Christmas in August?

A friend told us this morning that she visited the REAL store in Käfertal, a suburb of Mannheim yesterday (28 August 2012) and was horrified to see Christmas cakes - Stollen, Dominosteine on sale. It does seem much too early for us. It would appear that in Austria that the law is such that no Christmas confectionery may be sold before 1 November. This strikes us also as being too early, but better than starting in August.

Putting your bike on a long distance bus in Spain

It came to pass that we needed to travel to Oviedo from Irun and the quickest and cheapest way is to take the ALSA bus. ALSA are the biggest bus company in Spain and offer a good network of services all over the country. If you read the ALSA website you will see that you can reserve storage for up to four bikes, golf bags or surf boards per bus in advance and the bus driver must take them, unlike in the old days where the bus driver would accept the bike if he liked the cut of your jib and if not you were doomed to sitting by the side of the road until the next bus came along, which can be twelve hours. We had reserved room for our two Bromptons for ten Euro per bike at the same time as we booked our own tickets. I printed the tickets out at home. We arrived in good time at the bus station in Irun, a bus stop in front of the railway station and showed the driver our Bromptons expecting to load them directly into a padded luxurious pair of compartments. No, we had to put them in a cover, which meant folding them and then he insisted that we hadn’t paid for the bikes, so I had to return to the booking office for this to be validated. We had problems because the bus driver spoke no English and my Spanish is limited to buying a cheese sandwich and a draught beer. I went to the ticket office and the appropriate section of the ticket was ringed by an angry employee who was not happy having her time wasted. I returned to the bus, waved this under the driver’s nose and he grudgingly agreed to let us and the bikes on the bus, though we had to help him stack the bikes with our luggage in the space beneath the bus to protect the other baggage against our bikes. There was no talk of protecting our two thousand Euro or so worth of bikes. In contrast, the journey afterwards was superb in comfortable leather seats with coffee and snacks and a good in-bus entertainment system.
I am quite pleased that we had booked the Bromptons as bikes, although normally I am ready to fight for the principle that a folded covered folding bike is baggage and should not be charged as a bike, but if you don’t speak the language… One plan we had originally considered was to pack the bikes folded in their covers and in a blue IKEA shopping bag. I suspect this would have been a no no in this case.
When we got to Oveido I checked the ALSA website and found a sentence I had overlooked earlier:
“Because of the limited space, we admit 4 objects (bicycles and surfboards) total in each coach, one per ticket. They have to be good conditions to travel without causing any damage to other baggage, so it is obligatory for them to be well packaged in boxes or bags suitable for transportation.”, i.e. if you are going to travel with bike on a Spanish long distance bus then you will need to find a friendly bike shop beforehand for a cardboard box or take a bike bag with you. It is probably not a bad idea either, if you print out your ticket yourself at home, to highlight the bicycle booking.

French Maps

On our recent trip across France we bought a number of the excellent Michelin 1:150 000 departement maps. These maps classify roads into motorways where cyclists are forbidden; “red” roads – international and national with heavy lorry traffic, less congested interregional “yellow” roads and “white” roads which are often very quiet. The white roads are further classified into D (departement), C (community) roads and unnumbered roads (think of tarred farm tracks). The latter suffer from the disadvantage that they are rarely signposted. Conventional cycling wisdom is that “white” roads are almost traffic-free and they are the best to follow. However the lack of signposting on the most basic roads can mean slow progress due to the need to orient oneself at frequent intervals. We did find that some of the “red” and “yellow” roads had painted stripe bike lanes. We felt safe cycling on these.

Other good maps to use for touring are the IGN 1:100 000 ‘Carte de Promenade’ maps with lots of detail. Their web site is at: www.ign.fr. We have had difficulty finding these maps in smaller towns. The company publishes 1:25 000 and 1: 50 000 maps that are excellent but do not cover enough area for cyclists. These maps are easier to find.

Bike Hire in Copenhagen

We were most impressed with the cycling facilities in Copenhagen. If you land in the city while  touring without a bike, a good way of experiencing la dolche vita à la Copenhagen is to hire a bike. This company offers guided tours and bikes to hire on a daily basis. We used our trusty Bromptons the last time we were there, so we have not hired from the company, but I was quite impressed with the no nonsense approach shown on its website.

Bike Mike

Email: bikecopenhagenwithmike@gmail.com - best way to get in contact with Bike Mike

Phone: (45) 26 39 56 88

Web: http://www.bikecopenhagenwithmike.dk/

Address for Bike Mike tour base - meeting point for all Bike Mike tours:
Sankt Peders Stræde 47
1453 Copenhagen
Denmark

Cycle touring and wine tasting

The Moselle Valley is good area to drink wine, look at castles and enjoy the twists and turns of the meanders as the rivers wriggles its way towards the Rhine. The good thing about Moselle wines is they are well flavoured but low in alcohol, which means that a pleasant evening is not followed by a heavy head in the morning. The valley was one of the first in Germany to develop cycle ways and is still one of the leading areas for cycle touring. The regional tourist authority is offering a seven night self-guided tour on the River Saar and Moselle stopping in small hotels with five days cycling for 332 Euro. Bike hire and luggage transfer is extra.  Check out: http://www.mosellandtouristik.de/en/angebot/cycle_tour_in_the_moselle_region-223.aspx.

A new Kindle Book

We have recently published our cycling guide to Lake Constance on Smashwords as an e-book (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/173312) and on Amazon as a Kindle book (http://www.amazon.de/Mainly-cycling-around-Constance-ebook/dp/B0091J39UY/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1345821327&sr=1-2). Our print version is now out of print.

Value for money accommodation in France

We recently cycled into Poitiers in France and had some trouble finding the Office de Tourisme. The whole story is reported on the Crazy Guy on a Bike website: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/SpanishWedding.
We found the Lamartine Apparthotel by chance, but were very impressed, as it offers not only a comfortable ensuite room at a reasonable price (63 Euro), but a kitchenette as well, meaning we could prepare and eat a salad, rather than having someone choose this for us. After almost four weeks on the road, eating out every night this was very welcome. The company Séjours & Affaires has hotels all over France (http://www.sejours-affaires.com) and are worth checking out if you wish to spend a day or more in a French city.

Bike Hire in the Loire Valley

In addition to any number of castles or palaces, the Loire Valley offers good cycleways, excellent food, superb wine and the beer is better than you would expect. It is an ideal place to enjoy a leisurely cycling holiday. However transporting a bicycle to the start of your trip can be a problem and you may want to spend some time in Europe travelling, but not always on a bicycle. The regional government in Cher has an initiative to encourage bike hire in the Province of Berry (www.berrycyclettes.fr). Bikes can be hired on the Loire in Belleville-sur-Loire. Boullert, Cosne-sur-Loire, Sancerre, Charité-sur-Loire and Cuffy, and away from the Loire at Sainte Montaine, Vierzon and Bourges. The prices are reasonable ranging from 14 Euro a day up to 59 Euro for a week. There are good bike carrying train links along the Loire, so you could cycle down to Nantes and take a train back to your starting point.

Whether the bikes come equipped with a tool kit and a lock is not clear, so it would be worth your while taking a spanner, tyre levers, a puncture repair outfit and a bike lock. If you are wandering round Europe with a rucksack, you don't need to wear the thing when you are cycling, you can lash it to a luggage rack with a bungee. Cycling with a heavy rucksack raises your centre of gravity and can lead to swerves ending in attempt to kiss the asphalt. Not to be recommended.

Eating out on Sunday evenings in France

We have just come back from a trip through France and will try to write about various things that struck us there over the next few weeks.

Finding a restaurant that is open on a Sunday in France is an activity that can be difficult. Sunday lunch is a very busy time for French restauranteurs and restaurants often shut on Sunday evening. This means that in small towns often only one restaurant is open. If it is an expensive restaurant and you need to eat, well, grit your teeth and pay the price or cycle up to 10 or 15 km to the next village where there might be a restaurant open. Count yourself lucky! We once found ourselves in a village on the Canal du Midi some years ago on a Sunday evening. We waited patiently outside the only Auberge in the village for it to open. It didn’t open and we found out later that if the landlord had a good Sunday lunchtime, he took the evening off. We were forced to boil up a dried chicken soup using our primus and pan. If I remember correctly the soup packet had the immortal words "No animal was harmed in the making of this soup" on the back.

Bromptons!

We've changed our ADFC (German Cycling Club) section and are now members of the Mannheim group. We live in the Hessian town of Viernheim which is bordered on three sides by Baden-Württemberg. Normally in the ADFC one is assigned membership depending on where one lives. In our case we should be members of the Bergstraße County group whose centre lies 20 km to the north with inconvenient public transport links. However Mannheim is 12 km away and there is a reasonable tram system between Viernheim and Mannheim. It seemed more logical to change sections and after about twenty years we finally got round to it.

We went to Mannheim two weeks ago to the annual Radsalon - a mixture of market, exhibition and a bicycle parade through the twin cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen and helped on the ADFC stand.  We were supposedly helping people choose the best fitting cycle helmet, although as we had taken the Bromptons we ended up as ever discussing the merits of the über-folding bike and the advantages/disadvantages of folding bikes in general.

Another hire company in Heidelberg

We cycled through Heidelberg yesterday and discovered that Fahrradverleih an der Alten Brücke at the corner of Neckarstaden 52 and Lauerstraße 11, 69117 Heidelberg, T: 06221/65 444 60, eMail: info(AT)fahrradverleih-heidelberg.de, www.fahrradverleih-heidelberg.de offers a wide range of bicycles for short-term and long-term hire.

"Mainly in High Gear" available as e-book.

"Mainly in High Gear" our guide to cycling around Lake Constance will only be available as an e-book in future from Smashwords.com and shortly as a Kindle book. We have just published the new updated book on Smashwords and will prepare the Kindle version over the next few days.

Improvements to Mannheim's cycling network.

The work towards establishing cycling as a serious part of local transport can only be carried out here in Mannheim as a series of minor improvements. Germany already has a good, when it must be admitted, but not perfect cycling network. We were very pleased to see, for example, that the ramp between the Neckar bank and the cycle routes along the B37 north of Mannheim near to two of the major hospitals in the city has been finished. Before one needed to carry bikes, baggage and trailers up or down two flights of stairs. If you decide to follow the Neckar Cycle Route and wish at the start or finish of your journey to go to the Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (Central Railway Station) you will be very grateful for this "minor" improvement.

Mannheim City and Province encourage bicycle mobilty

The Baden-Württemberg government has started a project to encourage sustainable local transport in four cities in the province: Lörrach, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Tübingen. The cost of this project (€3 million) is financed by the tax on motor fuels.  Cyclists can take their bikes today to a mobile service centre parked on the Mannheim Wasserturm (Water Tower) near to the main shopping streets of the town to have their bikes checked by an expert free of charge. The team will be there next week (23 June, 2012) on the pedestrian zone as well, as part of the third Mannheimer Radsalon, a fair with 20 exhibitors and a bike parade.
If you are passing in the afternoon we should be on the ADFC stand for a couple of hours.

A motor club gets in on the act.

British and US cyclists have probably heard of the ADFC, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club. A word for word translation of the name would be the General German Bicycle Club. The British equivalent organisation is the CTC, the Cyclists' Touring Club to give its old name or as the organisation prefers to call itself,  The UK's national cyclists' organisation. Some of us prefer the old name which we think is clear, but both names describe the function of the club, whereas the "General" in the German club's name is superfluous. Why did the German club give itself a rather odd name when it was founded as part of the Green movement twenty-five years ago? It was intended to cock a snoot at the older well established German motoring club, the ADAC, Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club. This organisation which as a supporter of motoring was a bête noir of the Green movement in Germany at that time. The ADFC has had a successful time since then and plays an important role in cycle touring in Germany for cyclists and those in the know.
The ADAC still acts as though there is an unlimited supply of oil in the world, but at the same time it has recognised that bicycles, especially e-bikes have an important role in short distance mobility. The organisation has taken over the role of its younger competitor in this area and its speakers are often called upon to present short features on on e-bikes on German TV. Its magazine "Motorwelt" has just devoted four pages to e-bike tours.
In addition the ADAC has brought out an app called Fahrrad Tourenplanner Deutschland 2012 - Bicycle Touring Planning Germany 2012 with 1500 bicycle tour suggestions. The ADFC had better not rest on its laurels.

A little more about Luxembourg Accommodation and Organised Trips

If you are thinking of going cycle touring in Luxembourg, you may be interested to know that the Luxembourg Cycle Club has organised a bed and bike website listing bicyclist- and even tricyclist-friendly hotels: www.bedandbike.lu. Similar to its German cousin the website is in German, but as befits a country where French is spoken, in French as well.
We can recommend the services of Velosophie s.à.r.l., 144, avenue de Faïencerie, L-1511 Luxembourg, velosophie@pt.lu, t:+352 26 20 01 32, http://www.velosophie.lu/ (in German) in case you wish to order a made to measure tour.

Bike Hire in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

There are three bike hire organisations. We have found only these which are in the south and east of the country. As you can see by the names of the bike rental organisations, dialect is big in Luxembourg.

Rent a Bike Dikrich    (Diekirch)       

27, rue Jean l'Aveugle
L-9208 Diekirch (Luxembourg)

Tél. : (+352) 26 80 33 76
Fax : (+352) 26 80 33 75
eMail : nordstad@cig.lu 

www.rentabike.lu

This organisation hires out city, mountain and children's bikes not only on a daily basis but by the week as well. 

Rent a Bike Miselerland (Moselle Valley)

info@rentabike-miselerland.lu

(+352) 621 21 78 08
http://www.visitmoselle.lu/en/rentabike-miselerland

This organisation seems to be more interested in daily rather than weekly hire. However it also has a repair van that shuttles up and down the Moselle Valley in case your steed breaks down.

Rental Stations:

Wasserbillig 

Deutsch-Luxemburgische Tourist-Information
Moselstr. 1
54308 Langsur-Wasserbilligerbrück
Tel: +49 6501 / 602666
Fax: +49 6501 / 605984
eMail: info@lux-trier.info

(Actually over the border in Germany, but who's counting? Borders, thank goodness, don't count for much, near to Schengen.)

Open: April to October:

Mon - Fr: 09:00 - 17:00
Sat / Public Holidays: 10:00 - 14:00
Sun: Closed

Camping Schützwiese Wasserbillig

T: +352 74 05 43

F: +352 26 714 203

info@camping-schuetzwiese.eu

rue des Sports oder rue des Romains

http://camping-wasserbillig.lu/

Open: April to September:

09:00 - 12:00, 17:00 - 18:00

Mertert

Camping Mertert Rue du Parc L-6684 Mertert Tel: 74 81 74 Fax : 74 98 08 email: emejos@web.de

Open: April to October:

Mon - Sun: 10:30 - 20:00

Flaxweiler 

Administration Communale de Flaxweiler 

1, rue Berg 

L-6926 Flaxweiler 

Tel : 770204 - 1 

Fax : 770833 

Mon - Fr: 08:00 - 12:00, 13:00 - 17:00 (Closed Thursday afternoons.)

Grevenmacher
Camping Route du Vin
route du Vin
L-6794 Grevenmacher
Tel: 75 02 34
Fax : 75 86 66
email:sitg@pt.lu

Open: April to September:

Mon - Sun: 07:00-22:00

Ehnen
Musée du Vin (The Wine Museum)
115 route du Vin,
L 5416 Ehnen

Open: April to October:

Mon - Sun: 0930 - 11:30, 14:00-17:00

Stadtbredimus 

Hotel Restaurant l´Ecluse
Famille ALBERT
29, Waistrooss
L-5450 Stadtbredimus
Tel.: + 352 23 61 91-1
Fax: +352 23 69 76 12
Email: info(at)hotel-ecluse.lu
Internet: www.hotel-ecluse.lu

Open: Fr to Wed: 08:00-11:00, 14:00-18:00

Remich Gare Routière (Bus Station) Esplanade Moselle L-5533 Remich T: 621 35 61 37 Open: Mon - Sun 10:00 - 18:00

Schwebsange (Schwebsingen)

Camping du Port

R.N. 10

L-5447 Schwebsingen 

Tel: 23 66 44 60

Fax : 23 66 53 05 

email: commune@wellenstein.lu

Open: April to October:

Mon - Sun: 08:00 - 22:00

Mondorf-les-Bains

Tourist office of Mondorf-les-Bains

26, avenue des Bains

L-5610 Mondorf-les-Bains T: +352 23667575 F: +352 23661617 www.mondorf.info www.mondorf-info.lu contact@mondorf.info Open:

Tuesday - Saturday 09:00 - 12:00 & 13:00 - 18:00

Remerschen

Youth hostel Schengen/Remerschen Sacha Jeitz & Melanie Bausch 31, Wäistrooss L- 5440 Remerschen T: (+352) 26 66 73 1 F:(+352) 26 66 73 2 e-mail : remerschen@youthhostels.lu http://youthhostels.lu/luxemburgish-youth-hostels/schengen-remerschen/10_114_EN.html

Open Mon-Sun 08:00-10:00, 17:00-22:00

Schengen
CENTRE EUROPEEN - Centre d'information touristique, Centre d'information Europe Direct 

Rue Robert Goebbels 

L-5444 SCHENGEN 

Luxembourg

T: 0035226665810

F: 0035226665811

info@schengenasbl.lu

www.schengen-tourist.lu

www.europedirect.lu

Open: Tu - Fri 10:00 - 18:00, Sat, Sun 11:00 - 18:00

Rentabike Mellerdall (Müller Valley)

Syndicat d’Initiative et de Tourisme Berdorf

7, An der Laach  L-6550 Berdorf
Tél.: 79 06 43 Fax: 79 91 82
berdorf.tourisme@pt.lu
01.06. - 30.09. / Mon-Sunday / 09:00 - 17:00
30.09. - 31.05. / Mon-Saturday / 08:00 - 17:00

www.rentabike-mellerdall.lu

Madeira per e-Bike

Madeira is a great place to cycle, but there is no shortage of hills. Assistance is at hand however: Natascha and Marco Mück from Cologne have opened Moskito Drive, an e-bike hire business in Funchal on Madeira. They rent out Flyer bikes. The batteries can be recharged underway at various restaurants.
Their address:

Moskito Drive, Lda
Estrada Monumental 316
Hotel Alto Lido, loja 4
9004-529 Funchal

Tel: + 351- 291765180
Mobile: + 351- 963204964,
www.moskito-drive.com
info@moskito-drive.com 

German traffic laws applying to cyclists

Summing up German laws and regulations for cyclists. 
Obeying these regulations is important for at least two reasons:
1) You can receive an on-the-spot-fine of up to €50 (about £40 or $65) for some of these offences:

You can be fined 5 Euros for cycling on the pavement (sidewalk).
You can be fined 15 Euros for cycling in the wrong direction on a cycleway.
You can be fined 25 Euros for using a mobile phone when underway on a bike.
You can be fined 45 Euros if you jump a red traffic light.
You can be fined 10 Euros for cycling in a pedestrian zone.

2) If you don't follow the law, you can be involved in an accident and this can have severe personal and financial effects.

The main regulations:

a) Cyclists must use a cycleway when present, as long as it is in a fit state to be used. There is another problem, caused by motorists' belief, that those cycleways which are designated by a painted stripe on the side of the road are designed to be emergency parking areas for motor cars. It is no use getting annoyed because many motorists or as they see themselves, the Lords of Creation, often see fit to park on pavements (sidewalks) and annoy pedestrians as well.
b) Cyclists should ride single file, unless there is so little traffic that by riding adjacent to one another they do not impede traffic.
c) E-Bikes or Pedelecs whose maximum speed is under 25 kph are treated as normal bicycles, i.e. the bicycle regulations apply to them.
d) Mopeds and more powerful e-bikes can only use cycleways outside of town limits. (These are marked by rectangular yellow signs giving the name of the community.)
e) Moped and more powerful e-bike riders must wear a helmet and have third party insurance cover.
f) If there is no cycleway, cyclists should cycle on the right.
g) Children aged eight or less must cycle on the pavement (sidewalk) as long as there is one present. Between eight and ten children may cycle on the pavement (sidewalk).
h) Cyclists should push their bikes in pedestrian zones.
i) There is no requirement to wear a helmet, although it is strongly encouraged.
j) Using a mobile phone when underway on a bike is verboten, i.e. a no no, but like motorists some cyclists need to be in touch with the rest of the world constantly.

From Node to Node

If you've read our eBook: "Following the Rhine gently upstream Rotterdam to Basel, a Cycle Tourist’s Guide" available from Smashwords and Amazon you will have noticed that we are great fans of the Belgian and Dutch knooppunt system. This system uses a series of numbered points to link cycleways across a region. It's a great idea and means that navigation can be reduced to a list of numbers on a sheet of paper. The problem for the British and the US Americans as well would be that you need a basic network of cycle paths to start with. Obviously the system would work well in Germany and I was pleased to read recently that Rhine-Neuss County in North Rhine Westphalia in in process of setting up a node system for cyclists. It should be in operation this summer. Great news. It is to be hoped that other local authorities in Germany follow Rhine-Neuss County's example.