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[Bigtallfatbloke]

Hi Tony,

Welcome back.
Can i ask how th eride was in Holland going from the Hook north? Is it windy along the coastline?

Is there a map of German radwegs?

No offence meant but we do not enjoy German dishes. How easy is it to eat alternative food outside the larger cities and tourist traps?

Yes ther eis a map showing the radwegs. We used road atlas adac style maps but these had dotted lines along the routes with radwegs. However you wil find that the radwegs between towns are well signposted for the mostpart. Whenever we were lost there was always a helpful local cyclist able to get us back on course.

Food...well we cooked our own so that way you can eat what you like. But if you are eating out you can get anything from schnitzel to piszza to pasta to burgers or whatever in the towns. Outside of the towns the challenge may be finding another human being let alone a restaurant that is open....'Urlaub' is a common hobby in Germany!

 

[rich p]

Hi Tony,

Welcome back.
Can i ask how th eride was in Holland going from the Hook north? Is it windy along the coastline?



Yes ther eis a map showing the radwegs. We used road atlas adac style maps but these had dotted lines along the routes with radwegs. However you wil find that the radwegs between towns are well signposted for the mostpart. Whenever we were lost there was always a helpful local cyclist able to get us back on course.

Food...well we cooked our own so that way you can eat what you like. But if you are eating out you can get anything from schnitzel to piszza to pasta to burgers or whatever in the towns. Outside of the towns the challenge may be finding another human being let alone a restaurant that is open....'Urlaub' is a common hobby in Germany!

Schnitzel is all too easy to find IMO.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I should add that the best maps of the radwegs are the bikeline maps. However once you are on the radweg to be honest you could probably ditch the map and just follow the signs and still get there ok.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Brilliant piccies and good to see the familiar sight of the Bodensee and Basel. Mr Yoyo and I were in Basel on 25th; a beautiful city and fantastic weather. We were not on bikes but were touring in our sports' car - confession time.

I have some questions:

Is there a map of German radwegs?

No offence meant but we do not enjoy German dishes. How easy is it to eat alternative food outside the larger cities and tourist traps?

The Bikeline series of cycling map books are the best. There is a bikeline book for each major radweg. They also do an overview map of the whole of Germany showing the radwegs in relation to each other. A Radweg, in this sense means a named route e.g. the Weser Radweg is the route down the valley of the R Weser. Radweg is also the general word for bike path.

If you are travelling on non-named Radwege, then the ADFC cycling maps as mentioned by BTFB do the business. The big advantage of the Bikeline books though is that they list hotels and bikeshops which do repairs etc.

 

[yoyo]

Thank you, Andy and BFTB. I am trying to gather as much info as possible for future cycle touring. We have enjoyed our brief experiences of visiting places in Germany (were in Heidelburg last week and have been elsewhere) and I noticed numerous cyclists on the German side of the Rhine compared to none on the French side. My husband has basic German and I can order a meal and be polite providing no questions are asked. French is easier for us both and we prefer French food but we are both more at ease with the Germanic / Swiss culture and touring with good signposts (like in Austria?) sounds rather tempting.

Yoyo

 

[Andy in Sig]

You'll get by with no problems if you can manage the basic twenty sentences of tourist German. If you are after any recommendations viz routes to choose you're welcome to fire away on here or PM me. Oh and Bikeline has got a website which may be worth a look at.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

..goes for me to, if I can help just ask.

I rode through parts of switzerland between the Bodensee and Basel as well. I can honestly say that the Swiss have the bike route thing nailed. The signposting was as good if not better than in Germany, and the cycle lanes on the road etc are top class, mine had red tarmac and clear cycle lane markings everywhere.

Th elocation of th ebike shops was an issue for us at times. We did need to get some repairs done and found GOOD bikeshops pretty easily with the help of asking the locals and simply stumbling across them in the towns. However it would have been easier had we known the locations from a map etc.
The bike shops are 1st class, nothing like the UK excuse for a LBS...these guys know their stuff...mechanics first, salesmen if you absolutly insist..perhaps...but you'll need to wait until after mitags pause, fiertag and urlaub before they try to sell you a bike. I needed 3 pitstops, each time the mechanics were friendly, helpful, did a great job and were cheap.

Basic German is enough...just open th econversation in German and if you struggle they will switch into fluent English mostly...except in Bayern where they have a heavy dialect which takes some getting used to...easier after a few biers I found!

If you stay on the radwegs you will never be far away from another touring cyclist, who will useually be more than happy to stop and help.

One thing though...banks...German banks are a little ..erm...neanterthal when it comes to things like credit cards etc...you will need to carry cash for the most part, as supermarkets, bike shops etc only deal in cash or Euro card (for which I think you need a German bankl account). Small banks in th evillages like Sparkasse etc do not recognise VISA and you will be unable to get cash from an ATM machine at these outlets. You will need to find a 'proper ' bank like deutche bank or commerz bank to get cash out on a VISA card. These banks are located in the bigger town centres and not generally in the smaller town/villages. Here in the UK I never carry cash, in german I needed to pull more cash from the ATM's in the bigger towns to get me through the large sections of smaller villages an open countryside.

Also dont get caught out without food on a sunday when everything shuts down.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

ADFC-Radtourenkarte, scale 1:150.000
27 sheets cover Germany
Estimated price 9,- ECU

These are the official bicycle maps of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad Club. The maps show national and regional bicycle routes. You can even see which railroads which carry bicycles.

 

[Tony]

A few answers. Yes, it was windy all the way. I was lucky to have an angled crosswind on the Afsluitsdijk, rather than a headwind. The wind in Germany and Denmark was utterly horrible.The ride up from Hoek, once you have got through Monster and other villages, is through the dunes and woodland that run all the way up to Texel. The path varies from blocks to gravel to superb. Be wary of odd double speed humps at junctions. Sign posting is on little blocks by the side of the path, and the ride is undulating as it is over dunes. Lots of loose highland cattle.
German signing is occasionally excellent, often useless, and very often vandalised, where a signpost arm has clearly been pulled or cut off. It often simply disappears altogether, especially in towns. Path surfaces in Germany range from smooth tarmac through herring-bone blocks in various states of repair, to two lines of concrete slabs a car's axle width apart, to deep, loose sand umpossible to ride on.

Credit cards...the Germans really do think that their "EC card" (electronic cash) is an EU standard, and get quite upset when it is refused outside Germany. The sheer quantity of guides, maps etc I would have bought in Germany but for their prehistoric insistance on cash is their loss. Interestingly, the big shops that refuse all other cards generally have cash machines so you can use those same cards to get readies out. To their profit, no doubt....

 

[yoyo]

Thank you so much for all this excellent information. We especially appreciate the info on credit cards and ATMs. Sunday closing is something we already knew about. When I was a student a group of us spent a wet SUnday afternoon in Karlshrue - was more boring than watching paint dry! We plan our weekends very carefully from Sat pm to Mon pm when we are on the Continent. Sorry, but what is urlaub? I doubt I have much more than 20 words of German, let alone 20 sentences! When my daughter and I cycled on the Danube last year my party piece was Ich spreck nicht Deutsche which I uttered in a panic any time someone asked us a question. People were highly amused and usually spoke some English, although knowledge of English was not as widespread in Austria and eastern Switzerland, we found.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

what is urlaub?

urlaub means holiday.

there are a lot of public holidays in germany and in rural germany in particular many of the towns were like ghost towns with very few if any people around...except one boy trying to get his escaped cow back in through the farm gate!

My impression was that almost all of germany beamed up to mars or somewhere on sundays and 'urlaubs'

...either that or they all went to the beach in menorca or something.

 

[Tony]

Thank you so much for all this excellent information. We especially appreciate the info on credit cards and ATMs. Sunday closing is something we already knew about. When I was a student a group of us spent a wet SUnday afternoon in Karlshrue - was more boring than watching paint dry! We plan our weekends very carefully from Sat pm to Mon pm when we are on the Continent. Sorry, but what is urlaub? I doubt I have much more than 20 words of German, let alone 20 sentences! When my daughter and I cycled on the Danube last year my party piece was Ich spreck nicht Deutsche which I uttered in a panic any time someone asked us a question. People were highly amused and usually spoke some English, although knowledge of English was not as widespread in Austria and eastern Switzerland, we found.

Don't forget, Germany closes on Saturday afternoons as well!!!!

 

[snorri]

Although not so convenient for tourists, I must say I quite like the mainland Europe idea of shutting the towns down for local holidays and weekend breaks. I really don't think this 7 day week business that we seem to be adopting in the UK has much going for it. A day of peaceful rest and relaxation is no bad thing.

 

[psmiffy]

BFTB-Stange what you say about ATMs - ive just been up the german coast and used mini cash machine on several occasions to get money - was amused to stand behind kids in shops buying items as small as an ice cream with their plastic

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I agree...I really don tneed to be able to shop at 4am on a sunday...as long as you know how things work and what to expect...and what day it is (which i didnt for the mostpart!) all is fine.