Touring - Cycling Germany, France and UK

Hi everyone
I'm from Australia and I'm planning to cycle through Germany, France and Britain next year. I'm just looking for some information on where I can get guides (handbooks etc), maps and information on accommodation and routes. I've looked at the Lonely Planet website and they are (sadly) yet to release a cycling guide to Germany.
I'll be carrying all of my own gear in panniers, and staying in hostels and cheap accommodation (none of this tent business).

Anyone who has had experience in cycling around Germany, or even neighbouring countries, could you either reply here or contact me via email Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Howdy Aggressor

I'm off to parts of Europe and UK in August for two months. Here are a couple of the things I've found in web research, mainly concentrating on the UK:

North Sea Cycle Route
http://www.northsea-cycle.com/lande_index.html
The huge map they publish is a bit better than the website in some respects, but you have to get it from Europe (and mine's borrowed). Covers a coastal route on the North Sea through the UK, Scandinavia and so on.

Cycle 'N' Sleep Routes
http://www.cycle-n-sleep.co.uk/home.shtml
This links in to the North Sea Route on the east coast of the UK, but there are others across the south and up the west coasts.

Sustrans
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/webcode/defaultmap.asp?
Sustrans is a creator/conservator of a major network, that includes parts of the North Sea and Cycle 'N' Sleep routes.

Cheryl Kline
http://www.homestead.com/bicycletouring/Touring_Countries_Europe.html
This is a comprehensive resouces links page for cycle touring in Europe. You may find something useful there.

Touring.phred
http://search.bikelist.org/
You can lurk, or subscribe and ask the same question there, and you will get very knowledgable, current and useful advice.

Crazy Guy on Bike
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journal/?pics=small&tour_id=1
Neil Gunton's website has become the repository of some excellent, mediocre and well... travelogues, but it also has plenty of good stuff to read on touring generally. His own trans-America story is a hoot. There's also another excellent travelogue in Europe titled, IIRC, I'm not a German.

Good luck.

R

I have been to Germany a few times, but never with my bike so I can only recommend visiting Frankfurt and Hamburg.

France is a cyclist’s paradise and one you cycle around France you will find everyplace in the world will come in second place.
Maps: the Michelin 1/200 00 - 200 series are the best as they cover a larger area then the 00 series. If you plan to cover a lot of distance, you may consider buying Michelin’s atlas of France also in the 1/200 000 scale. For Paris the Michelin 106 - 1/100 000 will give you the detail you will need to get in and out of the city. A few cycle paths lead from the city centre to the suburbs and this is where things really gets crazy so you could consider taking a train to avoid having a nervous breakdown. An excellent map to find is the France VTT (MTB) & Randonnees Cyclos map #906 and is issued by the Office National des Forets. This map is in French and shows different routes and the centrally located hostels to stay at and then you go off for a day of cycling. Lonely Planet has a new cycling guide to France, which I did not use. After a while, I found that all the maps, pamphlets and guide books started to weigh about 3kg. Michelin has a wonderful map store in Paris at 46, av de Breteuil not to far from the Opera-Garnier if I remember correctly.

For the British Isles, the Ordinance Survey 1/250 000 are the ones to find. The British Tourist Authority has a good map available of recommended routes and they sent me a heap of information, which arrive about 8 months after I ordered it! I cycled across the south of England and it was not as enjoyable as France due to the amount of traffic and bad drivers.

You may re-consider taking a tent, as there are many wonderful place to camp in both France and England. In France, most towns will have an inexpensive municipal campground usually with a wonderful view of a castle or place of scenic beauty. In addition, some hostels will allow you to camp for half the dorm rate with full access to the facilities. It is good to have in case you cannot find a place to stay or they do not allow bikes into the hotel/hostel.
Hope this helps.
Gordon p

Traffic levels are very high in parts of the UK. If the Sustrans routes take you where you want to go they tend to avoid the busiest stretches. If you want any detailed info on the South East let me know.

Richard

Gordon P - Thanks a lot for your advice and information, very helpful. :)

Richard D - I'll get back to you once I begin to plan things. Thanks for your help.


Does anyone else have anything they'd like to contribute?

The UK East Coast route starts pretty close to my home in Norwich. Unlike most of the SE, the minor roads are very quiet. I checked out part of the route, and it includes most of the "local knowledge" needed to get in and out of towns. The network of minor lanes is very dense, and one is as good as another. A 1:50,000 map is really needed in some sections. You can zoom in on sections of multimap, to get a feel of the road network. Further North in the UK, esp Scotland, the network is much more sparse and navigation a little easier.

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=630000&Y=290000&scale=500000&width=500&height=300&gride=&gridn=&coordsys=gb&db=&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&keepicon=true&advanced=

Thanks very much MichaelW, very helpful :)

if you are coming to Britain, miss out the boring bit dahn saff (j/k) and head straight for Scotland.

Great (challenging) cycling. Weather's a bit unpredictable but it's a very welcoming place and the scenery is unbelievable.

I dont really want challenging cycling when I am carrying almost my body weight again in pannier weight. I will ride Scotland one day, I'm determined... thank you for your advice though.

Originally posted by Aggressor
I dont really want challenging cycling when I am carrying almost my body weight again in pannier weight.

Krikies, man! What are you carrying in your panniers that equals your body weight if you don't have camping gear?

Afraid you won't be able to find Foster's on your adventure? :beer:

Originally posted by Aggressor
...I'm planning to cycle through Germany, France and Britain next year...I've looked at the Lonely Planet website and they are (sadly) yet to release a cycling guide to Germany... Anyone who has had experience in cycling around Germany... Any help is greatly appreciated.

Check this out:

http://www.germany-tourism.de/biking/route38.html

I got the address from a very descriptive on-line article recently written by an American currently living in Germany about a particular bike route there. The author's name is Bryan Ball and he runs www.bentrideronline.com where the article, the first of four in a series about riding in Germany, is posted. His e-mail address is listed on the website and I'm sure he can refer you to more information.

Originally posted by Braumeister
Krikies, man! What are you carrying in your panniers that equals your body weight if you don't have camping gear?

Afraid you won't be able to find Foster's on your adventure? :beer:

I've decided I'm going to take camping gear, after listening to some advice from others who have experienced it :)

I've decided I'm going to take camping gear, after listening to some advice from others who have experienced it

Good to hear you are taking some camping gear. Don’t go crazy and start collecting cooking equipment, water purification systems, an axe and fishing gear. A small two-person tent, a one metre long sleeping pad and a synthetic sleeping bag is all you need. Oh, don’t forget the compass and the Swiss Army Knife!

:beer:

Yeah, I've considered all of that stuff. Seeing as I am 2 metres tall, I'm sure I'll need a longer sleeping pad ;) I have a good sleeping bag, I'll be sure to pick up a good compass and knife when I am next in the local outdoor shop :)

I biked through Eastern Germany last summer (2002). I would like to recommend you two map sites:

http://zeuss.bva-bielefeld.de/bundk/
This is a company that makes bicycle maps where different coding is used to describe how trafficed the roads are. I used two of their maps during my two day race between Rostock and Berlin. I'm ambivalent about them though, because some of the "gut befahrbare Feld- und Waldwege" (well accessible field and forest roads) weren't accessible at all.

http://www.bikeline.at
This company is specialized in map booklets that follow a certain river. Most famous is the Danube Biketrail (in English or German), which is really great, I have tried it. I also used a bikeline booklet from Berlin to the Czech border, the Spree Radweg (only in German). What's nice with these booklets is that they not only provide a very detailed map, but also some guiding to the surrounding.

From both the above sites I ordered maps to Sweden months before I started out, which might be interesting for you, well to Australia then. Planning the routes sometimes even beats biking them. (It was a hell of a wet summer for me...)

You might need to know some German to navigate the sites. To know that "Rad" means bike is a good start. :)

Cheers for the map info, very interesting and helpful. I've had a bit of trouble trying to find maps.

well, i think the panniers and hostels should work great. the network in Germany/Austria/France/Switzerland/Netherlands in particular is really good. there are lots of maps and routes, although i can't recommend any links specifically.

for the most part and major river (day the Rhein or Danube) has a well-developed, signed cycle path along it. i have ridden parts of the Danube trail.

most of my experience is in MTB riding in the Alps - i guide a 9-day tour staying in mountain huts from Germany to Italy in 2 weeks.

you can also camp but you need more gear, but you should be able to get by without camping gear in which case i would recommend a sleeping sack (lightweight sheet) instead of a bulky sleeping bag. the German Mountain Club sells silk sleeping sheets that are super-lightweight - i think 150g - and the price is reasonable as it's through the Alpine Club (DAV).

good luck and almost any route should be cool... if you have any specific questions, i can try and help.

I cycled from Frankfurt to Budapest a couple of summers ago, which was amazing. Camping is a good choice as you can stop wherever you want. There's some sort of free-land law in Germany that allows you to camp on any free land. We stayed just inside woods and on bits of fallow land. As long as you're tidy they aren't going to care too much especially as you arrive late and leave early. The Danube route (Donauweg) runs from Regensburg (I think) to Vienna and is well worth a visit. 1: 200 000 maps are readily available in German towns and petrol stations and should pose a problem to get hold off.

My main advice is don't plan too much as finding out where you're going to go and how you're going to do it is half the fun. It also takes the stress out of having to stick to an itinerary which may be scuppered by unforeseen incidents (like helmets left 15km back up the road!).

I cycled from Vienna to Regensburg, then I took the train to Hamburg (pretty easy in Germany), from Hamburg I cycled to Copenhagen. First on the North Sea Cycling Route, then on the Denmark National Cycling Route 6 - from Esbjerg to Copenhagen. It was in July 2003.

I stayed only at camping sites.

If you have any questions about this sections, you may ask me.

Take small tent, small alumat, and small sleeping bag with you. Do not take big tent or big sleeping bag. My sleeping bag weighs only 900 grams, and it was not cold for me.

Have you decided how to pack the bicycle for the flight?

Originally posted by Niall
It also takes the stress out of having to stick to an itinerary which may be scuppered by unforeseen incidents (like helmets left 15km back up the road!).

Rule number one on the tour - look around carefully at any place where you stopped even for a minute before leaving it.

:eek:

Originally posted by Max
Have you decided how to pack the bicycle for the flight?

I'm planning on packing it in a hard case, as no other option is immediately viable.