Getting to Germany with bikes

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
liffy99
Posts: 20
Joined: 11 Jul 2009, 8:19am

Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by liffy99 »

After a great 2 week cycle tour of Brittany we want to do another and, being well into our 50s, thought an east tour along the Mosel sounds good.

We live in Glastonbury, Somerset and after spending what seemed like hours trying to figure a reasonable way to get us and our bikes to Germany (or Luxembourg) in the vicinity of the Mosel my head exploded.
How complicated can it be ? I've just given up trying to knit together where to cross the channel, find out which trains in France / Germany will take bikes without having to dismantle them (one Audax tourer and one hybrid) and get us where we want to go. There are just so many variations, cycle bans or permitted routes etc.

Have you managed to get to the Mosel with your bike ? If so, how did you do it ?
I'm almost thinking of stashing the bikes in the car and driving over (and then having to park up for 10 days or so) but that's counter to our wish to cycle rather than drive.

Thanks
Galloper
Posts: 217
Joined: 6 Dec 2012, 2:21pm

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by Galloper »

For several years now I've used my car to tour. Like you, I found it quite difficult to get where I wanted to go without massive amounts of faff! What I do now is drive to my selected area, camp or hostel and spend 4 or 5 days exploring the area and then move on to somewhere new. In this way I get to see and explore new areas in more depth than I would otherwise have done and also extend the scope of my holiday with minimum fuss. The other advantage is that it becomes easier to carry some home comforts as you're not limited to the capacity of your panniers.

I highly recommend the Mosel. I have stayed in the hostel in Bernkastel Kues on two occasions, it's a great base to explore the region. There are also other hostels up and down stream as well as plenty of campsites and B&Bs. Umm, better warn you though, the hostel in BK is at the top of a very big hill. Great views but a killer hill at the end of the day! If you wanted to extend your exploration of the area there is an excellent hostel in Prum, in the Eifel/Ardennes with a very good network of local cycle paths. It is also not too far to somewhere like St Goar or Bingen which you can use to explore some of the prettier parts of the Rhine cycle route.
andymiller
Posts: 1716
Joined: 8 Dec 2007, 10:26am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by andymiller »

DeutscheBahn do excellent sleeper services from Paris to Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. My knowledge of the geography of Germany is fairly hopeless but I would have thought that one of these would get you to within striking distance of a suitable starting point. I've uploaded the CityNightLine network map.
carte_cnl_de_grand.png


Getting there is fairly easy: cycle from Glastonbury to Castle Cary for the train to Paddington, a short hop across London to Saint Pancras. When you get to Paris you need to go from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l'Est - basically about 300 hundred yards. So not really a massive amount of faff.

I'd be the first to admit that train companies seem to make the process of booking and researching international train travel harder than it needs to be and there's some hassle involved in the changes, but once you're on the trains you can relax and put your feet up. No driving, no worrying about where to park/leave your car (or worrying about whether it will still be there when you get back) etc etc.

I can see the attraction of using the car to get you from one place to another, and then doing day-rides, but I'm not really sure that the convenience outweighs the hassle of the long initial drive and the long drive back.

The DB 1st class sleepers are very cushy and if you book early the ticket prices are surprisingly reasonable. Once you get there you just take off.

For general information on the City Night Line service (and pictures of the beds etc) I'd go to seat61.com.

The DeutscheBahn site is pretty helpful, but if you want to book bike spaces you need to ring their call centre 08718 80 80 66 (in Croydon South London) so if you don't want to go through the hassle of using the website you could just ring them and get them to sort things out for you. IIRC they charge something like 6p/min but that might be money well spent if it avoids an exploding head.

I've written some articles on my website about getting to Italy by train

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/travell ... -by-train/

which are about getting to Italy by train (well duh, I hear you say), but have some information that might be useful (eg using the DB website and taking your bike on eurostar).
Italy Cycling Guide - a resource for cycle touring in Italy.
simonhill
Posts: 5226
Joined: 13 Jan 2007, 11:28am
Location: Essex

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by simonhill »

You don't say if you are prepared to drive or fly, which may help.

As mentioned above, driving could be the easiest and cheapest option. Flying may also be a fairly cheap option. I imagine that are lots of suitable flights from Bristol.

I know its a bit further, but I recently went to visit a friend in Macedonia. I thought it would be good to take the train, but a rough estimate (using maninseat61 website) was about £400 return with many changes. I flew for £70. OK no bike that time, but that would only have been another £60 on the plane. Sad but true

If you want to take the train the website maninseat61 may be useful for route planning.
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MrsHJ
Posts: 1823
Joined: 19 Aug 2010, 1:03pm
Location: Dartmouth, Devon.

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by MrsHJ »

The driving approach is very doable and less complicated but you may find you don't cycle as much, it's a less full on, relying on your bike, sort of experience. Horses for courses, my first check in your position would be flights from Bristol and then local trains in Germany but if you don't mind the drive not having to deal with loading bikes onto planes and trains has some advantages.

A couple of times when I was too busy at work to get my brain round complicated tours we drove down to south/ south west France and left our car at a campsite, toured for a few days in a circular route with the camping gear and them moved on to do somewhere else. Upside: I finally got to do a decent climb (Ventoux) without all my luggage and camping gear, so nice not to stop on the way up because you're actually doing a decent pace.

Of course driving from Mosel could have one huge advantage that you will no doubt want to take advantage of: filling thé boot of the car up with décent wine and that may make the drive worthwhile. If German wine isn't to your taste you can probably come back via Alsace or Burgundy/ eastern end of the Loire, eg Sancerre).
andymiller
Posts: 1716
Joined: 8 Dec 2007, 10:26am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by andymiller »

Just as a footnote: my last ticket from Paris to Munich on the CNL sleeper cost me the princely sum of 59€ (plus 10€ for the bike). You can travel to/from the West Country for less than a tenner. OK there's then the eurostar fare and bike carriage charges, but probably the train is a lot cheaper than you'd expect.

Driving to Germany the easiest option? Flogging along an autobahn or reading a book, relaxing and looking out of the window (or sleeping)? I know which I'd choose. And flying is, as Usain Bolt might have said, is absolutely awesome.

It might be cheaper for a family of four but for one or two people I'm not so sure.

In my experience people who don't use trains very much tend to have an exaggerated view of how difficult/expensive it is, and then once they take the plunge and find that it really isn't as difficult as they thought, they become converts.
Nigelrojo
Posts: 29
Joined: 19 Aug 2012, 7:44am
Location: Bath, UK

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by Nigelrojo »

liffy99 wrote:After a great 2 week cycle tour of Brittany we want to do another and, being well into our 50s, thought an east tour along the Mosel sounds good.

We live in Glastonbury, Somerset and after spending what seemed like hours trying to figure a reasonable way to get us and our bikes to Germany (or Luxembourg) in the vicinity of the Mosel my head exploded.
How complicated can it be ? I've just given up trying to knit together where to cross the channel, find out which trains in France / Germany will take bikes without having to dismantle them (one Audax tourer and one hybrid) and get us where we want to go. There are just so many variations, cycle bans or permitted routes etc.

Have you managed to get to the Mosel with your bike ? If so, how did you do it ?
I'm almost thinking of stashing the bikes in the car and driving over (and then having to park up for 10 days or so) but that's counter to our wish to cycle rather than drive.

Thanks


I have been cycling in Germany the last 2 summers and will do the same again this year. I live in Bath. My route out this year (and 2 years ago when I did the Danube route) is:

Train Bath-Paddington, arrive about midday.
Cycle 3 miles across London to St Pancras International, check the bike in at Eurostar Despatch at least an hour before departure.
Eurostar to Paris arriving about 6:00 pm (local)
Cycle 1 km across Paris from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de L'Est
City Night Line sleeper, Paris-Stuttgart arriving 0417 hrs.
I then get Regional Express and Regional trains to my start point (Bayreuth this year)

I have booked all the outbound trains but nothing on the return leg yet. I am going to cycle west along the Mainradweg to Mainz, down the Rhine to Koblenz, then up the Moselle to Metz. To get home I will have to get the TGV or some other French train to Paris, then Eurostar back to London. If I am feeling really energetic I'll cycle Metz-Paris but that will add 3 days to the trip. If I have trouble getting on the Eurostar with the bike I'll get a train to Caen (from the Gare St Lazare) then the ferry to Portsmouth.

Good luck!
LollyKat
Posts: 3250
Joined: 28 May 2011, 11:25pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by LollyKat »

The European Bike Express (bus and bike trailer service) goes to Thionville. PDF brochure here. It may take a little longer than the train but a lot less hassle. I haven't used the EBE yet but it gets very good reports.

Edit: just seen there are very limited dates for that route - but might work for you?
andymiller
Posts: 1716
Joined: 8 Dec 2007, 10:26am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by andymiller »

A quick afterthought. A very scehmatic summary of the rules for bikes on trains in Western Europe (based on travels in UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy):

- in general local and regional trains are bike-friendly but there are exceptions (especially commuter trains into major cities);
- for high-speed trains (and some other long-distance trains) you normally have to put your bike in a bag. The main exceptions are the UK and some French TGV services (those to Eastern and Western France as well as the TGV Lyria)
- most sleeper trains are bike-friendly (again there are some exceptions).
Last edited by andymiller on 1 Aug 2014, 1:25pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ned Ludd
Posts: 37
Joined: 14 May 2014, 11:13am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by Ned Ludd »

Maybe getting the ferry from Harwich, and then booking via DeBahn to Mosel? You will need to phone though as you can't do it online...
Ned Ludd
Posts: 37
Joined: 14 May 2014, 11:13am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by Ned Ludd »

liffy99 wrote:
I'm almost thinking of stashing the bikes in the car and driving over (and then having to park up for 10 days or so) but that's counter to our wish to cycle rather than drive.





Its a catch 22 but in order for it to become easy, people need to do it to show theres a demand. See your self as a cycling pioneer/activist making life easier for those who come after!
andymiller
Posts: 1716
Joined: 8 Dec 2007, 10:26am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by andymiller »

Ned Ludd wrote:See your self as a cycling pioneer/activist making life easier for those who come after!


And see the journey as part of the travel experience/adventure. Personally I enjoy the train as a chance to get decompress.

Ned Ludd wrote:Maybe getting the ferry from Harwich, and then booking via DeBahn to Mosel? You will need to phone though as you can't do it online...


The best combination is the ferry plus sleeper train. But, unfortunately, the ferries either leave pretty early in the morning or in the evening, so unless you live locally to the port you're looking at either an overnight stay in Harwich, or an overnight ferry (and then you may still need to wait until the evening for the sleeper). If your destination is in the Netherlands/Benelux then it could be the most convenient option, but otherwise I'm not so sure.

Taking your bike on eurostar really is pretty straightforward (although train companies being train companies they don't make it as easy as it should be) - just one phone call and the job is done. Even if you take into account the mild inconvenience in having to pick up and drop-off your bike, the alternatives are a lot more hassle (for most people).

For a step-by-step guide to taking your bike on eurostar (complete with how to get to the pickup or drop-off points) see my article here:

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/travell ... -eurostar/
cotswolds
Posts: 287
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 10:47am

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by cotswolds »

Having exhausted places we wanted to tour which we could get to by ferry, we flew for the first time this year. We went with British Airways and found them very bike friendly. Yes there's a bit of stress packing up a bike for the flight, but it's not that difficult, probably less stress than you get cumulatively with multiple changes by other methods, and your holiday starts sooner.

You're also in First Great Western territory who I've found very bike friendly, so I'd suggest train to Slough (you might need to change at Reading) then it's a short easy ride to Heathrow Terminal 5 which is very bike friendly.
burroc
Posts: 73
Joined: 11 Aug 2009, 9:32pm

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by burroc »

Unless I missed it, there is another alternative that has not been mentioned: hire bikes in Germany. My wife and I have enjoyed numerous cycle tours in Germany on hired bikes and will be back there again shortly. We recently returned from an excellent trip to Austria where we also hired bikes. They were excellent quality, had numerous to choose from, we were not asked for a deposit, or proof of identity or even an address or telephone number. We just said we would return them in a week. We were told we were free to exchange the bike at any time during the week if we wanted to. When I asked for a puncture repair kit I was told "no need "we'll come out and bring you another bike". I asked what if we were several hour's drive away, and was told we'd just have to be a bit patient, but he would happily drive over to us. And the cost? 39 Euros for 7 days. At that price, I'm glad I did not go to the effort of taking our own bikes.
Gearoidmuar
Posts: 2347
Joined: 29 Sep 2007, 7:35pm
Location: Cork, Ireland. Corcaigh, Éire má tá Gaeilge agat.

Re: Getting to Germany with bikes

Post by Gearoidmuar »

I've cycled the Mosel about 5 times. It's great.

Fly with Ryanair to Hahn (Frankfurt Hahn they call it but it's 60m from Frankfurt).
You can cycle from Hahn to the Mosel but do NOT cycle the main road as it's a truck nightmare.
If you Google using Google Maps, selecting the cycling option it'll outline a quiet route to about Trittenheim. Cycle from there to Trier and back on the other side. For a finish you can cycle the Nahe Radweg from Bingen to near the airport. That's excellent.
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