Rhine Cycle Route

scotlandtim

Family holiday pending in Switzerland this summer.

I'm planning on leaving a few days early, (From Edinburgh) And catching the Newcastle Ferry then riding the Rhine Cycle way down to Andermatt and meeting the rest of the family there.

I'm hoping to do it over 4 days - has anyone done it, any hints / tips etc?

http://www.rhinecycleroute.eu/

el_rey

I have been looking at some of the EuroVelo routes hoping to do a 2019 trip starting in Spain and ending in Avignon. Have you been able to find more detailed maps for this route?

scotlandtim

Hi.

Loads of maps available online, or these ones look the best for real maps:

https://wordery.com/search?term=rhein

philkeeble

4 days? FOUR DAYS! hahaha
My wife and I cycled the Rhine 2 years ago from Oberalppass to Arnhem, then kicked up to Utrecht/Amsterdam/Ijmuiden for the Newcastle ferry. It was a totally brilliant tour, we thoroughly enjoyed it.
But we took 25 days, so any advice we have is probably not relevant to your headlong dash! Just remember that much of it is on cycle path and it goes through many cities and towns (and you need to eat and sleep) so keeping up 250 miles/day will be a helluva challenge however fit you are.

scotlandtim

I've extended my schedule to 6 days. 4 wasn't going to work! managed to get a bit more time off work. Still going to be long days with head down in the saddle, but I'm looking forward to it. Not planning on sticking to cycle tracks the whole way, may well divert onto bigger roads to get the miles in.

Final route to be decided!

Will report back.

Ferry booked for 30th June, so there's no turning back now!

philkeeble

Good call. It’s all relatively flat until your final day that will take you over the pass by Oberalppass. Key will be getting your route sorted onto the Garmin (or whatever) in advance as stopping to check navigation slows progress. If all else fails, travelling with bike on German and Swiss trains is an absolute breeze!
Good luck and do post back to let us know how it went.

p.s. this is not how you will do it :
http://keeblescyclerhine.blogspot.co.uk ... entis.html

scotlandtim

Thanks for that - interesting blog. Nice one for posting, and thanks for sharing.

Route almost sorted I think, but will be subject to numerous changes I'm sure as I go.

Will report back after the ride and let you know how I got on.

Having ridden it - any tips / pitfall advice on particular sections you'd care to share??

philkeeble

Advance routing and slowness of crossing cities I've mentioned, so here's a quick brain-dump: Cycle paths are generally first class and fast; most of the unpaved sections are better surfaces than a lot of our country roads! Most are paved, however, and are well signposted but probably best not to ride on skinny racing tyres as punctures are another time thief. Places to eat are numerous, but country bakeries tend to shut for lunch so beware. Duisberg was a complete dump, the only place we felt uncomfortable cycling through and the only section where signage disappeared. Our route crossed the Rhine a few times by ferry (we followed the Cicero guide) so ferry waits, though brief, also can slow progress. We were caught out by floods too ... had to wade through the high street of a small town outside Basel, and one ferry didn't run due to flooded approach road and jetty (hence a 20km stretch covered by an unplanned train journey into Karlsruhe). Switzerland is eye-wateringly expensive! We booked ahead using the website https://www.bettundbike.de/en/
It guarantees secure bike storage. I guess you'll be winging it depending on how far you get each day. It looks like there's even a Bett+Bike app now so you should easily be able to spot nearby accommodation when you've had enough for the day. Luxury! I loaded openstreet mapping onto my Garmin GPSMap62 from https://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/send_maps/ via Garmin Basecamp and, as back-up, loaded the requisite map tiles onto my Viewranger app on my iphone along with a .gpx track of the route. Nowadays your data allowance is usable in Europe just like at home, so preloading is not so necessary.

Hope this helps, if I think of anything else I'll post again.

p.s. we are flying to Basel in July, cycling back along the Rhine then cutting north to Tuttlingen and following the Danube to Vienna. At a more relaxed pace than you, of course ;-)

scotlandtim

HI Folks.

Thanks for all the pointers. I leave a week tomorrow - Sat 30th -

Here's the plan, accomodation booked so I know what i have to achieve each day before ordering a beer!

Agree - Swiss accomodation extortionate - so a detour into Lichtenstein on teh final night to save £££

Ride the Rhine.
Sat 30th June
HOME - Newcastle Ferry Terminal (NE29 6EE)
143 km a. 797m d. 1015
Accom: DFDS Seaways Ferry

Sun 1st July - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/26843336
Ijmuiden (ne) - Xanten (de)
191km a. 205m d. 187
Accom: Xanten Youth Hostel,

Mon 2nd July - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27258290
Xanten (de) - Oberwesel (de)
237km a. 519 d. 457
Accom: Oberwesel YH, Auf dem Schönberg, 55430.

Tues 3rd July - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27258319
Oberwesel (de) - Karlsruhe (de)
172km a. 587 d. 553
Accom: Karlsruh YH, Moltkestraße 24, 76133 Karlsruhe

Wed 4th July - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27258323
Karlsruhe (de) - Lörrach (de)
215km a. 311 d. 128
Accom: Lörrach YH, Steinenweg 40 79540 Lörrach,

Thurs 5th July - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27258337
Lörrach (de) - Schaan Vaduz (Lichtenstein)
199km a. 1014 d. 860
Accom: Schaan Vaduz YH, Under Rüttigass 6, 9494 Schaan,

Fri 6th July - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27258344
Schaan Vaduz (Lichtenstein) - Erstfeld (ch)
163km a. 2259 d. 2245

Will be uploading each night to Strava if anyones interested!! (un: tim shimwell)

Will report back when I'm home!!

scotlandtim

My Route not strictly on EuroVelo 15 - bypassing big cities where possible - thanks for pointers re Duisberg.



Thanks

philkeeble

Great to hear you’re all set. Good luck! We stayed at Schaan Vaduz youth hostel. It was a good one. In 2016 there was no catering at the hostel, and a pretty minimalist breakfast. We knew this in advance so took our tea with us. We were grudgingly allowed to use the breakfast crockery so long as we washed it all up. But maybe that has now changed.
We used the A&O Hostel Hotel in Karlsruhe by the station. We ashamedly arrived by train with bikes as torrential rain had followed us all day and flooding had stopped all the ferries crossing the Rhine in the vicinity so we were marooned, wet and late on the wrong side of the river. Karlsruhe has sprawling industrial outskirts so that may not be so pleasant, but there are cycle lanes everywhere in Germany so that helps.
We stayed in Xanten (but a hotel). We had our evening meal in the main square. It is a beautiful small town and was once the second largest Roman settlement after Cologne in Roman Germania and home to the 30th Legion. So there you go!
It’s all pretty level easy cycling until your last day, then your climbing legs will be brought out of retirement with a bang! Celebrate at Oberalppass and get ready for a stonking descent!
Hope all goes to plan.

unicyclist

It is a beatiful bike trip indeed.
I have done it on 1Wheel and drove back (upwards) aboard a cargo ship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSoFUVStK90
Enjoy!