books (available from us, Cicerone, Amazon and Smashwords) and therefore need to do a lot of exploratory cycling, we find the KLICKfix map holders, a simple perspex clip to be a very good way of attaching a paper map to a bike. If you pop the map in a sealable plastic sachet it is reasonably waterproof as well.  On our last trip down the Weser, the first tour of the year after the winter, I assembled the map, plastic cover and clip on the bike. A minute or two later the clip cracked open. I wrote to Rixen & Kaul the makers of the device to enquire whether because we'd stored the clip inside the plastic map cover, plasticiser from the bag had caused some form of stress corrosion cracking. The company replied the same day to tell me that this was unlikely, but that the odd Minimap can be highly stressed as a result of processing  and cracks in use. We received a new Minimap clip by Post a day or two later without needing to send in proof of purchase. Well done Rixen & Kaul!

I was also interested to noticed that Rixen & Kaul now do a handlebar bag (PadBag) for an iPad/tablet with a transparent plastic covered drawer to hold the iPad which can be pulled out for reading and navigation. This bag solves a problem that we had been debating about using an iPad/tablet with one of our e-guide books.

KLICKfix products are distributed in the UK by

Greyville Enterprises GB-WS 14 9TZ Lichfield, phone +44 (0)15 43 / 25 13 28 email: sales@greyville.com  website: www.greyville.com

and by 

Zyro Limited YO7 3BX Thirsk Business Park, phone +44 (0)1845 521700 email: customer.services@zyro.co.uk  website: www.zyro.co.uk and in the USA by  United States: VeloFred LLC New York, phone +1 (0)646 4359805  email: info@velofred.com  website: www.velofred.com.  We have no financial interest in Rixen & Kaul or any of their distributors. We just like the gear.

Würzburg bike parking

Würzburg lies on the River Main in Germany and is also the start of the Romantic Road to Füssen. It has has much to offer, the Residenz - the bishop's palace said by Napoleon to be the finest vicarage in Europe, the Marienberg Fortress, the cathedral, the churches in the old town amongst other items and the beer is not bad either. If you want to play the tourist for a couple of hours but are worried about leaving your bike, but don't want to push it around the city, then the city's tourist office offers a solution that we have not found anywhere else. The tourist office has set a up a guarded bike park in conjunction with the city's parks department, the city council and the employment office. It costs one Euro a day and  if you buy a meal, a snack or something by the Bike & Park Payback Partners for more than 5 Euros, even this will be returned to you. It is still advisable to take your core valuables, passport, camera and the 20 000 Euros in cash your auntie gave you to pay into a numbered account with you, but your panniers with their dirty washing can be left behind.

Accommodation on the lower River Weser IV

We cycled into Bremen, stopped for a quick glance at a historic building or two, lunch and then, as ever, had trouble getting out of the city, even though we had only drunk coffee with our Bratwurst. We stopped underway in a village between Bremen and Bremerhaven. We would try to avoid the hotel in future. It was very noisy, so we will mention neither its name or the village.
The next day we fought a Dutch style headwind to reach Bremerhaven where we were faced with the problem of finding our hotel. It was for once dead easy to find. We followed the cycle route into town and arrived at Bürgermeister-Smidt-Str 1 near the Columbus Center. Our hotel was the havenhostel (T: +49 (0) 471 30 96 69 0) at Bürgermeister-Smidt-Str 209. Part of the Straße is in a pedestrian zone where cycling is only allowed between 22:00 and 10:00, so watch out  and walk unless you wish to contribute to the city's coffers.
The havenhostel is a former navy barracks, built around 1902. It offers simple lean but clean accommodation. The rooms are large and all ensuite with plastic floors. Breakfasts are self-service, but good. The staff are very friendly. At 75 Euros a night plus 6.50 Euros pp for breakfast in a big city the rooms are good value for money. One slightly weird thing is that the website is only in German though the staff speak English. Evening meals can be available during the week, depending on demand. It was weekend, anyway, when we were there. We ate an excellent Lobscouse in the Treffpunkt Kaiserhafen, "The last pub before New York" in the docks and a good Italian meal in a nearby restaurant the night after.

Accommodation on the lower River Weser III

We met our one flooded section on this day and discovered the only way through is to pedal fast and ignore the wet feet.

Keep on pedalling!

So far we had been paying about 50 Euros a night and decided to make a stop before Bremen where, according to the Bett und Bike website, prices for a double room can be as high as over 100 Euros. We arrived in Thedinghausen and discovered that the bridge over the River Eiter on the edge of the village was being rebuilt. As a result the village was host to a number of visiting building workers and there was no room at the inn for us. We talked to the mayor, but he was unable to help and so cycled 2-3km to the off route village of Morsum where we stopped in Döhlings Gasthaus at Zum Fleet 1 (http://www.doehlings-gasthaus.de/,  doehlings-gasthaus(at)t-online.de, T: +49 (0) 4204 91710). It was fine. If you decide to eat the cold cuts Platte then order one between two of you. Two were too much for us.

Accommodation on the lower River Weser II

The next night we stopped in Bücken, Lower Saxony in the 18th century Pension Rosengarten, (Manfred Behrmann, Markstraße 15, D27333 Bücken. T: +49 (0) 4251 6522, F: +49 (0) 4251 671796, E: info@weserradweg-rosengarten.de/). This is an excellent B&B where we enjoyed a pleasant room, a superb garden and an extensive tasty breakfast. 

A garden is a thing of beauty and a job for ever,

The house was built in 1740.

Accommodation on the lower River Weser I

We cycled last week from Minden to Bremerhaven along the Weser Cycle Route. It was a great trip. We started in pastoral splendour amongst large fields dotted with cows and good views across the river with the occasional barge.  We visited the ancient city of Bremen and then followed the Weser estuary with sea going vessels as far as Bremerhaven. The route appears to be unknown in Britain which is a pity.
We had met our friends Maxa and Tim when they joined our train in Kassel and we travelled to Minden together. After lunch in Minden we set off down the Weser or parallel to the Weser as although  the river levels were not as high as on the Elbe, parts of the cycle route were blocked by flooding. At about 16:00 after about 20km we discussed where we wanted to stop the night and decided to stop at the next Gasthaus. Within 200m a notice board pointed us left to the Mühlengasthof & Pension "Zum Letzten Streich". * This was an excellent decision. We had small but comfortable ensuite rooms and for one night lack of space is no problem, especially at these prices: 27 Euros per person in a double room. Dinner in the beer garden was excellent and breakfast equally so. A bike repair service and e-bike battery charging is available. The owners are mildly offbeat souls. The house and gardens are decorated with mosaics and ornaments that remind me of those created by the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The owners feed and offer shelter in the garden to 18 ± sterilised cats, castoffs from the local farmers. (No fear if you have a cat allergy, the cats know their place. They stay in the garden and on the ground floor. Just check the chairs before you sit sit down.) The pub has an annual blues night at the end of June. What more could one want?

*Mühlengasthof & Pension, Großenheerser Mühle 4, T: +49 (0) 5765 7330,
info (at) windmuehlegrossenheerse.de

The decision makers at work. The notice board is on the left of the photograph.

Mühlengasthof & Pension "Zum Letzten Streich".

Bike Hire in the Ruhr

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

Radstation am Bochumer HBf (Main railway station)

North exit of HBf Bochum

Kurt Schumacher Platz
Bochum

ViA Bochum

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

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

Radrunde Allgäu (Around Allgäu)

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

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

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

Heller's vegetarian restaurant in Mannheim

Vegetarian Restaurants are fairly rare in Germany: Most restaurants can prepare simple dishes though, like boiled veg with Hollandaise sauce. This probably gets a bit boring after a while. There are also a lot of Italian restaurants in the Fatherland who will dash off a cheesy pasta dish or even a vegetarian pizza. It is nice however to be offered a good choice of dishes and if you are following the Rhine either upstream or downstream you can pass through Mannheim. Our recommended routes suggest following the Neckar to Heidelberg (upstream) or from Heidelberg (downstream). In the centre of Mannheim between the Wasserturm and the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) you will find Heller's Restaurant in N7 on the ring. This is a very successful self service vegetarian restaurant. This excellent restaurant  has been going for 25 years offering vegetarian and vegan wholemeal food. They also have a coffee bar at the back offering delicious healthy cakes. The cooks succeed in cooking healthy food that does not taste like healthy food, but like good home cooking from an inspired cook.
Our Rhine upstream e-book guide is available from Smashwords in a range of formats or from Amazon. (Look for Judith Forsyth as author to see all our books.) Our downstream guide is in preparation at the moment.

Bike Hire in Vienna

We are hoping to spend some time in Vienna this summer and intend to hire bikes for a few days. There are 1200 km of bike route in Vienna. Here are the results of our searches. I will report on our experiences. So far we have found the following companies:

Pedal Power, Austellungsstraße 3, 1020 Wien T: 0043 1 7297234, F: 0043 1 7297234, eMail: office@pedalpower.at, http://www.pedalpower.at/z_englisch/01.php

There is a city bike system similar to London and Paris:
Rental charges: The duration of the rental starts with the removal of a Citybike from the bike box and ends when the Citybike is returned to a bike box. The first hour is free, after which a usage fee is charged:
2nd hour: 1 euro per started hour
3rd hour: 2 euros per started hour
4th - 120th hour: 4 euros for each started hour. Flat fee for exceeding the hours or loss of the bike: 600 euros
Obviously it pays to use the bike;  pop it into a dock; play the tourist on foot and then pick up a bike again.

More information under http://www.wien.info/en/vienna-for/sports/cycling.

If you do not wish to register, Pedal Power offers a special service for tourists: You can rent several bikes at the same time with your credit card, without having to register with Citybike.

How to do it: Leave your credit card details with Pedal Power as security in return for the desired number of Citybike tourist maps (one per bike) for the desired duration  - and off you pedal. Map rental fee: 2 euros per day

Citybike Tourist Card at Pedal Power

Bicycle Rental Pedal Power

Ausstellungsstraße 3 

1020   Wien
www.pedalpower.at
Radverleih Pedal Power - City Office
Elisabethstraße 13
1010   Wien
www.pedalpower.at    

I suspect it is slightly cheaper to register.  The one-time registration fee costs 1 euro. It depends how much bike maps cost and how many you need.

VIENNA EXPLORER

Franz Josefs Kai 45; 1010 Wien

Email: info@viennaexplorer.com
Tel/Fax: 00 43 (1) 89 09 682

Skype: viennaexplorer
Facebook: Vienna Explorer – city tours & day trips
Twitter: @ViennaExplorer

The company offers city bikes (€14 a full day) and slightly more expensive trekking bikes (€19 a day). Bikes cannot be hired online.

RADVERLEIH DONAUINSEL

Herta Aschauer 1210 Wien, Donauinsel / Parkplatz Floridsdorfer Brücke 
The company offers a wide range of bikes, trikes and four wheeled pedalled vehicles. 

The Swabian Potato Cycle Route

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

Youth Hostels

The regular reader of this blog will have noticed that we are fans of Youth Hostels, even though our youth was some time ago. We noticed recently that some German Hostels are now offering one night membership for €2.50, rather than insisting that one takes out annual membership to stop for one night. This is unfortunately only for people 26 and under,  for some hostels and is only for a limited time, but I think it is a pointer to the future. The Swiss Youth Hostels have a similar system for everybody and Dutch Youth Hostels do not demand membership, but offer you a rebate if you are a member.

Basel Cycle plans

We have cycled through Basel fairly often and it is an interesting place to cycle, what with other cyclists, trams and motor cars, lots of motor cars. We are rewriting our Rhine II Basel to Hook of Holland guide as an e-book so I have been doing some research to update our notes. I was interested to read that Basel City has produced a new cycle plan which aims to separate the commuter cyclists and tourists, children etc. (http://www.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-stadt/so-will-basel-zur-velofreundlichsten-stadt-der-schweiz-werden-126338189). The link is in German. As well the planners want to ensure that the needs of cyclists are taken into account in new road schemes. When this wonder is going to happen is not clear, but don't hold your breath.

Strasbourg's city bike scheme

As we have recounted before on one of our early trips across Strasbourg there were no cycleways and in order to get away from the traffic we ended up carrying our bikes up steps and over a giant bridge in the harbour. Things are much better these days. There are any number of cycle paths and the city even has signposts pointing to the German town of of Kehl.
One item that could be improved is better rail links to Mannheim and Frankfurt. After a high speed TGV trip from the South of France, it's still necessary to wait for the local train to Offenburg to catch an ICE north. We had an hour between changing trains at the central station a few weeks ago. I checked out Vélhop, the Strasbourg cycle rental scheme which is similar to schemes in Paris, London and major German cities. The bikes seem to be sensible roadsters.

You can pick them up at a number of points in the city both from automatic stations (1 € for an hour or 5 € for 12 hours) using a credit card as ID or from manned stations (one day for 5 € and 15 € for a week  leaving a 150 € deposit and showing ID). The shops offer extras like helmets, baby seats and children's bicycles. There is more information under www.velhop.strasbourg.eu.

New Books about Cycling in Europe and on the Romantic Road

We have produced two new e-books.

"Cycling the Romantic Road from Würzburg to Füssen" available from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291295. We have a printed book which is similar but covers the route in both directions. You can order it from us via http://bicycletouringeurope.eu/.

"Cycling in Europe" available from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/245564
 and from Amazon. Check your local Amazon shop for "Cycling in Europe" on the Kindle site. "Cycling in Europe" is a collection of advice and hints about cycle touring on the continent.

We are in process of writing "Rhine II" Basel to Rotterdam. Here are a few photographs taken on our last research expedition.
Judith hard at work in Zons, an historic village between Cologne and Düsseldorf.

 Neil photographing the harbour quarter in Düsseldorf.

To find out what is in the green baths, visit Düsseldorf or drop us a line via the comments facility.

SPEZI Special Bicycle Show Germersheim 2013

Our impressions and what struck us as being of interest. 

The Spezi 2013 website can be found at: http://www.spezialradmesse.de/index.php?welcome.

The exhibition has got larger. There is now a second area for test riding of e-bikes rather than mixing powered and unpowered bikes together on the bus station which is what happened until this year.

New trends: e-bikes, cargo bikes and trikes, pedelec cargo bikes, and trailers. Riese and Müller are aiming to produce more pedelecs than unpowered bikes in the future. Obviously the major trike manufacturers were also represented, but to my not very learned eye the improvements in this area were all detail changes.

www.bike43.com a transport bike prototype for up to 2 children. The geometry is similar to that of a Brompton, at least for the rider. The weight distribution is designed to avoid doing a wheelie with a child on the back of a bike. This it would appear is a danger with conventional child seating.

www.bicicapace.com (Website in English) very stylish cargo bikes, to be expected as they are designed and built in Milan. The basic model is to be seen on the right hand side of the photograph above.

www.kemper-velo.de (Website in English) practical and stylish bikes including Pedersen bikes and a wide range of cargo bikes. The grey one above is the Filibus. The company does also sell bikes via eBay, but that bit of the website is in German.

www.family-cycling.com (in German but with good photos). Manufacturers of children-adult bike linkage and trailers. British distributor: http://www.cyclesense.co.uk

www.pedalpower.de (in German only) Long Harry cargo bike

www.radkutsche.de (in German only) interesting cargo bikes.

www.drymer.nl (in Dutch, but take a look) A all weather electric trike similar to the BMW C1. the trike shown above is the basic bike without the bodywork.

A neat Hungarian solar assisted velo car -  http://pannonrider.pannonsolar.hu/pannonrider/pannonrider_main_english.html

Bikes on buses in Germany

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

Rickshaws in Cologne

If you are thinking of visiting Cologne which as a city has much to recommend it, then check out the activities of perpedalo (http://www.perpedalo.de/). The English on the website is a source of wonder. I suspect it's machine translated. The company offers cycle rickshaw tours of the old town, conference bikes, guided tours on foot and if you are feeling brave you can hire a rickshaw to pedal yourself. The centre of Cologne is best investigated on foot or a bike.
When we were in Cologne we stopped at the Köln-Deutz Youth Hostel, which is to be recommended. It is ten minutes walk from the cathedral and Hauptbahnhof (central railway station). However you will need to be a member of a YHA.

Cargo bikes in Berlin

There is another aspect of cycling as well as the Berlin-Copenhagen Cycle Route that links the two cities: The popularity of cargo bikes. Cargo bikes are often to be seen on the streets of both cities. Denmark is home to a number of major cargo bike manufacturers: Bullit, Christiana, for example.
An almost parallel society of enthusiasts has blossomed in Berlin. The Berliner Lastenrad-Netzwerk (Berlin Cargo Bike Network) has a mobile workshop to help groups build cargo bikes or modify conventional bikes. Its website: www.werkstatt-lastenrad.de features films on the building of and plans for cargo bikes. All this information is in German. If you want more information use the contact details on the website and drop the folks an eMail in English.
The Lastenrad-Fans Berlin (http://preview.tinyurl.com/d4zepuf) meet once a month to cycle round the city to encourage the city fathers to build wider cycle paths and offer safe parking areas for these bikes.
Unlike Copenhagen there does not yet appear to be a manufacturer of cargo bikes, but in a city like Berlin that is very open to new ideas, it won't be that long before somebody starts to manufacture.

A Bullit cargo bike amongst the messengers' bikes at the City Museum in Copenhagen

Copenhagen by the harbour

A parking area in Copenhagen especially for cargo bikes

Another Dutch German bike route, The Berkel Route

The River Berkel starts west of Münster and flows 168km east through an area of quiet countryside to finally joins the River Ijssel in Zutphen. This area is not well known as a tourist area, but offers a number of treasures:

• Billerbeck with the gothic Ludgerus Cathedral, the Romanesque Johanniskirche and the historic merchants' store houses.
• Coesfeld set in a park landscape.
• Gescher with its bell museum.
• Stadtlohn famous for its potteries.
• Vreden borders on the Zwillbrocker Venn nature reserve which offers a flamingo colony.
• Borculo and Eibergen both offer water mills, chateaus, ancient churches and in addition the biggest labyrinth in the world the village of Ruurlo. 
• Zutphen offers defensive gates and merchants' houses.

However having written this list from E to W I would suggest that wise cyclist follows it from W to E. The west wind in the Netherlands is a serious matter. In addition once you arrive in Billerbeck you can travel on to Münster which was recently voted the most cyclist friendly city with over 200 000 inhabitants in Germany.

Charge your e-bike batteries for free while you absorb some culture in Baden-Württemberg!

The growing importance of the e-bike in leisure cycle touring is reflected in the decision of the Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg (Provincial Castles and Gardens Organisation, Baden-Wuerttemberg) to provide free charging stations for e-bikes from spring 2013. Visitors can utilise sockets directly or can hand over their bike batteries during their visit to the historic building or garden. There are charging stations in Heidelberg Castle, in the Ducal Palaces in Mannheim and Ludwigsburg, in Bebenhausen monastery / castle, in Urach Palace, and in Wiblingen Convent. In addition there is a group of sites around Lake Constance, a popular cycling area: in Schloss Meersburg, im Fürstenhäusle Meersburg, in Convent und Schloss Salem und in the fortress ruin at Hohentwiel. Visiting cyclists do need however to buy a ticket before plugging in their bikes or handing over the battery for charging.

Weikersheim Castle Copyright Landesmedienzentrum Ba.-Wü

Saarland Tourist App

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

More and better GPS devices

According to a report in the Südhessen Morgen, 2 April 2013 GPS devices for outdoor use are selling like hot cakes. It is no longer just  nerds who are buying the instruments but also normal cyclists who want to have a quick tour at short notice.  Thomas Froitzheim of the Allgemeiner Deutsche Fahrrad Club (ADFC), the German cycle touring club, pointed out that newer systems offer the comfort of the navigation systems for motorists combined with outdoor touring maps. One enters either a target or a time limit and the GPS device works out a route, often using an audio system to describe which way to go. Obviously there are still buy instruments available where the cyclist or walker needs to work out a route on his or her PC which is then transferred to the GPS device. This stage will be a critical point for us, as a number of these instruments and their map collections only recognise Microsoft Windows® systems, which is not much use for those sensible souls who use Apple Macintosh computers.
The more modern GPS devices help the errant cyclist who leaves the suggested route to return to the path of righteousness, whereas the older systems show the route and  the cyclist's position letting him or her find their way back. However, Thomas Froitzheim thinks that both the older simpler and the newer systems suffer from content quality. There is not yet enough information about the quality of cycle routes built into the system. We think it would be better if cyclists could specify the most scenically interesting route or the one with the best tea rooms, etc. This could be the app the cycling world is waiting for.

If we buy two new bikes then at least two old ones have to go.

As ever there is an additional problem. We have nine bicycles sitting in our cellar and in the cupboard in the hall: 

• Three "Bahnhof's bicycles" we can leave at the tram station in the town and be sure that there are more attractive bikes about in the bike parking area at the tram station. 
• Two Dahon tourers.
• Two mountain bikes.
• Two Bromptons.

The first five would be favourites to pass on, but of the two Bahnhof's bikes one is a historic Peugeot Cologne tourer and the other is the first bike that Judith ever bought new. In both cases it would be like putting down a family pet.
The Bromptons are in use most days of the week. 
It looks like the Dahons would be favourites. One of the Bahnhof bikes can be donated or flogged off for €20.
I suspect we will leave things as they are for while and not buy new bikes.

Cycling in the Italian lakes

We received an eMail from the Province of Varese with a link to its cycling/hiking website in a cheerful mix of English and Italian. It offers information, GPS tracks and links about road biking, mountain biking, cycle paths, pass storming (if it turns you on), bike hotels, campsites and lots of practical information. We have cycled there and in the Swiss canton of Ticino next door and found very enjoyable.

Bike Theft Locks

The German consumer testing organisation has recently tested bike locks and to put matters succinctly the organisation is not impressed. By far the majority of the locks did not stand up to the treatment handed out by a group of determined "bike thieves". What this means I suspect one needs to check around before handing over your hard-earned cash for a lock. I cannot give you the results of this test which is in German anyway because the test organisation would like €2.50 to release the results and would not like me to give it away for free. However there is a summary in German on http://fahrradschlosstest.net/fahrradschloss-stiftung-warentest/.

• However one piece of advice from the article that I can give readers for free is that bike thieves in Germany specialise in one particular type of lock, so it pays to use two types of lock when you lock your bike up.  

Our advice would be in addition:

• Keep your bike somewhere parked in the open in view during the day. 
• At night lock the bike away in a closed room. In addition try to run the locks through all the wheels. Do you really want loose your high quality wheels? 
• Lock the bike to a solid piece of street furniture. Otherwise the thief can pop your bike in a van and it's goodbye bike.
• If you are travelling in a group lock all the bikes together. The bike rustlers will find it difficult to put a package of four or five bikes into the back of white van.