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Cycle Touring: Germany and Switzerland |
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June 2008: Germany - Rhine, Mosel
and Saar.
Switzerland - Mittelland and Lakes routes June 2009: Switzerland - Rhone and Rhine routes July 2011: Germany/Switzerland - Rhine from Mulhouse to Konstanz, Germany - Bodensee from Konstanz - Lindau, and Bodensee-Konigsee route from Fussen to Konigsee Germany
We have ridden short sections of various rivers and routes in Germany: The Rhine, Mosel, Saar, Bodensee and the cross-Bavaria Bodensee-Konigsee route, but from Fussen eastwards. The Rhine: from Bingen (reached by train) northwards to Koblenz. The ride was easy enough, although not as scenic as hoped, possibly also because the weather was gloomy and dull. South of Mainz, we rode
a short section from Worms north to Oppenheim; once
again, the ride pleasant enough but unspectacular.
Oppenheim is the prettiest town on that section and
well worth a visit.
Most recently, we rode eastwards from Basel to Konstanz alternating between the German and Swiss sides. It is a very busy route and apart from a few very pretty towns along the way, you are often riding away from the river or it is screened from you by trees. Our favourite town: Bad Sackingen - possibly because we reached it on a lovely hot day and found nice accomodation right by the wooden bridge in a guest house owned by the tourist office. 
The
Mosel, which looked marvellous in the
literature, was rather plain from Koblenz south
until the tourist centre Cochem, which is very
pretty and worth a stop. Southwards it became a
nicer ride, with our favourite town being
Bernkastel-Kues - where we found the best and
cheapest icecream we have yet eaten in Europe! We
followed the Mosel until just after Trier.
The Mosel was more attractive than the Rhine, but
to get those tourist-brochure views of the
vineyards you will have to make detours up the
hills. The Saar, ridden from Trier towards France, is a much quieter river, less touristed, and prettier for being more rural. But from Dillingen to Saarbrucken, it became quite industrial and the cycle path was in poor condition, often requiring detours. Bodensee: we ferried across from Konstanz to the north shore and rode to Lindau. It was a Saturday morning early in July. The cycle route quickly move donto the roads away from the lake and stayed there, and it became hectically busy with hordes of cyclists. Not worth riding for the scenery, that's for sure! Bodensee We have ridden various sections of the Bodensee, but only a few are worth it. From the Rhine to Lindau via Austria, a short ride, is lovely. On the other end of the lake, around Konstanz, one sees very little of it as it is so built up. From Konstanz we took the car ferry across the lake and rode to Lindau. Again, the roads are mostly away from the lake shore and it got very busy the Saturday morning we were trying to go at speed, worried that we were going to miss our train because of the cycle jams that developed on narrow sections. Recommended stops - Lindau, Insel Mainau near Konstanz, and the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. Warning - Konstanz is expensive for accommodation. Bodensee-Konigsee route As we were running out of time, we were going to skip the hardest part from Lindau to Fussen and take a train. From Fussen, which is close to Schloss Neuchwanstein, the cycle route goes via many little farm roads that reminded us of Switzerland. We bought a route guide that was a little old and found a few changes along the way, including some involuntary ones - when we had to carry our bikes through a forest stream where the road had washed away. Worth riding. Switzerland
There is a well-laid out network of official cycle routes across the entire country. The website is very comprehensive, (http://www.veloland.ch). It is available in English, although official guide books are not. (Buy them in bookshops such as Payot). A map or guide is essential on the route, because occasional signposts are missing or facing only one direction. The website map could be printed, but lacked info on gradients, distances and unpaved sections. It would be worth it to buy the guide if riding the entire route. The route information provides profiles and recommendations of where to use public transport in bypassing busy or steep sections. We followed the suggestions a couple of times, but another occasion stayed on the route and found it to be well worth while the push-ups. It does make it easier knowing the profile to expect! We found the routes to be thoughfully laid out along quiet and scenic roads. The organisation also publishes an accommodation guide. Unfortunately, it is not all-encompassing, and includes few B&Bs. Furthermore, the 'reasonably' priced Swiss hotels are usually situated on main roads, and heavy smokers have occupied the rooms before you! Other sleeping options include the much cheaper "Schlaf im Stroh' or sleeping in straw - haylofts made available by farmers. We rejected this option because a sleeping bag is required, and I had visions of sharing the barn with other groups of cyclists, who would no doubt be champion snorers.  The prices preclude a long holiday in Switzerland. Previously, when I had done Internet research, accommodation was listed around the SFR 60-70 mark. Bargain! Converted, this was on a par with France. My big mistake was that French rates are for two - in Switzerland, per person sharing, which made it twice as expensive. This went for just about everything. The only reasonably priced Swiss products are cheese and chocolate. Swiss wine isn't too bad either, when bought in supermarkets; in restaurants, the prices revert to stratospheric. in 2008, we rode parts of the Mittelland and Lakes (or Seen) routes. We had arrived in Geneva by way of train from France, and, following bad advice, set off to cycle along the lake. It was a fine Sunday afternoon, and so every resident within 100km was at the beach, with their cars parked in the cycle lanes along the pavements. After Nyon, we hopped on a train to Lausanne and began the hunt for the official guides to the cycle routes. Despite the comprehensive route network, no Swiss, not even the cyclists, appeared to have heard of the system. After many dead ends, we finally found the books at a regular bookshop, Payot, and set off. The Mittelland route didn't live up to expectations. We had been further badly advised - by Swiss - to ride it because it was flat. It wasn't. The route takes you up hills to avoid the highways, and on one we nearly got taken out by a very aggressive driver overtaking another car in the rain. The part we rode, from Lausanne to Biel, went past lakes, but the view was mainly of the back yards of Swiss wooden holiday cottages. None of the chocolate-box scenery I had been looking forward to! Things came to a head on the third night in Switzerland, in a B&B outside Biel/Bienne (not in the guidebook), a festering dungeon last cleaned in the previous century. The night was so disgusting that I declared on waking that I couldn't carry on and wanted to do something drastic, such as pack up and go home. 
I was persuaded that it would be better to change
direction, so we bought a new route guide in Biel
and caught the train to Spiez, to pick up the Lakes
route - the one which we had considered doing
in the beginning but been discouraged by various
Swiss cyclists. From the ridiculous, we had arrived at the sublime. Heading out of town, we serendipitously took an incorrect road up a hill, with amazing views. The route took us to Interlaken, Meiringen, and then on a short train ride up the precipitous Brȕnig pass. From the top we whizzed down to Lungern, where we spent the night at the welcoming Haus St Josef. What a difference! This day, assisted by perfect weather, stands out as my best day of riding, ever, in my life. From there, the route remained wonderful. It was scenic and interesting - routing on small roads with perfect views, through shooting ranges, cycling tunnels, and over a military airfield. We rode between fields that assailed us with the intensely... farmy aroma of liquid manure, crossed turquoise lakes on bridges, passed cycling nuns, and pushed up intense green hills amidst clanking cow bells. Even the Universe looked after us, making sure we were riding past a restaurant with undercover space for the bikes, just as a volent thunderstorm hit the Vierwaldstattersee. We sipped coffee in dry comfort while heavy rain lashed the windows and a gale whipped up breakers on the lake. The route took us to the Rhine, where we crossed over to the opposite bank, just to say we'd ridden in Lichtenstein! We left the route where the Rhine entered the Bodensee and turned into Austria, to skirt the lake back to Lindau in Germany. In 2009, we entered Switzerland at Martigny, having ridden over the Col de la Forclaz from France - easier than expected, even for us two middle-aged touring cyclists. We were headed up the Rhone - normally we avoided riding up rivers, but the gradients looked fairly gentle. The first day was very flat along the river and through apple orchards. We found a nice B&B in Rechy, having done research on the Swiss B&B website ahead of time, having been disappointed in 2008 with the official accommodation guide. The second day was just a grind through towns and industrial areas. We made a mistake after lunch of staying on the main road, as advised by our hosts the night before, and ignoring the official route, which went up the hillsides. It was just as much of a climb and had heavy traffic. Swiss drivers are much more aggressive than the easygoing French. We had to cross over the river and push the last 2km up into Ernen, realising we had missed out on great scenery. We had a good night though, staying in a B&B in a 500-year old wooden house in Muhlebach, and walked back to Ernen to eat at the St Georg restaurant, where we ate outstanding food (the Friday night special menu) for unsurpassed value for money in Switzerland. The next day the cycling was better through the flower-filled meadows most of the way to Obernach, from where we caught a car train to transit the Furka Pass. Tip: The car train costs half the price, as you only have to pay for your bicycle. (Swiss trains require a full ticket for your bike in addition to yourself) You don't even have to crouch behind a car's bumper on the open coaches either - there is a closed motorbike coach at one end with a few seats!  The car train dropped us just the other side of the tunnel and we rode about 20 chilly km to Andermatt. From there, we took a passenger train to the top of the Oberalp Pass - luckily the weather had cleared on the north side for a spectacular descent, which started above the snow line! This was the beginning of the Rhine route, a pleasanter ride than the Rhone, although it had fairly long sections of gravel tracks which slowed us down a lot, at one stage having to push up a steep slippery slope where the path had collapsed. The route took us through many charming villages and along one spectacular corniche road. Finally, along the river, it intersected with the Lakes route. Our last night we slept in Altstatten, in the Gasthaus Ziel, where the accommodation guide failed to mention it was 3km out of town up a steep hill! But it had a great view and excellent breakfast. The next morning we continued up and over the mountain, on a regional cycle route, for variety from last year. Steep, but fortuitously we had stopped for the view every time racing bikes came past us, so they did not spot us puffing up the hill at a snail's pace! Tip: Peruse your guide carefully for hotel closures, both weekly and annual. Many private Swiss hotels appear to close for the holidays....! Recommendations for Switzerland? Pick your route carefully - on the correct routes, the scenery is unsurpassed. Take extra money, extra memory for your camera, and extra sense of humour!
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Bikes, equipment
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Germany and Switzerland