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)

#velotrain2025

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)

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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!

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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)

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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?

#velotrain2025

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)

#velotrain2025

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

#velotrain2025

42/n

A pleasant 3 hours stroll around the hills near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, still a lot of flood damage visible.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

44/n

Today, if all goes well, no trains, only bicycle, heading South under a grey sky, on the Rheinradweg to Bacharach.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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).

#velotrain2025

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)

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

52/n

Rolling along the Rhine in the morning sun, peacefully, mostly the other traffic is on the water.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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).

#velotrain2025

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.

#velotrain2025

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

#velotrain2025

61/n

The second and last regio for today, from Karlsruhe to Offenburg. On time, not a lot of people, much bicycle space. But quite a lot of stairs to climb inside the train.

On-time arrival in Offenburg and end of the day.

Karlsruhe - Offenburg: 69 km (total today 161 km)

#velotrain2025

62/n

The last day of the trip! Since it depended only on me whether I reach the station on time, and I thus would be unlikely to miss it, I had booked an ICE to Basel this morning. Coming all the way from Berlin, it nonetheless arrived on time in Offenburg (despite the nightjet from Amsterdam, nearly three hours late, that came through just before).

#velotrain2025

63/n

Sometimes, just when you think you might have an on-time arrival somewhere today, the train stops just outside the station - but we were only few minutes late in Basel SBB.

Offenburg - Basel SBB: 124 km

Although there was really no time, theoretically, to reach the fastest connection from here, I gave it a try and went towards the platform. Remarkably for Switzerland, the 8:55 regio towards Bern was delayed and also on a different platform, but I made it. Always worth checking whether a "connecting" train is really gone!

No compulsory bike reservation on this train and mine is the only bicycle in a space for 8.

#velotrain2025

64/n

On this connection, it would have been convenient to change in Bern only, but clearly, I would miss that one, leading to a longer layover in Geneva. So I opt for a change in Olten, where SBB actually that the IC to Lausanne would briefly wait for us. This one has compulsory reservation (for a slightly more awkward placement), and today I even manage to get one for 2CHF.

This implies an additional change in Renens but leaves the chance open for the Geneva-Lyon 12:25, otherwise impossible.

Basel SBB - Olten: 38 km (today 162 km so far)

#velotrain2025

65/n

@wolfgangcramer @W_Lucht Reading through your travel stories from abroad, that’s what strikes me the most: “it’s so complicated!”

I think I wouldn’t be able to figure it out on my own, esp since I’m not fluent in any of the local languages.