..erm...'slight' alteration to route

[Bigtallfatbloke]

...I've had a 'small' change of heart for the summer tour and am now following the German rivers North>South from Bremen to the Bodensee following the cycle routes along the paths of the rivers, roughly like this:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/germany/bremen/6999241

Can't wait..it's going to be so great!!

 

[Abitrary]

What about all the french you've learnt???!!???

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Pas de probleme, je sprechen Deutche un Klienes peu mate.

 

[snorri]

What about the bit from home in the UK to Bremen:?:

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I will fly to bremen with Ryanair. When I get to Freidrichshafen I will have a few choices to make...fly home from there...carry on into France and back via the channel ports...carry on down south and fly back from Montpellier as per origional plan...or follow the rhine radweg home via rotterdam...or I could go to Offenburg and get a lift home with family...I will probably fly from Friedrichshafen....I have made myself a mental note to take this desicion when sober.

 

[Abitrary]

Remember BTFB, you can always cherrypick if you get trains at strategic points. You'll want the odd day off anyway.

In the few weeks you are alloting, you could do a bit of germany, holland, belgium etc... but I wouldn't just dismisss all of your french plans out of hand.

Also, in a different trainspotterish way, it's nice to cycle across borders and notice the difference (or not) in culture.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I tried the link and of course it didn't work. So let me guess: Weser, Fulda over the Rhon, Sinntal, Romantische Straße to Donauwörth then the Donau to west of Ulm and pick up the Bodensee route there. Or have you got another variant?

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I tried the link and of course it didn't work. So let me guess: Weser, Fulda over the Rhon, Sinntal, Romantische Straße to Donauwörth then the Donau to west of Ulm and pick up the Bodensee route there. Or have you got another variant?

start in bremen
follow the weser -> hannoversch münden
follow the fuleda -> ried
follow the sinn -> gemünden
follow the main -> kreuzwerthheim
follow the tauber -> rothenburg
follow the altmühl -> beilngries (this is a particularly beautiful part!)
follow the main-donaukanal -> kehlheim
follow the donau -> tuttlingen

..then I need to decide if I cut down to the Bodensee, or SouthWest & on to France....if I go to the Bodensee I have then to decide on either a flight home, or riding back along the rhine to Rotterdam....or possibly pick up a train from Konstanz (??)..or ride back up to Offenburg and get a lift home from there.

 

[Andy in Sig]

If you want to go to the Bodensee from the Donau there are a number of options, including just west of Ulm, just west of where I live but I think you're right to crack on to Tuttlingen as that embraces the most spectacular part of the Donau valley. If you're not bothered about missing the Bodensee (and in summer you can hardly move on the bike path for families and grannies and it's narrow in parts) it might be an idea to carry on along the Donau as far as Donaueschingen and then head south to the Wutach which essentially is one long (a day's ride) downhill to the Rhine near Waldshut. If you need any info on the area, let me know.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Thankyou Andy.
One thing that might help would be if you have any experience of the campsites/hostels around there...which are good/bad etc

I have been to the Bodensee in the summer around Meersburg and I know what you meen about the crowds...we'll see what happens and how things are shaping up at the time.

 

[Cathryn]

This sounds an equally brill tour...I love cycling in Germany. But the bread, cheese and wine won't be so good...

 

[xilios]

We cycled along the Weser from Kassel past Bremen to Jade Bay last fall, its a very nice ride, you'll like it. From Bremen to Nienburg its prety flat with not much to see, but south of Nienburg it starts to get very nice indeed. There are bike paths on both sides of the river, we found the east bank to be the nicest. The one on the west bank runs next to a busy road. Some pics and details on our page.

 

[Andy in Sig]

This sounds an equally brill tour...I love cycling in Germany. But the bread, cheese and wine won't be so good...

I wonder if that's because the Germans tend to keep the best stuff for themselves. There are Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) reds in Baden and the Ahr valley which would put anything from Burgundy to shame and German whites in general are streets ahead of the French stuff. Not so sure about the cheese but German bread is A1. Plus the language isn't ludicrously camp.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I agree..german wine is far superior to most french stuff. My favourites are Oberkircher and Alte Gott...both superb reds. We have the Oberkircher shipped over here in boxes ...we are on first name terms with the Vineyard now!

Most Brits dont know about German wines because they dont tend to go there much.

 

[Cathryn]

I wonder if that's because the Germans tend to keep the best stuff for themselves. There are Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) reds in Baden and the Ahr valley which would put anything from Burgundy to shame and German whites in general are streets ahead of the French stuff. Not so sure about the cheese but German bread is A1. Plus the language isn't ludicrously camp.

Ha.....French isn't camp, it's SO sexy!!! I do like German though...a nice, logical language with brilliantly long words.