Car Fasting in Lent

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, better known as Pancake Tuesday in the civilised world. We have been trying to convert the German nation to the true faith for years. In many parts of Germany between November 11 at 11:11 am and midnight on Shrove Tuesday people celebrate with increasing intensity the nearer it gets to Ash Wednesday. From the Thursday before Ash Wednesday (known as Dirty  or Womens’ Thursday when ladies in the Ruhr and on the Lower Rhine cut mens’ ties off) until Rose Monday and Fasnacht/Fasching/Karneval Tuesday there are Balls, street parades, variety shows with jokes of a simple kind, young men and women dancing in sequinned costumes which don’t leave much to the imagination, with costumed audiences including much cross dressing. It is definitely Saturnalia. We have tried over the years to persuade our neighbours that it is better to just have a plateful of pancakes with sugar and lemon on Shrove Tuesday than all this cavorting. We haven't had much success and I don’t rate our chances highly in future.
Afterwards on Ash Wednesday life in Germany resumes its serious Teutonic ways. People give up various practices for Lent.  They leave alcohol, tobacco or sweets out of their diets. The Catholic and Protestant churches in Rhineland Palatinate and in Luxembourg as well as the Roman Diocese of Aachen in North Rhine Westphalia have a new variation: Autofasten (Car Fasting). During the period of this action from 1st March to 29th March church members agree to using their cars less and this includes commuting. It is a voluntary action. Participants will travel by public transport, by forming car pools, by bicycle or on foot. It might well be difficult in this year as two trade unions are fighting for control in the German railway industry and there will be serious strikes. Apart from the strikes it does appear that the SW German/Luxembourg approach to fasting has a lot to offer and could well be taken up elsewhere. See the church's blog: http://blog.bistum-trier.de/autofasten/?page_id=3 (in German and French). Obviously the idea over the long term is to encourage people to use their cars less all the time.

The different pleasures of winter cycling

We do not usually take many cycle tours until the local temperatures reach 10°C, at least at midday. A quick ride into Viernheim is fine, unless there is snow or ice which we avoid since at 70 plus we do not bounce too easily. However our weather folks had been forecasting a taste of spring, possible sunshine and we had a pressing need to write a tour report for our cycle club.

On a grey Wednesday, we unearthed winter cycling togs, pumped up our bike tyres and feeling like Michelin men set off through the woods and fields. The temperature was just creeping up to a raw 3°C and soon bit through the layers and our eyes started watering. Still needs must so we continued to our first goal, some 12 km from home, Hemsbach Station where the tour description started. Hemsbach is a small town at the break of slope between the Odenwald Hills to the east and the Rhine Plain. We snaked along through the narrow streets following the Bergstrasse Cycle route northwards towards our county town, Heppenheim, which has an attractive inner core of half-timbered houses and a huge parish church above. The Bergstrasse Cycle Route bypasses these and follows a currently unpleasant road past a large shopping centre, where the cyclist is threatened by vehicles turning in or out. Despite the red marked bicycle lane we were glad to turn left towards the edge of town, only to realise that this led us past a huge new composting and biogas plant, with its necessary stream of huge trucks. It was only a few hundred metres and then we reached the quiet of a farmer’s route underneath the Autobahn and out into the winter fields of the Rhine Plain. Herons patrolled the water channels, wild ducks and geese flew over as we sped past clumps of leafless bushes and the dark ploughed soils, waiting for seeds and spring. 

In no time we reached a steep gravel path leading up to a bridge over the straightened out course of the R. Weschnitz, which eventually flows into the Rhine. We dismounted and walked over the muddy path across the narrow bridge. Here there are sluices and a flow measuring station where another drain joins the Weschnitz. We ate a sandwich, moaned about our cold hands and feet, commiserating with a couple of sheep and a few ducks, in what was a protected area where rare birds could nest safely. They were keeping a low profile that day.

From here, fortified by the sandwich we continued into Lorsch, site of an ancient monastery where the monks’ records of life, crops, land ownership and historical events are preserved in a sort of Domesday Book, the Lorsch Codex. Not much of the original monastery remains, apart from a rather fine Gatehouse but the whole area is now a Unesco World Heritage site, with a museum, a reconstructed medieval village, complete with ancient breeds of cattle and even more importantly a little jewel of a town where cafés were open and hot coffee beckoned. It seemed a long time since I had needed to warm my fingers on a large cup of coffee, but it and a substantial pastry even got the blood moving in my feet too.

Then out of Lorsch following R9 cycle trail, parallel to the railway on a gravel track towards the next small town of Bürstadt. A few zigzags through the houses and factories on the edge of town and we were out into the fields again on quiet farm roads. Earth clods and ploughed fields reminded us that the farmers had been busy in this predominantly cereal growing region. In the distance woods marking the Rhine’s course stretched across the horizon and soon we could see the familiar outline of the gatehouse tower on the Rhine bridge in Worms. The towers of the fortress-like cathedral were briefly visible as we joined the cycleway along the main road into Worms. We had seen enough, battled the unrelenting cold for long enough and turned away south to Lampertheim and Viernheim, still about 15 km away. We had cycled about 60 km when we rolled up to our house door, not bad for the first tour of the season, in chilly weather. Ten minutes inside, hot mugs of tea in hand, warm woolly socks on feet, we were already talking of our enjoyment of the day.

However, two days later we rejigged our route, riding on another cold day but with weak sun and wearing our winter caps under our helmets. We used a much pleasanter route via Hüttenfeld, where the Rothschild family had a small Schloß, now a Lithuanian School, to reach Lorsch. This route was almost all on roads, virtually traffic free across the Rhine Rift Valley. Because the R. Neckar once meandered over this whole region before flowing into the R. Main much further north there are old willows marking the meanders, now silted up. In winter, these and other large field edge trees show their fantastic skeletons of branches, fallen limbs or ancient injuries, turning the mainly monotone landscape into an artwork. The leafless hedges also revealed to us the site of yet another cloister, the Hagen nunnery which seems to have been abandoned sometime after 1400. We continued towards Lorsch taking the newly signposted Unesco Heritage Cycleway around the town to reach the museum, monastery site and town centre. We reversed our route to reach home, chilled but not frozen and with 30 km to our credit.

Lorsch Monastery Gatehouse

The trees 

It was cold!

Renting a bike or e-bike in Neuenburg not far from Alsace or the Black Forest near Basel/Basle

The following shops and organisations offer bike for hire in Neuenburg near Basel/Basle/Bâle. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Dreiländer Camping- und Freizeitpark
Oberer Wald
Telefon: 07631/77 19

Fahrrad-Fachgeschäft
Alfons Harwardt
Verleih und Reparatur
Rebstraße 12
Telefon: 07631/7 41 60

Jürgens Bike Shop
Verleih und Reparatur
Westtangente 6
Telefon: 07631/70 53 98-0

Stadt Neuenburg am Rhein
E-Bikes for rent
Rathausplatz 5
Telefon: 07631/791-0

You don't have to cycle up into the Black Forest. What about nipping over into France, turning left to cycle to the gates of Basel and then come back up the German side of the Rhine.

Thoughts on hiring bikes on the Romantic Road between Würzburg and Füssen

We are rewriting our Romantic Road guide book at present to make it more compact and readable. Judith is rewriting the pages at the moment. When she is finished I'll play the editor and copy-edit. My job at the moment is the boring one: checking our appendices - accommodation, bicycle shops, bicycle hire etc.
I have noticed that more bike shops are renting bicycle and e-bicycles these days. However, and this is a big disadvantage, we have only found one shop offering a one way hire either from Würzburg to Füssen or vice versa. Considering that cyclists on the Berlin-Copenhagen Route can hire a bike at one end and drop it it off at the other, i.e. in two different countries with different currencies, it strikes me that it should be possible to cross one province: Bavaria with a set of bikes, picking them up at one end and dropping them off at the other. If you hire at one end and wish to take the bikes back, it's not that expensive to travel back to your start point by local train, but it takes at least six hours involving one or two changes.
There is one company that will allow you pick up a bike in Füssen (with pre-programmed GPS) and drop it off a week or so later in Würzburg. The Romantic Road cycle route is about 420km long and so a week would be a pleasant trip. The company is Radstation Allgäu, Abt Heß Straße 11, in the Multicycle store, D-87629 Füssen, Germany, T: 0049/0171/2056371,  info@radstationallgaeu.de, http://www.radstationallgaeu.de  (in German and Portuguese). A week's bike hire with bike pick up will cost you 179€ or a five day trip with four nights accommodation in middle class hotels for 599€. The company has a minibus and will pick you up after a week or so's cycling in Würzburg or somewhere before. How much this return trip costs is not clear. You could also just hire a bike or an e-bike for a week for between 55 and 120€, cycle to Augsburg or even Donauwörth and take the Via Claudia Augusta cycle route back to Füssen.

E-Bike Hire on the western edge of the Black Forest near Kaiserstuhl and Freiburg

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Comment
Radhaus Schulz Friedrichstr 54 77955 Ettenheim	T: +49(0)782 21493 www.rad-schulz.de	Mon-Fri 09:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00pm Sat:09:00-14:00	6 e-bikes Half day 15€ Day 20€
Peter Ssch, Reifen-Zweirad-Zubehör Elszwiesen 2 79365 Rheinhausen	T: +49(0)7643 6906	Mon-Fri 09:00-12:00 & 13:00-18:30pm Sat 09:00-13:00	20 e-bikes Half day From 13€ Day From 20€
Kaiserstühler Verkehrsbüro (Tourist Information) Adelshof 20, 79346 Endingen	T: +49(0)7642 689990 www.endingen.de	Mon-Fri 09:00-12:30 & 14:30-18:00 Sat 10:00-13:00	4 e-bikes Half day 15€ Day 21€
Hotel Gathof Adler Endinger Str 35 79346 Endingen-Königschafhausen	T:+49(0) 76 42 / 32 12	Mon & Tue From 17:00 Wed-Sun 08:00-22:00	2 e-bikes Half day 16€ Day 21€
Posthotel Kreuz-Post Landstr 1 79235 Vogtsburg-Burkheim	T: +49(0)7662 90910 www.post-kreuz.de	Daily 11:30-23:00	3 e-bikes Half day 14€ Day 21€
Bierhäusle Breisgauer Str 41 79111 Freiburg	T: +49(0)761 88300 www.bierhäusle.de	Open Tue-Sun Closed Sun evening all day Mon	2 e-bikes Half day 15€ Day 25€

E-Bike Hire on the Western Edge of the Black Forest near Offenburg and Strasbourg/Straßburg

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Comment
Vier Jahreszeiten Almstr 49 77770 Durbach	T: +49(0)781 932010 www.vierjahreszeiten-durbach.de	Mon-Sun 6:30am-11pm	2 E-Bikes  Day 25€  Second day 20€
Zweirad Experte Evers Freiberger Str 9 77652 Offenburg	T: +49(0)78124998 www.zweiradexperte-evers.de	Mon-Fri 9:30am-6:30pm Sat: 9:30-4:30pm	5 E-Bikes Half Day 20€ Day 30€
Sparkassen-Garage, City Parkhaus,  Gustav-Ree-Anlage 2 77652 Offenburg	T: +49(0)781 76253	Mon-Sat 7am-8pm	12 E-Bikes Day 12€ With KONUS Card: 8€ Short term loan of unpowered bicycles free of charge.
fahrrad magazin Ortenbergerstr 6-8 77652 Offenburg	T: +49(0)781 9481396 www.fahrradmagazin.de	Mon-Fri 9:30am-1pm & 2pm-6:30pm Sat: 9am-4pm	5 E-Bikes Half Day 25€ Day From 35€ Week From 150€ Month From 300€ The shop also offers a wide range of unpowered bicycles to hire.

The Fahrrad magazin shop is moderately expensive, but you can hire for a week and return the bikes on the day after the hire period up to 12pm at no extra charge. Their hire e-bikes may well be Flyers - high quality expensive Swiss products. In a week you could probably visit a lot of the Black Forest, eat your weight in cream cakes and carry all the cuckoo clocks you choose to buy. It's worth thinking about for week's holiday. There are local regional airports in Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and Basel with good public transport connections to Offenburg and it's not that far to Frankfurt International. You could also take Eurostar, TGV to Strasbourg and then a local train to Offenburg in about seven hours from London.

An electrically assisted trip around the Black Forest may well be on the Forsyth list of things to do this year. We have wanted to try out an e-bike for five years now

E-Bike Hire in the Black Forest on its western edge near Baden-Baden, Buhl and Achern

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Comment
Zweirad Fuhr In den Lissen 16 76547 Sinzheim	+49(0)7221 3776505	Mon-Fri 9am-12:30pm. 2pm-6:30pm Sat 9am-2pm	5 e-bikes 28€ Day
Schwarzwälder Hof Kirchstr 38 77855 Achern	+49(0)7841 69680 www.hotel-sha.de	Tue-Sat 11-23:00 Sun: 10-14:00 Closed Mon	2 ebikes 15€ Half day 25€ Day
Naturparkhotel Holzwurm Am Altenrain 12 77877 Sasbachwalden	+49(0) 7841 20540 www.holzwurmwirt.de	Apr-Oct: 8-22:00 daily	2 e-bikes  Half day: 11€ Day 19€
H Engel, Talstr 14, 77877 Sasbachwalden	+49(0) 7841 3000 www.engel-sasbachwalden.de	Tue-Sun: 8-23:00 Closed Mondays	2 e-bikes  Half day: 11€ Day 19€
Zweiradwelt Rest Oberacherner Str 77 77855 Achern	www.rest-web.de	Mon-Fri: 9-18:00 Sat: 9-13:00	4 e-bikes Day 20€
Ferienhof Fischer Busterbach 13 77889 Seebach	+49(0)7842 2751 www,ferienhof-fischer.de	Ring to make an appointment.	2 e-bikes  Half day: 14€  Day: 24€
Berghotel Mummelsee Schwarzwaldhochstr 11 77889 Seebach	+49(0) 7842 99286 www.mummelsee.de	Daily 9-22:00	2 e-bikes  Half day: 14€  Day: 24€ On Black Forest Hochstraße

E-Bike Hire in the Black Forest near Karlsruhe

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Bikes/Cost/Comment
eBike Station 1        Gutembergstr 1 76275 Ettlingen	+49(0)7243 5054282 www.ebike-station1.de	10-18:00 Wed/Sat 10-13:00 Closed Sun	5 ebikes 15€ Half day 25€ Day
Hotel Watthalden Pforzheimer Str 67a 76275 Ettlingen	www.hotel-watthalden.de	Daily	Enquire  30€ Half day 39€ Day
Zink Cycling Siemensstr 45 76307 Karlsbad-Langensteinbach	+49(0)7202 40091 www.Zink-cycling.de	Mon-Fri:9-12:30, 15:00-18:30	3 ebikes 25€ Day Has normal bikes to rent in addition

• 
  

Rails to Trails in Germany: The Bahnradweg Hessen

One of the good things about travel fairs like the CMT in Stuttgart is that it introduces you to areas that you have completely overlooked in the past. We had an interesting ten minutes or so chatting to a young woman on the Wetterau stand/booth. Where? It is a hilly area NE of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The BahnRadweg Hessen runs from Hanau NE to Fulda and Bad Hersfeld. The route offers about 400km of cycleways in two loops in combination with other routes. The route is based on old railway lines and so there are fewer steep climbs than you would expect, or so I am told. This route is on our list for a tryout in April or May this year and we will report back.
The route runs through the Rhön and Vogelsberg Mittelgebirge (hill regions). There are a number of interesting towns and sights on the route:

• Hanau with its connections to the Brothers Grimm
• Keltenwelt in Glauburg, a museum, archeological park and research centre
• Gelnhausen with its historic half timbered houses, moated castle and churches
• Lauterbach - half timbered Altstadt (old city heart)
• Schlitz - castles and towers and half timbered houses
• Fulda with its baroque cathedral and residences
• Bad Hersfeld with Germany's oldest cast bell, a local museum and the ruins of the biggest early churches in the world
• Point Alpha Memorial - on the former DDR-FRG border. This about four km from the route and well worth visiting. 

There are a number of spa towns on the route, so it's not all history and landscape, there are large scale swimming multi-pool parks with steam baths and saunas in Bad Hersfeld, Bad Salzschlirf, Baden-Allensdorf and Herbstein. All of these spa towns have active programmes of concerts and events.

Half timbered houses in Lauterbach (Foto Region Vogelsberg Touristik)

Milseburg Tunnel (Foto Region Vogelsberg Touristik) 

Underway on the Bahnradweg (Foto Region Vogelsberg Touristik)

Mont Ventoux, again!

We went to the CMT caravanning and tourism exhibition in Stuttgart today. It is the reputedly the biggest tourism exhibition in the world. During the first weekend one hall has stands on cycling and walking. There are a lot of bikes to be seen and ridden on, which we largely ignored and checked out walking and cycling routes.
We discovered by chance the Ventoux Club Hôtelier (www.ventoux-hotel.fr), an association of  nine small independent hotels around Mont Ventoux:

• H La Garance, Bedoin, www.lagarance.fr
• H des Pins, Bedoin, www.hotel-des-pins.fr
• Safari H, Carpentras, www.safarihotel.fr
• H Montmirail, Vacqueyras, www.hotelmontmirail.com
• H Domaine des Tilleuls, Malaucène, www.hotel-domaindestilleuls.com
• H Villa Elaia, Puyméras, www.hotel-villaelaia.fr
• H le Saint-Marc, Mollans sur Ouvèze, www.santmarc.com
• L'oustau de la Font, Reilhanette, www.oustaudelafont.com
• H Le Louvre, Sault, www.hotel-restaurant-le-louvre.fr

The club offers you online booking in English. There are bike shops, bike hire stations, bike routes, baggage transfer and walking routes all over the area. If you are feeling brave enough you can even try Mont Ventoux by bike. We had a long talk with the proprietor of one of the hotels. The hotels look delightful and the prices seem reasonable. It's France so the food should be good. The only fly in the ointment would appear to be public transport. You might well have to get picked up from Orange or Avignon station or take a cab. I think the weather in October could well be quite pleasant and you might well meet us then.

Short Term City Hire Bikes in Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim

The "Südhessen Morgen" reported today that the VRN (Passenger Transport Authority) is setting up a Hire Bike System a la Velolib in Paris or Barclay Bikes in London from 27 March 2015 in Mannheim and 28 March 2015 in Heidelberg.   Nextbike in Leipzig has received the contract to supply the bicycles. Fifty two bicycle parking stations not only in the aforementioned cities but also in Ludwigshafen are planned, though not all will be opened in March. It has taken so long for the agreement to come to fruition because although two of the three cities (MA, HD) are in Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigshafen is in Rhineland-Paltinate and each of the states have different regulations about competitive bidding for public contracts. Mannheim itself has mixed feelings about the bicycle although the 200th anniversary of von Drais's trip on a hobby horse - the predecessor of the bicycle out to a pub, on what was the edge of Mannheim at the time falls in June 2017. Feelings ran and probably still run high about plans to slightly narrow the Bismarkstraße across the southern end of the city centre by constructing cycle and bus lanes. It will add a few seconds to a motorist's trip from Heidelberg to Ludwigshafen. The shopkeepers of Mannheim are afraid they will lose custom although parking in Mannheim is almost impossible except in underground garages etc., where it is not cheap.

How environmentally friendly are electrobikes?

Obviously we read any bicycle catalogue that comes into the house. I've noticed over the years that there is a tendency for advertisers to claim that their e-bikes are CO2 free. However, unless an owner has a wind, hydro or solar power unit to charge his or her e-bike some of the power used to charge the battery will have been generated by fossil fuel fired stations, except if you live in France where the majority of electricity is generated by nuclear stations.
As well, the extraction and purification processes of the components of the lithium ion batteries normally used in e-bikes need power, i.e. generate CO2. After several hundred charge and discharge cycles the battery's capacity is much reduced. The battery needs to be replaced. Traditionally at least in my experience old mobile phones are popped in a drawer and forgotten about. Whether this happens with bike or even car batteries, probably not, but at the moment recycling rates are between 4 and 5%. Recovering metals from lithium-ion batteries has a 90% smaller ecological footprint than primary mining.
There is a lot of room for improvement in bike battery recycling, but on the other hand a car not only emits CO2, but also other combustion products, so cyclists even e-cyclists are helping air quality by  emitting less CO2 and filtering combustion products through their lungs. In addition CO2 output is directly related to the weight being moved. A VW Golf weighs about 1500kg (1.5ton). A fat cyclist on an e-bike has a total weight of 150kg, i.e. 10% of a motorist in a medium sized car, so the CO2 output will be much smaller.
The answer to the question is "yes e-bikes are environmentally friendly, but better battery life and recycling will make them even more so".

Are we too cautious for our own good?

We have snow. Judith slipped on our way to our twice weekly walk in the woods yesterday and sprained her ankle. Although we normally either walk or cycle to do our local shopping, etc., it's not on at the moment and yesterday I needed to brush the snow off the car, help Judith into the vehicle and we set through the grey, greasy streets of downtown Viernheim to visit the GP's surgery and the local cottage hospital. I was amazed to see people on bicycles. The streets of Viernheim were slippery either because of a thin layer of dirty grey slush or because of a thicker layer of hard packed snow. The cyclists were slithering uncertainly around. Sensible motorists were driving at 20kph rather than the 30kph allowed, well we were. It takes about 40 minutes to walk from one side of Viernheim to the other, so although a bicycle offers a speed advantage when the weather is reasonable, there is little advantage in risking a broken collarbone or even death to save a few minutes.

Folded bikes on German trains

It used to be the case in Germany that when travelling with a folded bike on a German train where there was a charge for bicycle transport that folders needed to be put in a bag. I was once threatened with a bicycle charge for the seven minute journey between Bensheim and Weinheim unless I popped the folded Brompton in its cover. There are Jobsworth everywhere. This is no longer the case and one even sees naked Bromptons on ICEs. Cumbersomes, nonfolding bicycles are an absolute no no these trains.
In many ways the pendulum has now swung too far the other way and full sized folders can be transported free of charge on ICs as long as they are folded. They must however be folded. This is waste of time since some bikes are almost as big folded as unfolded.

Swwn on an IC in souther Germany

Bicycle Hire in Hanover (Hannover in German)

Pro Beruf GmbH
Bonifatiusplatz
30161 Hannover

Tel.: 0511 / 63 32 93
Fax: 0511 / 37 18 79
Email: fahrrad[AT]pro-beruf[DOT]de

10 Bikes and various "fun bikes" for events. The organisation's definition not ours. This is another organisation offering training to unemployed young people. The opening hours are not exactly user-friendly: Tuesday to Friday 1:30pm to 6pm. In addition 10:30am to 12:30 pm on Wednesdays. In 2014 the shop was closed for two weeks in August.

Fahrradstation am Hauptbahnhof 

(Bicycle Centre at the Central Railway Station) 

Fernroder Straße 2, 30161 Hannover 

Tel.: 05 11/ 3 53 96 40 

Fax: 05 11/ 35 39 64 10 

Opening Times: 

Mo. - Fr. 6am - 11pm; Sa., Su. and public holidays 8am - 11pm 

E-Mail: fahrradstation(AT)step-hannover(dot)de 

Internet: http://www.step-hannover.de/startseite/angebote/radstation/ 

60 newish bikes including children's bicycles

In addition:

800 slots for short term- und long-term bike parking. This is obviously a good place to leave your bike if you want to play the tourist in Hanover. There are lockers for your luggage nearby, in the central railway station, for example. 

Bicycle Repair

Bike Sport Hotels in Germany

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed we are fans of the hotels and B&Bs on the  ADFC’s Bett und Bike list. The club has recently added a new category to its lists: Bett und Bike Sport hotels. These are more upmarket hotels offering features in addition to those normally offered by Bett und Bike accommodation:

• Tour suggestions and/or guided tours for mountain bikers, road racing types and even common or garden tourists like us two.
• A very secure bike storage room so you don’t have to sleep with your 10 000 Euros worth of carbon fibre and Campag gears.
• Mountain and road bike hire.
• Good drying and washing facilities for you, your clothing and your bike, but not all the same room.
• A workshop and information about nearby dealers who can help you when need help.
• Maps, printed guides, energy bars etc.
• If you want to cycle on your last day, you can arrange to take a shower in the afternoon before you depart for home, which saves you having to climb mud-encrusted into the BA or Lufthansa machine home.

These hotels are to be found in the southern Black Forest, in the Sauerland a mountain biking and winter sport area SE of Dortmund and in the Hunsrück W of the Rhine around Hahn airport. There is more information including a list of hotels to be found on a flyer obtainable via a link on http://www.bettundbike.de/. Don’t go for the English version, because although there is more information available about the concept, there is no link to the flyer. The flyer, of course, is in German but there are links to the hotel websites and these are more often than not in a sensible language, i.e. English.  A quick survey of the flyer suggests that the hotels are reasonably priced and some offer package deals for a week's or long weekend's holiday.

Christmas Markets in Germany

We are not going to write about cycling this week, but about something that is a major part of German life, a major export item: Christmas markets. After a recent study trip lasting two days the three of us,  Judith, I and a friend came to the conclusion that there are three types of Christmas market in Germany:
Big and Commercial
These are to be found in the big cities. Of course, they feature professional caterers' stands selling Glühwein (mulled wine) and variations on Bratwurst (grilled sausage). However the majority of stands sell Christmas trifles like Father Christmas hats, tree decorations and shiny glass globes. Most of the stalls are run by market tradespeople. This is normally the type of Christmas market found abroad, outside of Germany. I have not been to a German Christmas market in Britain for ten or so years, so I cannot comment on them, but in Germany in between the stands selling bling and Bratwursts there are a few craftsman selling items they made themselves. Cologne, Düsseldorf and Rothenburg ob der Tauber are typical of these. The latter town has the advantage shops are open on Sundays in Advent. Some of these shops sell interesting hand crafted items of clothing. 
Medium sized and full of craftsmen and -women.
If you are interested in picking up interesting items made by artists and craftsmen then look at smaller places like Dinkelsbühl on the Romantic Road where craftspeople predominate though there is no shortage of stands selling hot wine and sausages. The food stands are more often that not run by local clubs.
Village Christmas markets
These are the most fun and the most ethnic. We went to Feuchtwangen on the Romantic Road on Saturday night. It had gone dark when we arrived. We walked through the dark cobbled medieval streets of the small town, down narrow alleys, across the market square and then turned in to the space between the town's two churches. It was an oasis of light in the darkness from the brightly trees strewn with lights on both sides. We stood at a table chatting to locals in a mixture of German and English drinking Glühwein (the rest) or hot cordial (me). The food was locally sourced and home made. The items on sale are simple handicrafts or foods. The profits went to charities, churches and local clubs from the Boy Scouts to the Model Railway Club. We had a very successful evening and in addition managed to visit a choral concert in the protestant church on the square. (On this evening I was the Designated Driver (DD).  I was not drinking, so Glühwein did not cause me to see the world through blurred rose coloured lenses.)
If you wanted to experience the spectrum of Christmas markets in Germany contact the Tourist Office in Feuchtwangen (www.feuchtwangen.de, touristinformation@feuchtwangen.de) or the Romantic Road Tourist Authority: www.romantischestrasse.de for more information. Both organisations will be pleased to help you up with hotel bookings and trips to  Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. You would probably need a taxi or a hire car, though the latter brings with it the DD problem. The German police don't have warm Christmas feelings about driving over the limit. Glühwein gets you there quite quickly, before you notice.  Unfortunately public transport in this part of Bavaria is very sparse.
Disclaimer: We were not supported by any tourist organisation. We paid all our own expenses.