Off this morning on #velotrain2025 to Germany, on interrail, with my bicycle. Will be taking lots of regional trains along the way and am starting unnecessarily early, such as to be able to buffer possible delays later during the day.
I will report observations in this thread (thanks for the 50+ encouragements!).
1/n
A trip like this, through 3 countries, involves some complex planning. Without the bike, one would just go to Valence TGV and then take a long-distance train from there. But the few bike places in these TGVs proved impossible to reserve for my timing, so I am taking the route through Switzerland.
Still, even only going the first two legs, to Lyon, involves one train with mandatory bicycle reservation on some days but not today (and no option to reserve for today), and the second (Valence-Lyon) with mandatory reservation. None of this is obvious, it varies between regions and, here in AURA, even between different lines that run the same type of TER train.
2/n
So far, I am the only person with a bicycle in this train, but there is space only for two more in it, and it all depends on the mood and personality of the staff whether additional bikes are allowed on board.
3/n
For me, this is the ideal bicycle for this kind of trip. Lightweight enough for getting it into the hooks of these trains, very smooth 11-speed Alfine gearbox, hydraulic disk brakes, front-wheel dynamo, not much else. Just very nice to ride for a person at my age.
5/n
In Crest, quite some people boarding this TER (likely a number of regular commuters), and the staff was flexible enough to allow them all in.
6/n
On-time arrival in Valence Ville, quite a lot of travellers this morning, but a very friendly SNCF controller allowed me to take the next TER, despite my reservation for the later one, so I can maintain my "delay buffer".
Die Valence: 71 km
7/n
Lots of space for bicycles in this train from Avignon to Lyon (could not count them all), and lots of bicycles. I can understand that they need to manage this somehow, and the reservation is only 1€. But there seems to be no app for this, you have to open a web page.
8/n
Arrived with just 5 minutes delay in Lyon Part-Dieu. One needs a little patience for the elevator in this newly refurbished, very busy station, but there is more space than usual inside.
Valence Ville - Lyon Part-Dieu: 107km (178 km today)
9/n
When travelling alone with a bike, it's not always easy to grab a coffee. Luckily, here at Lyon Part-Dieu they were really flexible!
10/n
There is much to say about the planning of such a trip, I may write more about that later. But there used to be one golden rule: check for the existing trains on bahn.de first.
Except this morning. There is a fully regular train from Lyon to Geneva, at 9:38 (logically placed between the 8:38 and the 10:38), but bahn.de does not know it at all. It is a perfectly normal TER like all the others, and I am now in it, further maintaining my "delay buffer".
Positive surprise (I may end up having to tell my family that I arrive even earlier than expected)!
11/n
The ride up the Rhône valley to Geneva easy, comfortable and perfectly on time. Maybe so few people because of DB? No, I do not really think so...
By the way, reservations for bicycles neither mandatory nor even possible here, although still the same region, AURA.
Lyon Part-Dieu - Geneva (via Amberieu) : 163km (340 km today)
12/n
So I can take an earlier train to Bern then, no reservation required, but a 15CHF bicycle ticket, valid all day.
I tried to reserve, just to figure this out, without buying another ticket for the bicycle, read all the instructions on the SBB website, but I am convinced that this just doesn't work. So one wonders, what if one needed to travel on a day with lots of people and bicycles?
13/n
Today there are so few people here on this train that I decided to occupy, for the moment, both places for my bicycle, allowing me to even leave the panniers in place.
14/n
Even on a hazy day like today the climb right after Lausanne is spectacular.
Geneva - Bern: 158 km (499 km today)
15/n
Change trains in Bern during 8 minutes with a bicycle is totally possible, again with great ramps to roll your bike on, no need for elevators. Bike space is more localised in this IC, and technically not so convincing.
Still one hour ahead of my original schedule.
16/n
For the last leg of the day, from Basel to a small town just south of Freiburg/Brsg., the apps suggest taking an ICE just to Basel Bad.Bf., which would require a reservation for just 3 km or so. Or else the Straßenbahn. The easiest way to cross the border is simply to cycle, it's even downhill this way. From Bad.Bf., there are German regional trains, requiring a special ticket but no reservation.
17/n
Anyway, let's first arrive Basel SBB with its artworks (and again there perfect arrangements for getting your bicycle around the station, using elevators).
Bern - Basel SBB: 101 km (600 km today)
18/n
Just a nice little ride from Basel SBB down to the river, where I could finish today's picnic in the shade.
19/n
This is my last train today, from the gigantic platforms of the Basel Bad.Bf. to Bad Krozingen. I ended up taking the slowest of all regional trains on this line, and that's just ok for me.
21/n
Indeed arrived well, only 2 minutes after schedule in Bad Krozingen!
Basel Bad.Bf. - Bad Krozingen: 43 km.
End of travel for day 1, many trains, but when it all works then this way to travel long distances with a bicycle in the train is quite ok for me.
All in all, I travelled 643 km today, taking me 13 hours, which could sound like a lot to some people. But this was not Paris-Marseille, I went from a small place in France to a small place in Germany. Since there are so many such trains, I could even have fitted in longer breaks, on the lakeshore or elsewhere.
I never had to take any stairs, and the only lifting I did was my bicycle into these hooks, and the coffee cup to my mouth.
22/n
Day 2 (of four interrail days) starts under a greyish sky, applying my "delay buffer" principle again.
On busy lines such as this one, it is sufficient to go to the station a bit early - you'll likely find a delayed train from even earlier the day which you can take.
What I am not getting: this train passes through many small stations and somehow the screens did not show anything except "Deutsche Bahn AG". So why was there not any person taking a microphone and announce the stations? Do they really expect visually-impaired people to stay at home? No announcement, of any kind. I am convinced even the driver could do that if he/she cared about the DB passengers.
Bad Krozingen - Freiburg/Brsg.: 15 km
23/n
Onwards from Freiburg in an ICE with a precious bicycle reservation.
Not wanting to repeat clichés, but "of course" this ICE is already delayed and DB expects it to accumulate more delay minutes over the hours to come.
I am heading to Göttingen today and then be on regional trains again, so it's not a big problem for me. But where the system fails you completely is when you have connecting ICE's with compulsory bicycle reservation - you miss one of those, and you are seriously stuck.
24/n
Good space for some bicycles but really narrow door. Very good help from the staff, particularly needed by one person, probably even older than me, with one of those ridiculously heavy e-bikes.
25/n
Nice to roll through these green landscapes and I know of course that much of the ongoing work is to improve on ailing infrastructure. Nevertheless one wonders why the DB finds it so hard to adapt their schedule to these ongoing works.
26/n
Occasionally, the train just stops, at other times it skips stations, then stops in others. In Frankfurt/Süd, after a delayed arrival, we stood and watched in silence another train overtake us. 20 minutes later, as we started to roll again, the controller apologized, "sorry, I needed to fix a broken door for you, and I could not announce this at the same time".
For me, all the fancy digital information provided rather enhances the impression that nobody really knows when we might arrive, and even where. Those screens are updated all the time, but often not in sync with what happens (or doesn't happen) outside. Wouldn't it be better if they just said "we'll probably arrive some time this afternoon"?
27/n
Arrived Göttingen, some 40+ minutes late.
Freiburg/Brsg. - Göttingen Hbf: 502 km today 516 km so far)
28/n
The next train (since I missed the earlier direct connection to Herzberg), a packed minimalist diesel-powered "railbus" to Northeim, with some less pleasant travellers in it ("I am sick of those cyclists"), fortunately only a few minutes.
Strangely, and this seems to be another digital overload phenomenon, they announce one onward connection in Northeim but not the one I want (and which is perfectly visible in the "navigator"), what's wrong here?
Göttingen Hbf - Northeim (Han.): 20 km (today 536 km so far)
29/n
Short, but successful, change to a similar RB in Northeim. Fewer people but still well used. Going now to Herzberg.
Northeim - Herzberg: 27 km (today 563 km so far)
30/n
Cycling around the Harz means finding those roads and paths that are closed to cars - the big "Bundesstraßen" have too much traffic. Sometimes it's good to ask the locals, such as the old man in Lerbach who directed me to the Hexenstieg, an excellent recommendation for a road bike on gravel!
But one needs to be prepared to see large-scale forest dieback, direct consequence of climate change, everywhere.
The Hexenstieg took me to Buntenbock and then Clausthal-Zellerfeld. After a brief stop there, on to Bockswiese and Hahnenklee.
31/n
After a short stop at the pseudo-Norwegian stave church in Hahnenklee, I enjoyed the views of the rarely visited Granetalsperre - excellent road cycling, no access for cars at all. The trick is to find a very overgrown steep little track from Hahnenklee down into the Granetal, only the GPS made this possible for me.
32/n
Then arrived Goslar, my home town, after 41 km of cycling, total ascend according to bikerouter.
Hey, here is the track, if anyone wants it, but any use is at your own risk, there were some awkward places, like just North of Hahnenklee: https://bikerouter.de/#map=11/51.8288/10.3512/standard&lonlats=10.245523,51.725965;10.287495,51.748608;10.31642,51.75501;10.349722,51.780161;10.339336,51.817317;10.335259,51.845111;10.332813,51.854761;10.347919,51.863798;10.372124,51.888465;10.381908,51.910603;10.420961,51.911767&profile=trekking-noferries&alternativeidx=3
See you all back on Friday afternoon, if you like, this 🧵 will pause until then. And thanks for all the boosts, favourites and comments so far!
33/n
More walking than cycling around Goslar, this time with a great guided tour about its historic water provisioning systems from the river Gose.
34/n
After several days in Goslar, it is now time to take a new challenge. Four trains on a busy Friday evening to Bonn, the first going from Goslar to a small town, known to regular rail travellers in the region: Kreiensen.
Elevators ok, departure on time. Four bicycles in the usual storage place.
35/n
In Kreiensen we are almost 10 minutes late, but that's the case for all other trains here as well. Easy transfer.
Goslar - Kreiensen: 43 km
36/n
The regional train to Hannover has the largest bicycle compartment I have seen in my life, including lots of power sockets for e-bikes. People are happy to use them for their gadgets as well.
5 minutes delay on departure.
37/n
So, a "technical failure" stopped us for 10 minutes or so, and from then onwards, difficulties started to accumulate. In the end, we reached Hannover about 45 minutes late, and the envisaged ICE connection, along with its bicycle reservation, and despite its own delay, was gone.
Kreiensen - Hannover: 69 km (today 112 km so far)
38/n
At this point, with DB, you have some options, but one thing is certain : they will not provide one for you. One option is to try, by brute force, to get yourself with your bicycle in one of the many trains, ICE or not, most of them delayed, from Hannover to Köln. The success of that strategy will depend on space in those trains, and also on the goodwill of the train staff, in combination with your diplomatic capacities.
I opted on using my phone's capacity and a fair bit of experience to try and reserve a new bicycle space in a later ICE, paying an additional 15€ and being of course dependent on space in that train. Luckily, this worked and I am now somewhat confident to make it to Köln and hopefully also Bonn tonight. But in my opinion, I should not have had to pay for that new reservation.
39/n
That ICE left only about 30 minutes late, and it had all bicycle racks empty. But would they have let me travel without the new 15€ reservation? Don't place your bets on it!
And the weird thing is, for you as a human, you are allowed to squeeze into a later train, if a DB-mess has made you miss your connection. But for your bicycle, that does not apply. What's the logic for that?
40/n
We reached Köln with about 40 minutes delay, as far as this initially-not-planned ICE was concerned (more than that compared to my original schedule).
Hannover - Köln: 296 km (today 408 km so far).
, and I caught a late night (not even the very latest) RB to Bonn. Overall delay against the plan 2 hours and 15 minutes. But on the positive side, I reached my intended destination, Bonn Hbf!
Köln - Bonn: 34 km (today 442 km in total)
41/n
No bicycle today but a short and nice trip by train to the Ahrtal, site of the major flood disaster in 2021. Regional train from Bonn to Walporzheim, the current terminus of the line destroyed at the time.
Bonn Hbf - Walporzheim: 36 km
42/n
A pleasant 3 hours stroll around the hills near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, still a lot of flood damage visible.
43/n
Travelling back to Bonn by regional train from Bad Neuenahr to Bonn, in the rain along the Rhine with its very low water level.
Bad Neuenahr - Bonn Hbf: 31 km (total today 67 km).
The two regios today would have transported the bicycle easily, but I did not need it.
44/n
Today, if all goes well, no trains, only bicycle, heading South under a grey sky, on the Rheinradweg to Bacharach.
45/n
Passing the famous Remagen Bridge ruin, and the mouth of the Ahr river, I am making good progress on the excellent Rheinradweg today, low traffic, only mild headwind.
46/n
Koblenz, and then just some views from pedaling along the Rhine. This is easy going, and there was not much traffic (we are off-season after all).
47/n
The end of a 124 km ride, at Burg Stahleck, a classical German youth hostel, high above the river and also the Rheinradweg.
This should give you the track of today https://bkrtr.de/B3n7r (I deleted the very first km or so)
48/n
Today's plan is to continue the Rheinradweg "uphill" as far as I can comfortably do, and then hop on a train to Offenburg.
Will continue to navigate with OsmAnd~ which has again worked really well yesterday.
49/n
Bacharach: I was too tired to climb down from my castle to explore it last night, and am too keen to continue the ride this morning.
50/n
This is what I call serious rail infrastructure, 3 tracks here and 2 on the other side of the river. Hardly any trains though, today, because of maintenance work further north.
51/n
The bicycle tracks are mostly well-indicated on the ground, but the GPS helps, in certain situations, especially when you feel like deviating from the main direction for a while.
52/n
Rolling along the Rhine in the morning sun, peacefully, mostly the other traffic is on the water.
53/n
First time I see this, it seems to be a nudge such as to make everyone aware that there could be high-speed commuters here. I rather like the idea, although when I came through here, there was nobody else. Seen in Bingen.
54/n
Reaching Bingen in this way (from the North) means crossing the Nahe river, only meters from its end, and also saying goodbye to the hills of the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenish_Massif). Now the rest will be flat.
55/n
Interesting, variable and generally pleasant cycling towards Mainz.
Of Mainz itself, I have no photos. Clearly, the city of Mainz HATES anyone on a bicycle: the paths, at least on the EV15 from the west are downright dangerous, and without the GPS I would not have found the crucial turn towards safer places on the Adenauer-Ufer. I advise to take great care here, or best avoid Mainz altogether.
56/n
Crossing the Rhine into Hessen brought more peaceful moments. Much of the time, you follow the dykes, without much view on the river, but splendid biodiversity of all types. What's fascinating is that you are given the choice between Autobahn-grade tarmac below the dyke or beautiful fine gravel through the grass on the dyke. Mostly, I preferred the latter - if you pay attention, you don't make less speed (with my forces) there, you see more of the landscape and you enjoy the flowers.
57/n
This kind of signposting is a little confusing - the EV15 goes in three different directions? On the autobahn, every single detail is indicated with high precision, but for a European bicycle route, I would expect just a tiny bit of more and coherent information.
58/n
I have cycled 106 km today, so far, and feel full of energy - can't say the same of that ruin in the background (which we are a lot who tried to stop it from being built in the first place, decades ago).
59/n
Crossing the Rhine again, over the curious Nibelungenbrücke, with its dual bicycle path and an interesting passage through its main structural tower. Arrival at Worms Hbf comfortably, after another 120 km really nice cycling.
The track of today: https://bkrtr.de/jFYVd
So I have done the planned about 240 km of the Rheinradweg, in two days, and I can really only recommend it to anyone else.
60/n
For the concluding part of this trip, I need some trains again - two this evening and a bunch more tomorrow.
First a regio from Worms to Karlsruhe, virtually on time, a good number of people and no stress at all.
Worms - Karlsruhe: 92 km
61/n
@wolfgangcramer That's close to our home, don't miss the Kühkopf nature reserve.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/10843588#map=13/49.81600/8.42866&layers=Y
The entry is here:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=49.832975&mlon=8.469534#map=18/49.832975/8.469534&layers=Y
I find it funny that you as a french are doing the eurovelo near my home town while I'm in France doing the EuroVelo 3 to Paris, currently in Nemours.
Another remarkeble place in that area is Burg Stein:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/36845041#map=17/49.703549/8.392546&layers=Y
It is both beautyful nature and an old roman fortress with explanations of the ruins.
@wolfgangcramer oh! You are in my vicinity! On a route which was financed to a great deal by the state of Rhineland Palatine. On a route which took lots of political tears and sweat. After all the liberals have one of their own as ministers of transport.
Occasionally I use a different part of that route ... And one fine day it will actually work until Mainz. Right now, the route ends not far from my house.
If you write "Bad Neuenahr", then that could be misunderstood by people who do not speak or understand German ;-)
Wolfgang Cramer
Bernd Herd
Wolfgang Lucht
Christian Meesters
Oliver Brendel
Elektrotier
Alexander Rutz