How You Got This Far by Bicycle

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Passau, Germany

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9:00 am on a bright sunny Sunday morning and many people are still sleeping, half an hour later many others are taking their first zip of their natural bio-fresh coffee from there mugs. Maybe you are one of these people or maybe not, it does not really matter, the important thing is the that the cyclists in Germany are not.

In a country where there are more than 70 million bicycles on the road one can expect more than having a bicycle store near your home, you can expect bicycle paths all over the country and for all sorts of tastes. In the past 25 days we have been moving ourselves through our own effort using what I would consider one of the most important inventions of the 19th century THE BICYCLE.

Annika en Campos de Vino en Kitzingen

Germany is home of more than 800 bicycle paths for touring, at least that is what Fahrradreisen.de says in it’s website. A website dedicated on giving free online information (unfortunately only in German) for your bicycle tour needs of several regions of Europe including France, Germay, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and Italy. The website includes a tour programmer where you can choose what kind of tour (family, mountain bike, cultural etc) you might want to do any given day. You can also choose a tour depending on your vacation budget, so there is no excuse for you to program your perfect healthy vacation under a blue and white sky. The Website fancies itself to be the largest data bank for bicycle travels in the net.

Radweg Flickr  (5)

If that is no enough here are other websites that include very useful information for this noble cause include:

Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (Cyclists Club of Germany)
http://www.adfc.de/

The European Cyclist Federation
http://www.ecf.com/

Naviki.org (calculates distance, difficulty and estimated time of arrival of tour bike tour)
http://www.naviki.org/en/naviki/start/

But enough of the logistics, let’s get into the good part. I could probably stuff you with overblown descriptions of the roads I have taken here in Germany to try to motivate you to do a bike trip of your own, but that would be very unfair for the paths itself. And by the way, I am no expert for I have only been in a couple of the main bike routes in the country. So I will just underline some of the highlights you will probably get to see when you ride your own bicycle path.

Senales de las rutas

In these past days I have taken the Weserradweg, Fuldaradweg, Main-Radweg, Zenntalradweg, Fünf-Flüsse-Radweg, and the freeway of them all the Donau Radweg. The Danube bicycle path starts on the Black Forrest in Germany and can take you all the way into Bratislava, Slovakia and with some more determination and mountain bike gear all the way into the Black Sea. The European road 6 (another name for the Donau Radweg) is a proyect promised to be finished by the year 2012 according to what we have read in the German Wikipedia.

What you will get to experience.

The bicycle routes here in Germany are designed not only to enjoy the wonders of nature and the life that springs besides the rivers that ride along with you. They are also made for you to experience the country in all its potential. Small things like grabbing apples from the apple trees along the Weserradweg, riding the fields and buying fresh flowers and vegetables make this vacation quite an experience. Depending on the month you can also get to see the farm workers harvest the season crops that will end up in your table. I must also say that Germany is a very dense populated country, so I can guarantee that at least every 15 km on your ride you will be able to find a clean toilette or a nice lady working in her garden in case of emergency. Another great big highlight are the ferries that you must take (average 2 Euros pro person including bike) in order to follow the road on the other side of the river.

Cruzando el rio

Nature and countryside are not the only things destined to see in this kind of modality, one can glorify himself/herself on a tour well made as you reach your destination on a small but picturesque town with historic richness and architectural landmarks like castles or city walls . There, one can sit down and relax on a beer garden and enjoy a RADLER (half beer half lemon soda named after cyclists in Bavaria) and a good old fashioned bratwurst with sweet mustard and patotoes. Every town (known or unknown on the common tourist map) becomes a highlight in your tour for every destination is followed by a memory.

It is also healthy to say that the bike tours can be designed to fit all kinds of budgets. camping sites, hotels, pensions and all sorts of accommodation facilities are all possible throughout your tour. These dwelling oasis range from 18 Euros a room and above or the always adventurous campsites at an average of 10 Euros per camping tent + 2 persons.

De Todas las Edades  Puente de Bici Pedaleando a lado de la Historia Roberto Comiendo en una banquita  Sobre el puente en bici el pueblo Hoxer Senales de las viasOne thing I found very interesting in these kinds of tours, is that they bring tourism in places that in other cases would be inaccessible through planes, trains or even cars. This is the main reason why I personally think this kind of traveling let’s you get a better hold of the feeling of a country, in this case of beautiful Germany.

So ride along castles, apples, beer gardens and history and enjoy the cool breeze of the wind while you cruise along a river and feel the satisfaction of having used your own body to do it. In the end you will be quite surprised on how you got this far.


 

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  1. Great info and it really makes you wanna go there all at once 🙂
    Thanks!

    • Tasting Travels Team says:

      If you need any more information or tips please feel free to contact us! We are not experts but have cycled the country from North to South. Hope you’ll really make it there 🙂
      Annika

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