Part I. Getting Started

The Impetus

Having biked in Germany many years ago, my wife, Linny, and I decided to use some Frequent Flier miles and do it again. I prepared for the trip by first of all getting some ADFC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club) Biking Maps of the two German states: Baden-Wuerttemberg (B-W) and Bayern (Bavaria). The maps I used were of the scale 1:150,000 which were quite adequate for finding our way through the country. (There are finer scale maps--1:75,000--but they are not necessary.) A list can be found at http://www.fahrradtouren.de/shop2-bva-Radtourenkarten-Deutschland.htm. I was lucky in that I had a friend in Germany who bought them and brought them to me. The shipping charges from, say, Amazon.de, are quite high.

The Language

I studied German fifty years ago in college so I can get by with a phrase book (I highly recommend Rick Steves' book) in Germany. Most younger Germans speak fluent English and are quite willing and able to help you out. For work on the Web I found Google's translation service useful (translate.google.com), even though the translations at times were almost unintelligible.

The Route

We decided that we would fly into Frankfurt, assemble our bikes at the airport, load up our panniers, and ride some distance that day just for the exercise and to help us adjust to the time zone change (+7 hours from Dallas). Then we would train down to Heidelberg for a two-day visit. And from there we would begin our journey. The guiding principle of this trip was to bike the Donau (Danube River) Radweg (Bikeway) which follows the entire length of the Donau River from Donaueschingen in B-W to the German-Austrian border at Passau--a distance of 773 km. (We had stumbled upon this bike path many years ago on our first biking adventure in Germany. I was fascinated by the idea of riding it.) In fact, this bikeway is only a part of a Pan-European bike path (Euro Velo 6) that crosses France, Switzerland, and follows the Donau all the way to the Black Sea!

I discovered the Heidelberg-Schwarzwald-Bodensee (HSB) Radweg that we could follow all the way from Heidelberg to Donaueschingen to pick up the Donau Radweg. Linny really loved the last walled city we visited so planned to leave the Donau Radweg at Donauwoerth and head up to Noerdlingen on the Romantische Strasse Radweg. From there we would strike out northeastward on regional bike paths toward Treuchtlingen to intersect the Altmuehl Radweg. We would take that bikeway eastward to Kelheim where we would once again be on the Donau Radweg. We would take this bikeway on to Wien (Vienna).

Hotel Accommodations

An invaluable tool in the planning and execution of this trip was the site http://www.bettundbike.de/. The Bett & Bike program is a wonderful resource for bikers in Germany. All types of hotels (Hotel, Gasthaus, monasteries, youth hostels, etc.) are invited to become members of this organization. To do so, they must agree to offer bikers certain services--booking a room for just one night, providing secure storage for bikes, providing box lunches (if there is a kitchen), calling ahead to reserve a room for the next night, doing small amounts of laundry, if possible, and other services. Go to the site listed above, enter the name of the Radweg you will be traveling, and up will pop a list of all the facilities along that route. You will be overwhelmed by the number of hotels so you might want to restrict your search. (Near the top of the page you will see "suche aendern," which will give you the opportunity to limit the listing to hotels that are only a limited distance from the Radweg.) We printed a list for each of the bikeways that we traveled and sought out those on the list first. Actually though, most all of the various types of hotels welcome bikers and will help them out as necessary. You need to understand that biking is a national pastime and the country is well-suited to this type of travel.

Financing

We financed the trip with an ATM card from our U.S. bank. Although we had heard that our ATM cards are more primitive than European ones, we had no trouble getting cash or finding ATMs. One caution though: many smaller hotels will not accept American credit cards and require payment in cash. But with the density of ATMs we never found that to be a problem. And the exchange rate using the ATM was within one-tenth of one percent of the official exchange rate, a fact I determined after we returned and I could compare the rates.

Luggage

Since our trip was self-supporting we each carried all of our possessions in two rear panniers. Everything went in those two rather small suitcases--clothes, shoes, toiletries, maps, lists, books. Linny made sure that we packed clothes that we could use in layers for warmth. We planned the trip for early fall--September and October--so we had to be prepared for all kinds of weather--wet, dry, hot, and cold. We each carried an outer plastic rain suit, a water-resistant jacket, a sweater, T-shirts, biking shorts, and an extra pair of shoes. I made up a tourist outfit that consisted of a long-sleeve shirt, pants with zip-out legs, underwear, socks, and shoes and stored it in a separate bag for exclusive use when we were not on our bikes. Actually, I carried three such tourist outfits which was a real waste. Two were more than sufficient. The maps turned out to be a minor problem. I carried at least eight of them for the entire trip which was completely unnecessary since they were readily available at bookstores and sporting goods stores in modest-sized cities. So I could have just purchased them as we went and saved myself quite a few pounds of excess weight. As it was my two panniers weighed forty pounds and Linny's weighed in at thirty pounds.

Traveling by Train

On several occasions we took the train with our bikes. With no advance notice you can almost always find a local train (or a sequence of such) that will get you to your destination. These are not the fastest trains, but they are considerably faster than pedaling. One can go online to http://www.dbahn.de to get information on trains. Sometimes there is a separate charge for your bike, sometimes not. You must ask to find out when you need a ticket for your bike. For the local trains, when you are waiting for the train's arrival at a specified track, you can position yourself and your bike near the front of the train (or where it will be when it arrives) and as the train pulls into the station look for the car that has the silhouette of a bike painted on it. That's the one you want to board. You should find that there is a section of seats folded up. You can lean your bike against these and secure it with a seatbelt-like strap. If those seats are all occupied, you must just stand and hold your bike up. (I've seen natives come in and tell those sitting in the seats to move to another seat, but my German was not good enough for me to attempt this.)

If you want to cover a large distance on an express train, you generally need to make reservations a day in advance. This can be done on the phone or at the train station. In this case you will be assigned a space for your bike and a seat to sit in. Again the bike car is usually at the front of the train so be near there as express trains often only stop for a short period of time before continuing on. Get your bike on, then you can find your assigned seat. Often you can just sit in the bike car.

Part II. The Journey to Heidelberg

We arrived at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on September 2oth with our bikes all packed up in bike boxes I had scrounged from the Performance Bike Store in our area. Since we had only our two panniers as carry-on luggage, we had to stow all of the bike tools, e.g. screwdrivers, and large liquid containers, e.g. toothpaste, that might be confiscated by Security in our bike boxes. To accommodate these I sewed up some small bags that carried these items and tied them onto the bike frame. Each piece of the bike that had to be removed from the bike, e.g. the front wheel and seat, were securely tied with cord to the bike frame as were our helmets thus making sure all the parts arrive at your destination.. (These bike boxes can be pretty battered by the time they have been opened for inspection by the TSA and then loaded and unloaded on the plane.)

In arranging this trip I had talked to an American Airlines AAdvantage representative about the costs of taking our bikes to Europe. She assured me that since the bike would be our only checked bag and we were allowed on free checked bag on the flight, there would be no charge for the bikes. Well, so much for the assurances of an anonymous employee. When we checked in we told that we would have to pay $150 for each bike! The rep on the phone had failed to tell us that there was a size limitation on the checked bag and the boxed bike exceeded that limit. I was fuming for quite a while, but finally realized that they had us over a barrel and if we wanted to go on this trip, we had to pay the piper...which we did.

Luckily for us the flight was non-stop all the way to Frankfurt where we arrived the next morning at about 9 am local time--2 am our body time. We were able to get a few hours sleep on the plane and felt fairly good by the time we cleared customs, retrieved and assembled our bikes, hit the ATM for some gozintas (a term coined by a friend on a sailboat traveling down through the Eastern Caribbean having to exchange dollars for the local currency at each island, not being able to remember the name of each currency and finally realizing that all he needed to know was how many goes into a dollar), and made it out of the terminal to the street. Then the fun began!

Our bike map showed that there was a bike route from the airport to a town called Langen where we could take the train down to Heidelberg. Very helpful policemen directed us around the airport where we found a route to an intermediate town. From there we got completely lost and were only saved by two bikers who showed us the way to Langen. Once we got to the train station we found that the ticket office had been closed, but were able to buy tickets in a machine for Darmstadt where we could buy another ticket on to Heidelberg on a local train. With little difficulty we found our hotel, The Hotel Am Kornmarkt (http://www.hotelamkornmarkt.de/), where we had reserved a room for two nights. (Here's a good place to point out a distinction in hotels in Germany. If you go on their website, you will see that it is called a "garni-hotel" which means that it serves only a breakfast to guests. You're on your own for other meals.) The Kornmarkt turned out to be a very convenient place to stay as it was near the University, the Neckar River, the Schloss (castle), and within easy walk of downtown. The odometer on Linny's bike (ODO) read 21.7 km. (I will give the odometer reading in kilometers at end of each day's riding. All signage and other distances are given in kilometers so we changed Linny's odometer to report in kilometers. Conversion is easy: 5 miles = 8 kilometers.)

The two days there were very enjoyable. We walked along the river and to downtown where we visited the local ADFC office right across the street from the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station). I purchased some more up-to-date maps and found out how we would begin our trip south on the HSB Radweg. The second evening in Heidelberg we had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant where we packed away good portions of pasta for the next day's beginning of our grand bike adventure.

Part III. The HSB Radweg (BikeWay)

September 23rd was sunny and cool when we started out at mid-morning. Following the HSB route was relatively simple because they are well marked. Here is such a sign: if you can read it. The top sign states that Wieblingen is straight ahead
4.0 km and the Hauptbahnhof is only 0.7 km. Notice below the third sign there are three pictures. Each one identifies a bike route. The red one is the HSB Radweg symbol. As long as you see that symbol, you know you're on the right route. (This sign is in Heidelberg and we were headed toward the Hauptbahnhof on our way out of town.)

You can follow this route by accessing: http://www.adfc-tourenportal.de/viewtrackobject.php?trackObjectID=895.
These maps are really nice. Elevations can be read off using the "Topo" button and Bett Und Bike hotels are pinpointed. We didn't have internet service so these maps were only useful for planning. Having that available along the route would have saved a few pounds of cargo on my bike!

We made it easily as far as Reilingen where it crossed a pan-European route that we mistakenly started following west toward the Rhine River. Just before we got to the Rhine I realized that something was very wrong. We flagged down another biker who led us back to Reilingen--a big two-hour loop and our lead biker had no mercy for our heavy loads! The lesson we learned here was don't ignore a sign that points to a village that you're not intending to pass through!

We finally reached Bruchsal about 5pm and caught a train into Bretten where we had made a reservation for the night at the Hotel Brauerei "Zum Hirsh" arriving there around 6 pm. (ODO = 70 km) We were told the restaurant had a special on schnitzel that evening so we decided to give it a try. Big mistake! Our normal diet is close to completely vegetarian, but we thought a little meat wouldn't be a problem, especially since we had pedaled so far that day. Well the slab of pork filled the entire plate--about 10 inches in diameter. Needless to say we had our fill of meat that night and, in fact, for the whole trip.

The next morning before we could continue on our journey I had to visit a bike shop and buy a new seat. The frame of mine broke the previous day--first one piece and then the other. By the end of the day I had the seat tied on with a piece of cord to keep it from falling off. With my new seat we set off for Maulbronn to see an 11th century monastery. It was very impressive! In the afternoon it started to rain as we set off for Pforzheim to get back on the HSB. We only made it as far as Neulingen, about 12 km from Pforzheim, but were so tired, wet, and cold, we decided to find a hotel there. We found a grocery store and bought some food for dinner and a bottle of wine. We looked for some canned sardines or herring at the store, but had difficulty finding them. Then Linda discovered that they were in the cat food section! Oh well, meow! We surmised that most Germans fed the canned fish to their pets. (ODO = 24.5 km)

The next morning we left in the rain for Pforzheim, but when we arrived there about an hour later, the rain had almost stopped. We found the HSB route in the center of town and then began on of the most enjoyable days of riding. The route took us through the most beautiful forest on bike-only roads. It was just delightful, in part no doubt because it had stopped raining. We arrived in Bad Liebenzell in the afternoon and found a very nice hotel-garni Koch. The room was very well furnished and the hotel was within an easy walk to the spa (Bad = baths in German). This was our first Bad experience, enjoyable but definitely not the best (more about that later). Again we sought out a grocery store and ate dinner in our room. (ODO =38.5 km)

Breakfast in the morning was unbelievable! There were so many items to choose from. The hosts put out delicious, varied items. It sustained us until well into the afternoon. After leaving Bad Liebenzell we pedalled through the most beautiful forests and small villages. We stopped to look at the ruins of an 8th century monastery in Hirsau. Then we came to Calw. The old town of this city was really beautiful! Being a Sunday the Hermann Hesse Museum was closed, which we were quite disappointed to find out because he is one of our favorite authors. However, We did find out that he had actually studied in the late 19th century at the Maulbronn Monastery that we had visited a few days ago. An interesting feature of Calw are the bronze statues throughout the old town--including one of Hesse. From Calw we journeyed on to Nagold where we stayed at the Hotel Adler--a 3-star hotel (a big deal for us)--where we had big room with a sofa, table and chairs. We found a nice Italian restaurant for a pasta dinner. (ODO=40 km)

In the morning after studying the map we decided to take the train over to Horb am Neckar to avoid climbing out of the Nagold River valley. We picked up the Neckar Radweg in Horb and rode to Oberndorf am Neckar for the night. Got lost a couple of times when the radweg just seemed to die out, but we were able to divine our way back onto it. We found a small guest house that had small, but nice rooms and very inexpensive. (ODO=35km)

The next day, September 28th, we left at our usual time of around 930 am--waiting for the morning sun to take a little chill out of the air. Soon we reached a detour that took us out of the Neckar River valley via a 17% grade! With our loaded panniers, it is not surprising that we had to push our bikes most of the way uphill. We didn't think about not following the radweg detour--a big mistake. We could have gotten on the rural highway and ridden easily with the sparse traffic and avoided the detour. When we got to the top of the detour, we immediately plunged back to the valley floor where we rode for a few kilometers before we had to climb once again out of the valley to get to Rottweil. We thought that the Neckar Radweg would be much easier since it followed the river--or so we thought. But now I think that we should have stayed on the HSB all the way from Horb.

Through the tourist office in Rottweil we stayed at the Hotel Zum Sternen-an extremely over-priced hotel with so-so rooms. We were given a key to a garage that was several blocks away to store our bikes, but the key wouldn't unlock the door so we ended up storing our bikes in our room! That night we had dinner at the Weinstube Grimm. One fish dish was very bad tasting, but when we told the proprietor, she just shrugged and walked away! Furthermore, the main street through the old city was all torn up. All in all Rottweil was a bust! (ODO=26 km)

The next day we were off again around 930 or 10 am, this time back on the HSB Radweg. We passed through a few non-descript towns, but very pretty farmlands and into Schwenningen. There we found the Neckar Ursprung, a beautiful city park that is the beginning or source of the Neckar River. We had a very nice picnic lunch there. It was quite amazing to recall walking a week earlier along side the Neckar River in Heidelberg where it is maybe 100 meters across and to be now sitting next to a big swampy area where it begins.

We rode into Bad Duerrheim later, arriving early enough in the afternoon to go to the Solemar Thermal Baths. What an experience that was! If you are in the area, do not miss it! There were three "hot" pools of temperatures 33, 35, and 37 degrees Celsius, three bubbling hot tubs, a cold tub, a mist room, a steam room, and three larger pools. One had a very high concentration of salts so you floated right on the top of the water, while the other two had numerous water jets shooting out all over the place. It was a real trip! We stayed there three hours and then found a nice one-bedroom apartment. Again we searched out a grocery store, bought dinner, and ate it in our room. We were really excited that tomorrow we would reach Donaueschingen--the start of the Donau River and Radweg. (ODO=35 km, cumulative distance=268 km)

Left Bad D. at mid-morning and about an hour later arrived in Donaueschingen. It was surprising that the radweg had followed an old Roman road from nearly two thousand years ago. In Donaueschingen we found the Donau Quelle--the mythical source of the Donau--and then the actual beginning of the Donau where it is formed by the confluence of two rather puny little streams. From there the Donau flows through southern Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and finally Romania where it empties into the Black Sea--a distance of thousands of kilometers.

Part IV. The Donau Radweg

An interactive map of the Donau Radweg is at http://www.adfc-tourenportal.de/viewtrackobject.php?trackObjectID=8083 We left Donaueschingen through a wide valley, but it was apparent where the river was going. We could see that it would enter a much narrower valley, the Oberen Donautal. The farmland was quite interesting to ride through as were the small towns and villages. We stopped for the night in Tuettlingen at a very non-descript gasthof in the city and had another pasta dinner. (ODO=52 km)

The next morning, the first of October, we left in the rain and a low temperature. The highlight of the day was stopping at the monastery in Beuron, which was definitely worth the stop. In that town we met a couple who suggested that we stay the night in Gutenstein at a small hotel they recommended. During the day we met a Frenchman who was traveling the opposite direction on the radweg. He had started in Bucharest, had been biking for a month, and had covered 2,700 km so far. He was pulling a small trailer with all his camping gear. The most amazing thing though was that he was heading for his home in Brittany on the Atlantic coast of France--over another 1,000 km! We were impressed, to say the least.

The ride was gorgeous--through a deep valley with many rock spires rising out of forests and little villages every few kilometers. We arrived in Gutenstein at 4 pm to find that the hotel we planned to stay at was closed. It didn't open until 5 pm. (This is often the case with hotels in smaller towns.) There was no way to contact the owners so we thought we could pass the hour having a beer at another small hotel we passed on the way into town. When we got back there we found that the whole hotel had been rented for the weekend by a group that was holding a college class reunion. They invited us to stay with them for dinner and the night. It was quite an evening! (ODO = 45 km)

The next morning we snuck out of the reunion trying not to wake anyone up. They had partied late into the night. We rode into Sigmaringen for an early lunch and then toured the Hohenzollern family castle. It was very interesting even though the tour was in German and we could only follow along with a printed guide in English.

That afternoon we rode to Mengen where we found a nice three-star hotel--the Rebstock. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was excellent. It is recommended by Michelin! The chef fixed a delicious vegetarian Maltauschen dish which we really enjoyed along with a bountiful green salad. (Germany has wonderful salads!) (ODO = 29 km)

The next morning before getting on the road we went over to see a Roman museum to learn about the early Roman presence there. Very interesting, but again, all description were in German and this time no equivalent English translation available. We started riding about noon and rode until 5 pm, stopping in Obermachtal to visit a monastery. That area was very beautiful. The monastery was on a very high escarpment and provided great views of the valley below. We rode into Munderkingen for the night. Stayed at the small, but nice Hotel garni Knebel. Had pizza and salad for dinner. (As you can tell by now, after the huge schnitzel dinner in Bretten the night we left Heidelberg, we pretty much avoided the heavy German meat dishes.) (ODO = 48 km)

We left late the next morning for Ulm. The countryside opened up considerably with lots of farms and cities. The radweg was near highways a lot and so was not as pleasant as earlier. We threaded our way through much urban traffic, but finally as we came into Ulm alongside the Donau. That was particularly beautiful. We found the turn-off for the city center, took it and ended up at the Rathaus where we celebrated our arrival with a beer, sitting outside in the sun, but bundled up against a cold wind. We found a very nice small Hotel Weinstube Bauemle that was just around the corner from the cathedral in the center of Ulm. In fact, we could see the cathedral spire from our hotel window. (ODO = 47 km, cumulative = 490 km)

The next day we walked around the old town and hiked to a laundromat to wash a lot of dirty clothes. My knee had become progressively more sore as each day passed so we took it real easy and mostly just hung out. We bought dinner at a store, ate in our room, and played some cribbage.

The next morning Linda wanted to climb to the top of the cathedral spire. My knee was still sore so I skipped the climb. But Linda did it and took some beautiful pictures. (I sat in the square and had a beer!). In the afternoon we took the train to Dillingen, found a place to stay, bought dinner at a nearby supermarket and ate it in the room. Played some more cribbage. (ODO = 5 km)

The next day, October 7, we struck out for Donauwoerth. The weather was cloudy, cold, and windy athough not raining at least. We missed a turn and ended up on a muddy farm road that just coated our bikes and shoes with mud. (We traveled an extra 15 km for this treat.) In Donauwoerth we found a very nice hotel in a really neat part of town--an island in the Woernitz River where it flows into the Donau. The hotel was the least expensive one we stayed in for the whole trip, but it was clean and the room was very decent and quiet. We found an excellent Italian restaurant for dinner on the island. (ODO = 50 km, cumulative = 543 km)

At breakfast the next morning we met a German cyclist who had come all the way from Ulm the previous day. His bike was white and immaculate! We asked how it could be so clean since he took the same route we had. Then we found out about hand washers at gas stations. Most stations have a hand wand with pressurized water that you can use to clean your bikes for not even one euro--what a deal, especially considering we were probably carting about five pounds of mud each!

We left the Donau Radweg that day for Noerdlingen via the Romantisches Radweg. This radweg runs all way from Fuessen in the foothills of the Alps north through Augsburg, Donauwoerth, Noerdlingen, Dinkelsbuehl, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and ends in Wuerzburg, passing through many old walled medieval cities. We were headed for Noerdlingen. The signage was very confusing, but a local resident directed us to a small town where we re-joined the radweg. The countryside was just beautiful--very rural. We stopped in Harburg and toured an exceptional castle high over the town. (We pushed our bikes up there.) The tour was really good, partly because there was a Canadian couple who helped translate some of the tourguides terms, but even the guide spoke passble English. We learned that it is possible to stay at the castle for a very reasonable sum although it was too early for us to stop. We rode into Noerdlingen through beautiful farmland alongside a straight highway that got us there very fast. We found the neat Hotel Sonne, parts of which are 700 years old, in the center of the old city. The old city is one of the few remaining completely walled cities in Germany. (ODO = 36 km).

We spent an extra day in Noerdlingen. Our hotel was right next to the church. The bells of the church were beautiful and chimed throughout the day and evening. In the morning about 6:30 they ring continuously for about five minutes to make sure everyone is up and out of bed! We climbed the church tower and had a wonderful view of the wall circling the city and of the surrounding countryside which is actually the remnants of huge crater formed from a meteor strike thousands of years ago. You can actually see the hills surrounding the crater. We walked around the town and bought food for our dinner at a Saturday farmer's market in the square. We found a very good wine store where we bought a good spaet burgunder red wine (actually a pinot noir grown in the Rhine River valley). It is a well-guarded secret that Germany produces some very good red wines!

Part V. The Altmuehl Radweg

We left Noerdlingen On October 10th, having decided to not continue on the radweg to Dinkelsbuehl, but rather to head east on some small regional radwegs to work our way over to the Altmuehl River and its radweg of the same name. This day turned into one of the most unusual of our trip. The wind was howling and right in our faces as we crossed the flat crater floor. We stopped for a cappuccino at a restaurant that was filled with Sunday diners. We were placed at a table with an older couple. It was really fun trying to communicate with them in my very limited German. We reached Wemding where the plain ended and the hills started. We rode through the hills on walking paths that doubled as cross-country ski trails in the winter, thankful that we were now in a forest that shielded us from the wind. In Otting we came across an old castle that had been converted to a yoga retreat--wish we could have stayed there for a few days! At Monheim we turned north toward Treuchtlingen, but just south of the city we found our way to the Altmuehl River. We celebrated with a beer at an open-air restaurant. Then we found the Altmuehl Radweg and headed downriver. It was so nice to be back along a small stream in such a pastoral setting. We cruised into the small town of Pappenheim. (ODO = 52 km)

There we attracted to the Hotel Krone that had a banner hanging across it advertising fresh fish dinners. We checked out the room which was very spacious and nicely furnished. The dinner was outstanding! We had fresh trout and white wine for dinner. The waiter, the son-in-law of the owner, was very friendly and helpful, and spoke good English. We feel that we really happened upon a good place.

The next morning was completely sunny, still windy, but more importantly, it was warming up. We headed out for Eichstatt which we reached in early afternoon. I thought the town would be interesting, but it was stuffed with cars and was very noisy. So we headed down the radweg to look for a hotel that had been listed in Bett und Bike. It was called the Landgasthof Proell. It was the next-to-the worst room that we had on our whole trip. The manager was really grumpy, the room was like an attic, and there was no heat! But since it was getting late in the day, we had to take what we could get.

The hotel was alongside a very busy highway with nothing around it so we decided to eat at the attached restaurant, the Kartoffel Restaurant (a potato restaurant?). No one spoke English, but we made it be known that we didn't want any meat dish. The cook prepared a potato dish for us. It turned out to be a huge McDonaldesque hashbrown about six inches in diameter. Linda had thought it would be good because it came with a garlic sauce, but that turned out to be a solid cream sauce--not her kind of dish! Oh, well, you win some and you lose some. (ODO = 43 km)


Left the next morning around 10 am, but only got a few kilometers away before we realized that Linda had left one of her panniers at the hotel. After retrieving that we rode on to Beilngries where we found the Main-Donau Kanal. This amazing engineering feat connects the Main River which flows into the Rhine which empties into the North Sea with the Donau which empties into the Black Sea. It is 175 km long and drops 175 m from west to east through 16 locks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Main-Danube_Canal ).

We chose to ride along the north side of the canal to our destination of Dietfurt an der Altmuehl. The path turned into crushed lime rock and was very bumpy causing me to worry all the way that we might have a blowout, but we made it safely.

There were no recommendations from Bett und Bike for this town so we asked a man to recommend one. He directed us to the Gasthof Meier which was just across the canal. It was a beautiful site and we took a room in a new addition that was spacious and nicely decorated. While we collecting our things from our bikes a buld carrier river boat came by. (ODO 54 km)

We had bumped into a German couple from Hanover who was also biking on the radweg and they ended up staying at the same hotel. They left for dinner, but we decided to stay and get just a salad for dinner. Well, that turned into an interesting adventure. The proprietor, it turns out, was much more interested in watching a soccer match than making any effort at feeding us. And he was very hard to understand. He told us that we had one choice--a ham and egg sandwich, no salad.

The next morning at breakfast we told the fellow biking couple about our experience at dinner. They laughed and told us that they could hardly understand his Bavarian dialect and they were native speakers! (Later they told us that the proprietor had told them that we were very hard to understand!)

The next day was a pretty non-descript ride into Kelheim. We did see a cruise ship on the canal, crossed a lock and watched a ship pass through it, and then saw the confluence of the Atlmuehl and the Donau. We stayed in a beautiful old (500 years) building in the center of the old city, Altstadt Pension Dietz. The proprietress was very informative and spoke good English. The room was very interesting and the breakfast the next morning was excellent. (ODO = 37 km)

The next morning we set out on a wonderful side trip to Weltenburg Monastery upriver on the Donau. There are sightseeing boats that travel back and forth between Kelheim and the monastery so we figured we could ride our bikes there and take the boat back to Kelheim through a small gorge with spectacular scenery. We rode over a huge hill so steep that we ended up pushing our bikes part way even though we had left our gear at the hotel. But the ride was worth every bit of the effort. There was a layer of fog that gave the forest we rode through a very special light. We toured the monastery and then had a half liter of the beer brewed at the monastery--a task they have performed there since the year 1050! We figured that after a thousand years they must know how to brew a good beer--and it was.

We retrieved our panniers at the hotel in Kelheim and headed out for Regensburg. The countryside was mostly flat and not very interesting. I guess were getting a little burned out by now because we have no notes for this day's ride. The tourist office in Regensburg directed us to a hotel, The Friendly Turk, where the clerk tried to stuff us into a single room after we had reserved a double room. The sad thing about it was that when we were moved to a double room, it was the same size--cramped! (ODO = 47 km, cumulative = 812 km)

That evening we enjoyed walking around the old town for a little while and ended up eating at a Turkish restaurant not far from the hotel. The next morning we decided to drop the idea of continuing on to the border at Passau. From the map the countryside looked like it would not be very interesting. So we went to the train station and caught a train out of Bavaria and back to Baden-Wurttenberg, specifically to Stuttgart.

The really wonderful part of biking in Germany is that you can always take a non-express train with your bikes. You just buy a bike and a person ticket and get aboard. The train to Nurnberg was very crowded so we just had to shove our bikes in door of the train and stand with everyone else. But at 200 km per hour, it sure beats pedaling. From Nurnberg we caught another train into Stuttgart, after only four hours on the trains. We planned to head south from there the next day. We found a business hotel south of the city, Hotel Brita, a very modern three-star hotel in Oberturkheim, just as it was getting dark--and us with no lights! The room was very nice and warm--a fact that we really appreciated as it was beginning to get quite cold each day and it had started raining again. We found a grocery store nearby and purchased dinner which we ate in the room. (ODO = 13 km)

Part VI. The Neckar Radweg

The next morning, October 16th, after perusing our map, we decided to head north along the Neckar Radweg and spend our remaining days biking on the Neckar Radweg north to Heidelberg and then on to Frankfurt. We checked out after breakfast which was very plentiful and tasty.

I learned something then that I will pass on now. At the reception desk there was a sign stating that the hotel could charge the room in any of three or four different currencies. The clerk automatically charged us in dollars. When I got home and was checking out all the charges on our ATM and looking at the exchange rate, I realized that the hotel had used a vastly inflated rate. I will always insist in the future that I be charged in euros so we get the best rate. In fact, I found that the CapitalOne rate was exactly equal to the official rate of exchange--no tacked on surcharges.

It was raining when we started and very cold. As the day progressed we got colder and colder. Luckily we found a Chinese restaurant that was open and was willing to serve two soaking bikers, even to the extent of letting us dry out some of our clothes on their heater. It turned out that the owner was a Vietnamese who grew up in the Mekong Delta during the American involvement in that war. He had a very favorable opinion of Americans--the soldiers had been very nice to him. He was one of many who escaped by boat and by sheer coincidence his boat was picked up by a German ship. So ended up there. An amazing stroke of luck for him, he believed. We really enjoyed talking with him, but had to put in some more kilometers before the end of the day, so we bundled up in our dry rain suits and coats and resumed our journey. The river valley sides--really steep sides--were covered with vineyards. When we neared a town we would see the most beautiful gardens planted along the bikepath. They were so bountiful, we were amazed.

We finally stopped in Freiberg am Neckar, found a so-so hotel, ordered a cheese plate and bread and some wine which we ate in our room. (ODO = 41 km)

The next day we continued north in cold, overcast weather. We stopped for a cappuccino at a hotel along the route. The proprietor suggested that we stop in Bad Wimpfen which he said was quite nice. So that's what we set our sights on. Late in the afternoon it started raining again. It was so cold that we already had all our rain gear on so we just pedaled on! We found an outstanding hotel garni Klosterkeller with an attached Thai restaurant. It was right in the old part of town. We had a room up three flights of stairs that was just delightful. It had a separate sitting area in a bay window that was really a treat. We had dinner in the restaurant that was scrumptious. We found a real treat in this place, so much that we decided that we would stay an extra day to see more of the town and to dry out. (ODO = 58 km)

It was very refreshing to take a day off from biking. With the weather so nasty, we were not enjoying the biking at all. That night we had dinner in a Swabian restaurant that specialized in maltauschens. They were very good.

The next day we collected our bikes and after loading our panniers, I discovered that I had a flat tire! That was the only flat we had on the whole trip. After replacing the tube I attempted to adjust my front brake calipers as the pads had started rubbing on the tire. Arg! I snapped off the adjusting screw, the consequence of which was that I no longer could apply my front brakes. We decided to forge on hoping that we could get that fixed in Heidelberg. It was no fun heading down a hill, even a small one, with no front brake and about forty pounds of gear over the back wheel. On every downslope I mentally calculated which side I would fall toward should I need to bail out. (Luckily that was never necessary.)

In the afternoon the radweg led us down to a ferry crossing of the river. At the crossing there was a sign. "No ferry today." We went to a restaurant just down the road a little to get something warm to eat and drink. The waitress spoke some English and informed us that the only way to get to our next stop, Eberbach, was to take the train which ran every hour. She said that the highway was too dangerous because there was nowhere except the road for bikes to ride. We warmed up and dried out somewhat and rode up to the train station. As we were studying the schedule we realized that we could just go on a few more kilometers and be in Heidelberg! Needless to say that is what we did. We even found the hotel we had stayed at 26 days ago. The same room was even available! We were thrilled to say the least. (ODO = 38 km, cumulative = 962 km)

That night Linda suggested that we call American Airlines and see if we could change our reservations to fly home earlier. The forecast was for more bad weather and frankly we were ready to come home. There was no problem (or charge) to book a non-stop flight back to Dallas the day after the next, October 21st. The next day the receptionist at the hotel was so nice. She called the Deutsche Bahn and made reservations for us on a high speed train to Frankfurt for that afternoon, complete with reservations for each of our bikes in a special car. Once in Frankfurt we found a bikepath that took us down to the small town of Kelsterbach where we had reserved a room. The hotel was the worst one we stayed in the whole trip, but it's one important feature was that in the morning we could ride directly to the airport. We had picked up some food at a store and ate it in our room and shared a bottle of wine. (ODO = 20 km, grand total = 982 km)

The next morning, out the door of the hotel just as it was getting light enough to see and be seen, we pedaled the 7 or 8 kilometers to the airport, purchased two shipping boxes at an Information kiosk, dismantled the bikes, packed them up, and checked in. We held our breaths as the clerk checked us in and came around to put luggage tags on the boxes. Then he told us we could go to the gate--he didn't charge us anything for the bikes! That made the onerous charge in Dallas seem a little less so. We had a completely non-eventful flight home. The flight was so empty that we even got two seats by a window the day of the flight.

Part VII. Conclusion

We pedaled almost 1,000 kilometers over 21 days of cycling with five days of rest interspersed. It was a little too much, but we were so late in the year starting that we pushed ourselves to cover as much as we reasonably could. But we saw many interesting and historical sights--many more than I've mentioned here--and the biking for the most part was superb. Germany and the Netherlands are probably the absolute best places to take a biking vacation.

The transportation costs were about $500 for airfare for us and the bikes round-trip (don't forget, we used all our frequent flier miles), $250 for train fares, and about $75 for equipment. The rest of the trip cost us about $5,300 or about $200 per day. It was worth every penny of it, too.

Web Resources

If you understand some German, a good place to look for more information is http://de.wikipedia.org, the German Wikipedia site. Of course, all searches should be in German; all results will be in German, too. Otherwise, you can get some limited information from the English Wikipedia site http://en.wikipedia.org. On the German site, if you search for the various radwegs you will find a list of all the cities that are on the route with links to the city website where you can get a lot of information.

Google has a German search engine, too: http://www.google.de. Again, it's a German language site. But don't forget about Google translate: http://translate.google.com/. The translations are sometimes butchered, but often you can make sense of what's said. You can put a URL into the translate box and a new tab will contain the translation. Furthermore, it will automatically translate any links that you click.

For the Donau Radweg a good site in German is http://www.donau-radweg.info/index.html, especially under "Info & Tipps" you will find distances (Entfernungen) between the cities on the radweg and information on boat trips (Schifffahrt) and attractions.

For the Romantisches Radweg, you might look at http://www.fahrrad-tour.de/RomantischeStrasse/UebRomantischeStrasse.html, especially look at the "Ettapen" which gives more details for parts of the radweg.

For the Altmuehl Radweg, consider http://www.altmuehltal-radweg.info/ It's a commercial site, but it contains interesting information.