A "sexy" Brompton?

We are not using our bikes much at the moment, except the Bromptons for the odd trip into town or to the Rhein-Neckar Zentrum, our local mall. Cycling is faster than walking and the bikes are easier to park than a motor car. This morning as I was cycling into town, I passed a group of young women outside the church down the road when one of them called "ein sexy Fahrrad!". Our Bromptons have been called goldig (sweet) in the past, but sexy? Dependable, well designed, fun I can understand but never sexy. Perhaps the word has a different meaning in young Germans' language than in English.

French Revolutions

I am reading Tim Moore's "French Revolutions" book, about his 3000 km trip around France following the route of the Tour de France and are amazed at his ability to sink by our standards vast amounts of alcohol. Apart from his first day he drank half a litre of rosé wine every lunchtime. On his first day he drank a quarter litre. We both feel that if we drank even a quarter litre of rosé at lunchtime we'd fall asleep on the first meadow we passed.
The book is excellent, however and well worth reading.

Bicycle hire in Mannheim

Obviously we have not tried these people but they are on the approved bike hire company list put out by Deutsche Bahn (German Railways): BIOTOPIA Fahrradstation, Heinrich von Stephan Straße 2, 68161 Mannheim, T: 0621 1223077. It is a social organisation offering training and work to the long term unemployed. The building abuts platform 1 of the Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (Railway Station). The workshop repairs bikes as well.

Transport Bicycle and Rickshaw Rental in Berlin

We have written before about bike hire in Berlin. We found a new shop recently: If you wish to hire a transport trike or a rickshaw check out: 
Moghul Rikschas in Neukölln: Elbestraße 1, Ecke Sonnenallee, 12045 Berlin.
eMail: info@moghul-rikschas.de, T: 030 544 88 393, M: 0178 143 99 82. 

Our new website

We have just uploaded our new website: www.bicycletouringeurope.eu. It needs some work, but we have been thinking about it for months. It will summarise a lot of the ideas in this blog.

Bike Hire in France

I have just spent some time looking at the SNCF (French Railways) bicycle website recently as we putting together an article for "AtoB". The website is in French unfortunately, so if you don't know your le's from your la's you might find it less than useful. However if you looking for a place to hire a bike in France then check out: http://www.velo.sncf.com/louer-un-velo/les-loueurs-agrees-sncf/. This is a site that's simple to follow. Just click on the map in the region where you want to hire to a bike, to generate a list of louers (hirers) approved by the SNCF. Each region of France with the exception of Limousin (aucun louers) has a number of hire stations spread across the region. The list offers address details, telephone number, website and opening times.

Bike hire in the Czech Republic

As we blogged two days ago you can hire bikes in Prague, but if you want to to at the views  Z českých luhů a hájů - From Bohemia's woods and fields, it might well be better to hire from elsewhere in the country. CD, Czech Railways offers trekking bikes for hire at railway stations over large areas of the country between April 1 and October 31. This is a bit late for this year, but next year…

CD offers:

• On selected lines you can transport your rented bike by train free of charge
• You can store the bike free of charge at ČD luggage storage locations
• You can usually return the bike at a different location from where you rented it
• You can reserve a bike in advance
• Low rental rates. In 2012 it was about €8 for one day and €48 for a week. Prices vary from region to region.

More information is available on http://www.cd.cz/volny-cas/. Click on the map to find detailed information on hire stations and prices.

Bike Hire in Prague, Czech Republic

We found the following. There may well be other bicycle hire centres in Prague. We can neither recommend nor advise you against these shops. The shops are listed alphabetically. We think that city hire bikes are not going to be pristine and new, but well maintained, a bit like your bike at home, hopefully. By the end of the season the bikes will be well used.  These companies also offer guided tours of the city.

Bike Rent

Hotel INTERCONTINENTAL

náměstí Curieových 43/5
Prague 1 ( Pařížská st.)
110 00 Czech Republic
e-mail: info@bikerent.czhttp://www.bikerent.cz
T: + 420 725 40 56 15
Bike Types: City bikes.

Broadway Bike and Scooter Rental

Telephone: +420 774 345 747 (Non-stop reservations, Info line)
E-mail: info@rentcarprague.com Office: Jindrisska 7, Prague 1 (Inside the arcade, opposite the main Post Office)

Skype:  rentcarprague1

City Bike

Králodvorská street 5, Praha 1 Czech Republic

e-mail: info@citybike-prague.com

phone: +420 776 180 284

skype:  city.bike.prague
Bike Types: Trekking bikes, cruisers and tandems

Praha Bike - Tours & Rental

Dlouha 24
Stare Mesto
Prague 1
11000
Czech Republic
info@prahabike.czhttp://www.prahabike.cz tel:+420 732 388 880
150 bikes.
Bike types:
-Mountain 26"wheel bikes-Trekking/Hybrid 28" wheel bikes-Tandem-Kid's bikes-Team Bike(bike for 7 persons!)

Cycle Touring in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia

We have recently found two websites that are of interest for cyclists planning to cycle in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: www.cykloserver.cz for information about cycle routes and route planning and http://www.cyklistevitani.cz/ for cyclist friendly accommodation.

Google Maps for Cyclists, Great but…

Whilst cleaning the layers of papers, mail, scribbled notes and similar off the desk in the office, I came across the August September  issue of  "Radwelt", the ADFC members' magazine. I scanned through it to see if there was anything of interest I could use in the blog before I flung it in the bin. A big mistake, because I started to read it so the pile of papers on the desk stayed the same. I found a paragraph on the new Google Maps cyclist routing function. Basically the "Get Directions" function has been extended to include bicycles.  The bicycle routing app does not yet work in Germany, but has been opened for use in Switzerland and in Austria. If you request a cycle route in Germany, you receive the message: "We could not calculate directions between …" although you are shown the cycle paths and routes in the area of interest. These still need a lot of work, at least around Viernheim, where for example the signposted cycle route along the old railway line to Lampertheim is not shown.

I checked out cycle routes in Switzerland. As test routes I used Grindelwald to Meiringen and Andermatt to Basel.

• There are two cycle routes between Grindelwald and Meiringen: 
• Grindelwald to Interlaken and follow National routes 8 and 9 to Meiringen on the south side of Lake Brienz. 
• Grindelwald via Grosse Scheidegg and Rosenlaui to Meiringen.
• Both of these routes are to be found in our Cicerone Guide: "Cycle Touring in Switzerland", ISBN: 9781852845261.
• Google Maps suggests neither route. It shows a route down to Interlaken and then along the main road between Interlaken and Brienz on the north side of the lake. You can pull the route using the cursor across the screen to follow one or both of the suggestions above. This is fine if you know the area, but less than useful if you don't.

• There are again two signposted cycle routes between Andermatt and Basel
• Swiss National Cycle Route 2 along the Rhine.
• Swiss National Cycle Route 3 through Lucerne and Aarau
• The Google route follows neither following "Route 2" through Schwyz, Arth and Rheinfelden. What this Route 2 is not clear. It could be Road 2. You can pull the route using the cursor across the screen to follow one or both of the suggestions above. This is fine if you know the area, but less than useful if you don't.

Before one uses Google Maps to work out cycle routes in Switzerland, we would advise cyclists to obtain a copy of Switzerland Touristic Cycling Map (1:301 000) from Kümmerly + Frey ISBN3-359-00533-1 or check out the maps section of www.veloland.ch. Once Google Maps suggests a route then check to see if it does really follow cycle routes and modify it accordingly, if needed.

PS We have informed Google and await their reaction.

Bike Hire at Weeze Airport

It is often easier and cheaper to fly to a country without a bicycle. On the other hand a major disadvantage of bike hire is having to return the bike to the start point, especially if you wish to cycle along a linear route like a river. Niederrhein Tourismus, the tourist authority for the Niederrhein (Lower Rhine) an excellent cycling area northwest of Cologne have cracked this problem, by setting up a region-wide network of bike hire stations. You can hire from one station and return it to another. The bikes are popular. We saw several groups using them last week when we were cycling in this area.  With over 2000 km of signposted  cycle routes you will not be bored.

The bicycles cost €9 a day for the first two days, €8 a day between the third and fifth day and €6 a day after that. Returning a bicycle to a different hire point costs €4. You can reserve bicycles in advance on http://www.niederrheinrad.de/. 

The bicycles are sensible Dutch tourers manufactured by Koninklijke Gazelle and are ideal steeds for the flat Rhine plain. The bicycles feature:

Seat height is adjustable with quick release without tools
Special frame design for comfortable cycling
Tyres with puncture protection  
Gel saddle
Sturdy baggage carrier
Easy to use 7-speed hub gears
A coaster/back pedal brake
Easy-running hub dynamo

Bicycles are available at Weeze Airport from the 2-LAND Tourist Information Office, Flughafenring - Terminal, 47652 Weeze, Tel +49 (0) 28 37 - 66 63 82 from 09:00 until 22:00. If the Tourist Office is closed the left luggage counter takes over. Not only can you pick bikes, you can drop them off here as well.

Bicycle Rental in Switzerland

The Swiss are amazing. Their country is not a natural place to build railways, so they build them up to the top of mountains. They live in a country that does not naturally spring to mind when one thinks of cycle touring. The country is full of mountains and lakes, so common sense would suggest that it is a great place to go mountaineering, hill walking, sailing, or sailboarding or board sailing but cycling? The gut wrenching pictures of the top of the Tour de France climbs come to mind, but can we expect grannie to make it? Yes, we can! You too can, actually. We did, too. The Swiss have done the impossible and turned their country into a cyclist’s paradise with 4500 hire bikes.

If you arrive in the country without a bike and want to hire a bike for a day or two, the good news is there are bicycle rental stations all over the country at railway stations, hotels, youth hostels and camp sites. The bad news is the bikes are not cheap. In 2012  the basic bikes: touring bike, MTB and children's bicycles cost CHF 33 a day for one day if you return the bike to the same rental station and CHF 40 if you drop it off at another station. The rate drops to about CHF 22 a day if you hire for a week, about CHF 17 if you hire for two weeks. (At the time of writing one Euro was worth: CHF 1.20, $US 1 about CHF 0.93 and £1: CHF 1.50.) The bike rental company is called Rentabike. Its website: www.rentabike.ch. The website unfortunately is only in French and German. If you cannot speak either language use Google Translator. We have never hired from Rentabike. We don't live that far away from Helvetia, so always take our own bikes. Helmets are supplied. What we have noticed is that it is a good idea to take a few tools and a puncture repair outfit. They are not supplied. However it is probably not a advisable to wave your repair kit under the noses of the hire station personnel. They might not appreciate you taking their bike to bits.

Although the major Swiss bike rental company is Rentabike, there are others. We picked up a leaflet about a bike shop in Basel (Basle) called Obst&Gemüse GmbH, Kasernenstrasse 32, CH-4058 Basel, T: +41 (0)61 683 07 80, hello@obstundgemuese.org, www.obstundgemuese.org. The shop will rent you a Bakfiets, a Bullitt or a Christiana cargo bike for a weekend. If you have ever fancied buyuing one of these, but thought you would like to give it an extended try, here's your chance.

On-the-spot fines for cyclists in Zurich, Switzerland.

As promised yesterday here are a number of offences for which you as a cyclist can receive an on-the-spot fine in Zürich. I assume that similar fines apply to the rest of Switzerland, but unfortunately this blog is a nonprofit effort and we cannot afford to travel from city to city and canton to canton in Switzerland to pick up a list of fines, so for safety's sake assume that these apply throughout the country. Some of these appear to be ignored but you shouldn't push your luck. You might just meet a policeman who takes matters seriously.

You can be fined CHF 20.- :

• For riding without holding the handlebars or taking your feet off the pedals.
• Stopping on Zebra Crossings.
• Carrying an item that prevents you giving hand signals.
• Riding more than two abreast.
• Being towed or pushed.
• Cycling without lights through a lit tunnel. 
• Carrying a person who is more than seven years old, unless there is a seat for this purpose, I assume.
• Parking your bike where it is forbidden.
• Cycling without a bell or a lock.
• Cycling on too worn tyres.
• Turning right without giving a hand signal.

You can be fined  CHF 30.-:

• For ignoring traffic signs.
• Cycling on pedestrian ways.
• Cycling on a cyclepath in the wrong direction.
• Not stopping completely at a Stop sign.
• Turning left without giving a hand signal.
• Cycling in a bus lane (or does this only apply to motor cycles?)
• Cycling on a path that is not suitable for bicycles or is not intended to be used by bicycles.
• Not using a cyclepath or a bicycle stripe.

 You can be fined CHF 40.-

• For cycling without lights on a lit street during the hours of darkness.
• Cycling on the pavement (US sidewalk) or on road stripes for pedestrians.
• Carrying a person who is or less than seven years old, unless there is a seat for this purpose, I assume.
• Cycling without a rear facing reflector.

 You can be fined CHF 60.-:

• For cycling without lights on an unlit street during the hours of darkness.

• For ignoring a traffic light.

 Happy cycling!

Police on Bicycles in Zurich

We went to Zurich for a few days last week. By chance we went to the Züspa - an ideal home exhibition. The Zurich Police were represented and we enquired about bicycle police. "Oh yes", said the young policeman we asked, "we have seventy two policemen and -women on bicycles, obviously not all the time. I, myself, would normally be out there, but I am here today." He said that the bicycle police were faster across the city with its pedestrian zones and tram tracks as well as being quieter than the vehicles the other police use. These factors lead to high arrest rates for the bicycling bobbies. We were also able to get a copy of the Zurich Police list of on-the-spot fines for cycling transgressions, but that's tomorrow's blog.

Free Bike Hire in Zurich, Switzerland

From May to October, you can rent one of over 200 robust City Bikes in Zürich completely free of charge, seven days a week. Bikes can be picked up at the following locations by presenting valid ID and a returnable deposit of CHF 20.00. The bikes cannot be reserved in advance. It is intended that they are used for daily hire, nipping around the city out along the lake rather than trundling up an Alp or two for a couple of weeks. You can pick up the bikes at any hire station and return them to any other. Daytime hire is free, but an overnight hire costs 10 CHF. 

There are two hire stations opened all the year round by the Hauptbahnhof in Zurich: 
Bike Station North, Swiss National Museum: daily, 8am-9.30pm 
Bike Station South, Sihlpost: daily, 8am-9.30pm 

and a number opened in summer from May to October: 
Globus City: daily, 9am-9.30pm 
Bellevue: daily, 9am-9.30pm Bahnhof Enge: Mon-Fri: 10am-9.30pm, Sat-Sun: 9am-9.30pm Bahnhof Oerlikon, Swissotel: Mon-Fri: 12am-9.30pm, Sat: 9am-9.30pm, Sun: closed Im Viadukt: Mon-Fri: 11am-9.30pm, Sat-Sun: 9am-9.30pm 

Does our Mayor need to buy a Stetson?

There is a geological lens beneath Viernheim which might contain significent amounts of hydrocarbons - oil or gas. As the moment a team of specialists are carrying out seismic investigations and it was our turn this afternoon to watch the men at work. We should know sometime next year whether we will be shortly dancing under wildcat gushers. The earth definitely moved for us this afternoon.

Bicycle Rental in and around Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the provincial capital of Nordrhein-Westfalen in north-western Germany. The city is a paradise for shoppers on the Kö, beer drinkers in the Altstadt (old city centre) with the longest bar in the world and good links into the Niederrhein area which like the Netherlands is ideal for cycling. It has an airport, good train connections with the rest of Germany and Europe and is a good place to start and/or finish a cycling holiday. As ever with the exception of the Nextbike system it is better to book ahead to avoid disappointment.

Nextbike offers a number of bicycle rental stations with standardised urban utility bikes on a 24 hour basis using mobile phones to log in. These bikes, similar to the schemes in London and Paris, are not intended as touring bikes, but as flexible addition to public transport. The website is in English but flips into German when you start to look at individual German cities. Google Translator solves that problem easily.

Unfortunately the excellent Niederrheinrad bike hire network does not have any hire stations within the city boundaries, though there are two hire stations in Neuss across the Rhine: 

• Hotel Ibis Düsseldorf/Neuss. (Take a train to Neuss Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) and take a taxi.)
• Hotel Fire and Ice, out of town by the all year round ski hall. (Take the S-Bahn to Neuss Hbf (Neuss central station). Leave Neuss Hbf through the exit “Further Straße” and follow the sign to “Bahnsteig Nr. 1” Take bus 843 toward “Grefrath” and get off at “Skihalle” after a ride of approx. 25 minutes.)

Fahrradverleih Price Düsseldorf, Duesseldorfer Str. 36, 40545 Duesseldorf, phone: +49-211- 5590635, mobile +49-1520 - 4697087, approx. 100 m / 320 ft from youth hostel, Bus 835 836 to bus stop Jugendherberge, Opening times: Mo.-Su. 9:00 - 11:00 and 16:30 - 18:30, Rates: € 10.00 per day ; € 40.00 per week

Zukunftswerkstatt Düsseldorf (ZWD) – Services for cyclists

The workshop, a training establishment for the long term unemployed, offers repair services, restored bicycles and second hand parts. It rents out 20 – 28" bicycles, helmets and children's seats. You can also leave your bike here in safety while you look at the city. There is room for 450 bikes. 

Radstation der Zukunftswerkstatt Düsseldorf
Willi-Becker-Allee 8 a, direkt behind the  Hauptbahnhof (Central railway station), 40227 Düsseldorf, Tel.: +49 (0)211/5 14 47 11, www.zwd.de/zwd/zweiradwerkstatt

Prices

Rental: €10 daily. Parking 70 cents a day. 

Sport-Freizeit-Center Cremers Fahrradverleih

Sport-Freizeit-Center Niederkassel is on the Rhine bank. You can hire 7 gear (hub)touring bikes, either for men, women or children.

Am Pappelwäldchen 92
40547 Düsseldorf
Tel.: +49 (0)211/57 26 00

Underground U70, U74, U75, U76, U77 to Luegplatz
Bus 834 to Niederkassel; 833 to Johannsenstraße
Prices

Komfort-Bike 2 hours: €6, 1 day €11, weekly: €49

Opening Times: March to the End of October. Mo 1 am to 8:30 pm, Tu to Fri 11 am to 8:30 pm, Weekends and public holidays: 10:30 am to 8:30 pm

Common sense triumphs, amazing!

It appears to be believed in the upper floors of some railway administrations that as soon as bicycles need to be loaded on and off high speed trains there will be delays and the loss of five or six seats that are replaced by a bicycle compartment will ruin the economics of the trains. On Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish high speed trains bicycles except folders and bagged bikes are verboten. Common sense says that this belief is rubbish. Nobody bans mothers with prams or three children because they find it difficult to get on and off trains or they need room to put their Kinderwagen somewhere. Some of the French TGVs on the newer routes from Paris Gare de l'Est, for example take 8 bikes per train and seem to run profitably and punctually.
Not very often, but occasionally I am amazed that a common sense approach to demands from the travelling public has been taken by the Fat Controllers of railway organisations. Recently the ÖBB, Austrian railways announced that all 51 of their premium railjet trains will modified to include a compartment to take 6 bicycles with plugs allowing e-bike charging while underway. This work will be finished in 2013. More information can be found on http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=b0c3ff3f53e4c6a8be5677245&id=def475c28e.
On the other hand, the new generation of German IC/EC trains, the ICx will offer 8 bike places, less than the dozen or so on offer at the moment. This model will also form the basis of the replacement ICE1 and ICE2 stock by the end of the decade. It could be possible to offer high speed transport for bicycles, but don't hold your breath. I have the feeling that the Fat Controllers believe that only "suits" with brief cases are the proper class of people to travel on ICEs.

Bicycle space on an IC at present.

Dutch cycleway technology triumphs again!

Groningen is a town in the North of the Netherlands. Some of the traffic lights in the town have been equipped with rain or snow sensors, so that when it rains or snows cyclists do not have to wait as long for a green light. There does not appear to any complaints from motorists who have to wait longer. It is intended to equip more traffic lights in this way later. Unsurprisingly about 50% of all journeys in Groningen are made by bicycle.
Source: LVI-Info 86 2/2012

Bicycle hire in Paris, France

Paris has 200 km of bike lanes and 70 km of bus lanes which cyclists can use. In our experience it is a good place to cycle, at least between Gare de l'Est and Gare d' Austerlitz. If you want to hire a bike in Paris then the following addresses and links could be of use. They are in alphabetical order and we have not used any of these companies, so we cannot advise which are the best. The dialling code for France is +33 and you drop the first zero in the number when dialling from abroad.

Velib is run by the City of Paris. It was the first city bike hire company offering automatic pick up and drop off of somehow slightly frumpy bicycles from points in the street allowing almost spontaneous trips. With 20 000 bikes it is probably the biggest city bike hire organisation in the world. The bikes are low geared and you need to obtain a daily, weekly or annual card to use them. Details on the Velib website: http://en.velib.paris.fr/.

**********

Allovelo.com hires out a wide range of bikes including Bromptons and other folders.

2, rue Beauregard, 2ème arrondissement, Paris. T: 01 40 35 36 36,

eMail: allovelo@gmail.com

Website: Allovelo.com (In French, but you are in Paris. Hint  Bike Hire = Location de vélos)

GPS : Latitude : 48.8691762 - Longitude : 2.347784499999989

Métro : Station Bonne Nouvelle (Lines 8 et 9) et Sentier (Line 3)

The shop is open 7 days a week from 10 am to 7 pm. 

**********

Bike About Tours 
http://www.bikeabouttours.com/

Le Peloton Cafe
17, Rue du Pont Louis Philippe 75004 Paris

Phone: +33 (0) 6 18 80 84 92

Metro: St Paul (Line 1)

Office Hours (& bike rental pick-up times):

Feb 15 - April 15: 9:00am -11:30am

April 16 - October 3:
9:00am -11:30am and 1:30pm- 4:00pm

**********

Paris à vélo c'est sympa !

22 rue Alphonse Baudin

75011 PARIS

Between République and Bastille

Metro station:

St Sébastien-Froissart (8)

Richard-Lenoir (5)

Tél : +33 1 48 87 60 01

e-mail: info@parisvelosympa.com

Website: http://www.parisvelosympa.com/en/

Opening hours from April to October:

Monday - Friday

9.30 - 13.00, 14.00 - 18.00

Saturday and Sunday

9.00 - 19.00

Closed on Tuesday afternoons

**********

Paris Bike Tour offers two ways of renting a bike in Paris. You can either pick up a bike at the shop or have bikes delivered to a hotel (minimum of four). Complementary equipment, such as helmets, locks, raincoats or baskets are available on request and are free of charge. 

38 rue de Saintonge, 75003 Paris, open everyday from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm  
http://www.parisbiketour.net/uk/paris-bike-rental.php
Metro Filles du calvaire /République
T: + 33 (0)1 42 74 22 14

**********