German river tour next May

[Auntie Helen]

Well I'm all excited about my forthcoming planned German cycle tour - my first ever tour!

Last week my husband and I were on a river cruise of the Moselle, Rhine and Main rivers and the scenery was fantastic. More importantly, there were excellent cycle paths, very well marked and looking pretty flat (I am not good up hills!) It inspired me to definitely go ahead with a vague plan to do a tour next May.

I furnished myself with a couple of handy books (Rhein Radweg 3 and the Bett & Bike directory) so I'm all set to do the Rhine at least.

Thing is... in long conversations with 'Andy in Sig', it seems that the obvious route (train to Mainz, then downstream/north to Cologne) will be a bit short and a bit industrial at the end. I'm aiming to be cycling for about a week, would estimate I'll probably do 60miles/100km a day, and will want to spend time looking around some of the wonderful towns and villages that Germany offers. I absolutely loved the Moselle so would like to include that somehow but don't want to backtrack if possible, would rather avoid anything too unpleasantly industrial, and will be taking a recumbent trike on the trains when I go. The Main river was also very nice but the Moselle has caught my imagination more.

Andy has made one route suggestion which involves a train journey in the middle and means that I do both Moselle and Rhine downhill (hurrah) but I'm open to other recommendations as well.

I will be staying in B&Bs/Hotels/Guesthouses as I'm definitely not a camper. I also speak fluent German so shouldn't have any language difficulties... until I reach Bavaria and can't understand the accent!

So now I call upon all you experienced tourers to tell me what I really ought to know...

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Well...it's going to be fun thats the first thing!

I havent done the Rhine in full, but I started in Bremen picked up the Wesser Radweg and headed south along the Wesser, Fulda, Schlitz, Main, Donau, Bodensee, Rhine to Basel.

I camped all the time so cannot comment on hotels/hostels en route. The campsites though are clean and tidy. It took me 12 days to do the trip, but I was not really stopping a lot in the towns...mostly I avoided the towns.

The Radwegs are well signposted, however sometimes the signs get confusing and leave you high and dry...so dont rely 100% on them...take a map...or even better jus task any one of the hundreds of cyclists on the radwegs.

The radwegs I went on were mostly very well paved and flat. However there were stretches of unsurfaced paths and my bike took a hammering on those. German town centres often have cobblestones in the Alt stadt bit...best get off and walk over those or suffer broken pannier hooks like I did!
The radwegs I went on do not always 'hug' the river. Where they do they are picturesque, but there are long stretches where you can ride and never even see the river banks. Keep a small supply of 1Euro coins available for the ferrymen on the river crossings.
I went in July and had reasonable weather mostly, although there were a couple of downpours and one very cold day in the rain...I also had scorching sunshine the bext day though!
In germany loaded touring bikes are the norm on the radwegs...not like th eUK where peeps stop and point and make dumb comments...the German tourer goes fully prepared...wide tyres, four ortliebs and bright multi coloured rain gear...erm..except for the sandal brigade of which unfortunatly there are a few. The bikeline maps you have are about the best...but I reckon you'll ride through the pages quicker than you thought perhaps.
Stick to th eriver radwegs...deviate and you will hit hills...erm..like I did...even found one 20% jobby last thing on the days ride..ouch!

 

[Cathryn]

Sounds fantastic...Germany is a fantastic place to cycle, we really love it when we go!!

BTFB has given all the standard good advice. The one thing I'd suggest is that 60 miles a day is a lot! I have no idea how much cycling you guys do and so am assuming you're normal rather than super whizzy. I honestly think that 60 miles on laden touring bikes, even on the flat, will be a bit much - definitely too much to be able to stop and mooch round villages, drink wine at lunchtime and buy kitsch souvenirs which is most of the pleasure of touring. I'd say anywhere between 40 - 50 miles is comfortable. However I am an unashamed pootler so you might whip my arse!!

It's going to be fab though...lucky thing.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

..I did about 100km a day+ and it wasnt really that hard (i did more in France)...the reason it's easy in Germany is because it is pretty flat on those Radwegs near th erivers and there really isnt much navigation to worry about given the signs....I was cruising past towns not even knowing they were there...but thats me...I was setting off each day about 10-11am and hitting the campsites about 7-8pm (ish)

If you want to see more then Cathryn is right...one word of caution...beware of the Bier..it's good.

 

[Cathryn]

I guess if it's flat, life is much easier. But I do think there's a balance if you want to see the place.

 

[Auntie Helen]

Well I'm not a particularly fast cyclist and I do like to look at the towns so I probably need to revise my average miles down quite a bit. I only picked on 60 miles as I thought that I might be cycling a lot of the day and I might find I want to 'push on' but I suspect this won't be the case. Maybe I'll go down to 30-40 miles in that I do that occasionally and don't seem to suffer particularly the next day.

As a teetotaller the Bier and Wein are safe from me... but not the Torte und Kuchen!

 

[snorri]

I followed the Rhein Radweg Book 3 route from Mainz to Rotterdam 4 years ago. I camped, hostelled and hotel(ed) along the way, enjoyable trip and the natives were friendly
There were things along the way which interested me so I seldom exceeded 50 miles per day.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

..dunno about along the Rhine but some of th eplaces i rode through were like ghost towns...very 'rural'...one day the only humanoid I saw was a teenage farmer trying to get his escaped cow back into the pen!

 

[Auntie Helen]

Snorri, I'm assuming that the nicest part of your trip was Mainz to Cologne and then it got a bit more industrial and less picturesque? That's why I'm thinking about adding the Moselle and staying in the vineyard/villages part of Germany rather than the Ruhrgebiet.

BTFB, from my vantage point on the ship last week, there seemed to be people around most of the time on the Rhine, Moselle and Main rivers. We often saw cyclists which gave us an idea where the Radwegs were.

Oh and Snorri, is your avatar pic Brightlingsea?

 

[Andy in Sig]

Sounds fantastic...Germany is a fantastic place to cycle, we really love it when we go!!

BTFB has given all the standard good advice. The one thing I'd suggest is that 60 miles a day is a lot! I have no idea how much cycling you guys do and so am assuming you're normal rather than super whizzy. I honestly think that 60 miles on laden touring bikes, even on the flat, will be a bit much - definitely too much to be able to stop and mooch round villages, drink wine at lunchtime and buy kitsch souvenirs which is most of the pleasure of touring. I'd say anywhere between 40 - 50 miles is comfortable. However I am an unashamed pootler so you might whip my arse!!

It's going to be fab though...lucky thing.

60 miles a day fully laden is very doable on these German river routes. The only problem is that the cycling becomes such fun that I tend to zoom past places where I really ought to stop and have a look round.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

one bit of advice...make sure your bars are bedecked with a 'klinger'...or bell....you WILL need it in Germany and it will be expected by pedestrians and other cyclists.....I eventually gave in and fitted one for the trip when my throat had finally grown hoarse with shouting 'Vorsicht!!!' as I sped past the snail brigade on the radwegs....the tourers are ok but the day tripper cyclists have no clue.

I have to say i found the German rules about riding on the pavements in the towns annoying. It slows you right down and the constant curb jumping led to several broken spokes and resultant wheel trues...not to mention the constant need to watch out for dosey pedestrains with the audacity to actually walk on MY footpaths...

 

[Auntie Helen]

On our boat trip last week there was a strange bunch of passengers, 96 Americans and 26 Brits (we all felt rather overwhelmed by the Americans as a lot of Americans together can be quite wearing). Anyway, we were wandering around Bamberg and the American women were a bit irritated as it was All Saint's Day so all the shops were closed, apart from a few cafes. I noticed Bamberg has loads of cycle paths painted on the pavements, marked with white lines and large painted bicycles. When we got back to the boat one of the Americans moaned at me (as the only German speaker, thus spokeswoman for the entire German nation) that cyclists kept ringing their bells at her and some had shouted a few comments (fortunately unintelligble to her). I suggested she might have been walking on the cycle path and she said she didn't know about that but she was walking on a bit of pavement that occasionally had a large white bicycle painted on it, but how was she to know if that was a cycle path or not!

BTFB, I'm interested that you say you have to bump up and down curbs. Being a recumbent trike rider that's not very easy at all - will I struggle to get around? Mind you, I tend to think that I'll park my bike and go by foot if I'm visiting a town as trikes are a major pain to wheel around busy town centres.

Re the bike, I have a bell but I've discovered it doesn't work in the rain. Might need to invest in another one or in some throat lozenges for the Vorsicht.

 

[Bodhbh]

I noticed a couple of people on road bikes didn't bother with the cycle paths in towns. I got to thinking bombing about at 20mph on a loaded bike with pedestrians wasn't such a great idea and didn't always use them either. So perhaps it's just common sense.

When I needed to make up lot of miles on the last day it was very rapidly made clear it was verboten when I tried going down a duel carriageway tho.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

American women were a bit irritated as it was All Saint's Day so all the shops were closed

..Americans

24/7 doesn't exist in Germany.

Most of the town cycle paths have clear markings and as such those Americans were just being...well..erm...'American'

Regarding the kerbs...well I am sure others will probably say it's not such an issue, but i found it really annoying to be honest and found myself continually wanting to get off the pavements and onto the roads where the risk of an accident was in my opinion less (20km speed limit in German towns) and I could ride faster. So this meant that i often didnt ride up onto the path att he start and stay on it to the end (which is where there are 'ramps'). I also found that these paths sometimes suddenly stop and switch to the other side of the road...so you have to cross over the road and re join the Radweg...= BIG PITA...for me anyway. The German motorist for the most part is a very decent chap...drives slowly and safely in the towns and sticks to the speed limits. They stick to their rules and expect you as a cyclist to do the same...which means riding on the pavement a lot....the traditional retort from motorists if you don't is to wind down the window and yell "RADWEG!!" at the top of their voices at you as they pass...I've been called worse

The trike...well i dont really know how that will fair as I have never ridden one myself. I suspect you will be fine for the mostpart...but I suggest you stay off the unsurfaced stretches of Radwegs of which I came across several each day. I did see several trikes on tour over there & I doubt you'll get any of the 'hassle' from Chavvy types I suspect you might get here(?)
Be ready for cobblestones, which are not just bumpy but slippy when wet as well....also the AltStadt parts of the towns (which is where you will want to go because it's the best bit) tend to be on small hills/slopes (often with a wall around them).
Do take the bell advice though...ohne klinger gehts nichts


Most german cyclists i saw ride on thick tyres in an upright position...yes there are roadies and they do stay off the footpaths ...I had 28 tyres on my Galaxy which were perfect on the roads...but there were times when I wished I had thicker tyres for the off road sections and the bits of the Radwegs which suddenly for no apparent reason just 'lost' their surface in favour of large gravel and potholes for a few hundred metres.

All that said the RADWEG systems out of town in Germany are superb...we have nothing like it here in England...it's like a national motorway system exclusively for cyclists...very cool.

 

[Andy in Sig]

BTFB,

I've done a few of the major river radwege (Rhine, Danube, Fulda, Neckar and the Romantische Straße) but never regarded the unsurfaced bits as problematic. If you do come across a bit which jars, then the answer is just to go a bit slower. In any event a trike will be a much easier ride than a bike on such surfaces. Add to that the fact that most of the councils through whose areas the routes run, see the tourist benefits and as a result stretches are constantly being improved as e.g. local to me a stretch of the Danube route has just been tarmacced.