Author Topic: EuroVelo 15, the Rhine route (Read 6490 times)

Joe.B · « **on:** 23 August, 2016, 10:09:17 pm »

Does anyone have any experience of EuroVelo 15, the rhine route? Particularly campsites along the route.

My daughter and I were discussing cycling to next year's international tandem rally near Frankfurt when Mrs B decided that it would be great for to whole family to cycle there. We would take the crossing over from Newcastle to Amsterdam and then head south east towards EV15. I've yet to examine the route in any detail but a back of a fag packet plan would be 3x50m days, a day off and then 3 more 50mile days. Campsites where we can access power are essential as both wife and daughter will use ebikes as a means of coping with asthama.

Also does anyone have the Cicerone guide to the route, is it worth the money?

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #1 on:** 24 August, 2016, 05:26:06 am »

I've ridden the Rhine route several times (although only the German section) and it's very good albeit a bit fiddly in some places.

I use the Bikeline series of books from Esterbauer Verlag. They now do English versions of the Rhein books, I believe.

JenM · « **Reply #2 on:** 24 August, 2016, 09:36:50 am »

I rode from Hook of Holland to the source of the Rhine a few years ago camping all the way. The only real problem I had with the campsites was that many of them were underwater as it was the year when there was a lot of flooding.

I used the Bikeline maps which were a worthwhile investment as it gives you routes on either side of the Rhine, although the version I used was in German. The Cicerone guide was left at home as it describes the route from the sources to the sea - useful to identify places to visit along the route. Maybe you can order it from the library - I gave my maps and guide away.

On Crazyguyonabike there is an informal listing of campsites with some comments. If you click on the 'Guestbook' link at the top there is an additional file of campsite information. I'm not sure what facilities campsites have for the charging of e-bikes, but as they are more mainstream in Germany than here, I would imagine that a request to charge the bikes is fairly common.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=tS&doc_id=10691&v=1U

Some people will tell you that the Rhine route is boring and industrial (OK there are bits) but I enjoyed it.....easy to navigate as it is well signposted, varied sites, campsites were good (many with restaurants), other cyclists to chat to, never to far from a cafe.

Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

yoav · « **Reply #3 on:** 24 August, 2016, 11:30:38 am »

We did the Rhine route last year in the opposite direction to your plan from Mainz (where you turn off the Rhine onto the Main for Frankfurt, I presume) to the Ijmuiden ferry port. Navigation was pretty easy, it was well signposted. Some parts are very scenic, like the Rhine gorge, others less so but even the industrial parts were interesting. We used the Ciccerone guide book but we stayed on hotels so can't help with campsites.

As the Rhine doesn't flow through Amsterdam, I suggest to ride to Utrecht then follow the Amsterdam-Rhine canal to the Rhine. Highlights include Xanten, a lovely walled town near the Dutch border, ~~Wonderworld~~ Wunderland, nuclear power station turned into a theme park and the Rhine gorge south of Koblenz.

JenM · « **Reply #4 on:** 24 August, 2016, 12:35:06 pm »

PS Whilst eating my lunch spotted the Cicerone guide on my bookcase - it's yours for the cost of postage. PM me with your details if interested.

Joe.B · « **Reply #5 on:** 24 August, 2016, 08:18:56 pm »

Thanks for all the info folks, especially for the offer of the book Jen, I'll gratefully take you up on that.

The Bikeline maps look quite good, so far as I could tell from the sample on Stamford's website they have a level of detail similar to 1:50000 OS maps.

I'm glad that you spotted this topic Auntie Helen as you'll be able to answer a question regarding German trains: If we can only take enough time off work to allow for a one way ride we would look to the train for the return to Amsterdam. The tandem splits so should be fine but would we have a problem with Vanessa's ICE trike?

I hadn't thought about the ride through Holland yet but the Amstadam-Rhine canal sounds perfect, easy navigation or what. The Nuclear theme park sound right up my street too.

yoav · « **Reply #6 on:** 24 August, 2016, 10:02:16 pm »

See
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam–Rhine_Canal
and
https://www.wunderlandkalkar.eu

Re bikes on German trains: they won't let bikes onto the intercity express trains so you have to take a series of local trains. To get to Mainz, we had to take a series of 4 trains: Amsterdam > Eindhoven > Venlo > Düsseldorf > Mainz. You can book the tickets online but you have to phone them up to get the bikes booked on.

roffa · « **Reply #7 on:** 29 August, 2016, 12:07:55 pm »

If I may suggest, for those arriving by ferry at IJmuiden, a ride of about 90km will get you to the start/end of EV 15 at Hoek van Holland, using the LF1 along the coast. This is a very scenic ride through the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, with Zandvoort, Noordwijk and Katwijk along the way. A nice stop in The Hague and continuing from there through the dunes to Hoek. Much, much nicer than a boring ride along the Amsterdam - Rijnkanaal. Also it means you pass through Rotterdam on the EV 15 (yay) and follow the Maas and Lek up river along wonderful landscapes and villages, plus you get to see the Kinderdijk mills.

roffa · « **Reply #8 on:** 29 August, 2016, 12:10:25 pm »

Quote from: yoav on 24 August, 2016, 10:02:16 pm

See
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam–Rhine_Canal
and
https://www.wunderlandkalkar.eu

Re bikes on German trains: they won't let bikes onto the intercity express trains so you have to take a series of local trains. To get to Mainz, we had to take a series of 4 trains: Amsterdam > Eindhoven > Venlo > Düsseldorf > Mainz. You can book the tickets online but you have to phone them up to get the bikes booked on.

No need to book for the Dutch stretch: there are restrictions though (only off peak hours), and a bicycle ticket costs 6.10 euros. You can just turn up and buy a ticket at the train station

roffa · « **Reply #9 on:** 29 August, 2016, 12:17:38 pm »

An alternative is to follow the old Rhine, where it used to exit in the North Sea, near Katwijk, then to Leiden, Alphen a/d Rijn and pick up EV15 at Wijk bij Duurstede (south of Utrecht). The stretch from Wijk bij Duurstede to Arnhem is excellent! Looking at the map I'm guessing that the route sends you across Utrechtse Heuvelrug (Amerongen - Veenendaal - Rhenen): it's beautiful there.

Alphen a/d Rijn has Archeon, a re enactment museum with a lot of attention to Roman times. You're cycling along the old "Limes", the continental northern border of the Roman empire so there are lots of sites of archaeological interest, like in Zwammerdam, Houten and Wijk bij Duurstede is famous for having had to endure a number of viking raids.

like this:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/16207735

Joe.B · « **Reply #10 on:** 30 August, 2016, 09:23:30 pm »

My original idea was to head South East to The bridge Too far and then join the Rhine but cycling down the coast to the Hook and joining the Rhine where it meets the North Sea is starting to become quite an attractive idea now.

As we'll probably only have three weeks I first thought that we would take a week to cycle each way and pretty much just concentrate on reaching the destination. Now though I thing a better idea might be to take 12 days or so to cycle to the rally, taking it easy and deviating from the route to see interesting places. After the rally if time doesn't permit a ride back down the river to Amsterdam we'll hire a van to get us and the bikes back to the ferry port. Probably cheaper and easier than trying to get the four of us, a recumbent trike and trailer, tandem and a solo onto various trains.

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #11 on:** 31 August, 2016, 08:12:12 am »

With regard to the train, I have never had problems getting my ICE trike on but I have always been the only person with one in the group. It has involved a lot of carrying it up and down stairs at stations though which is less than fun.

When I travelled with Wowbagger and Jan and their tandem it was more tricky to fit us both on the train - we weren't always together in one carriage. Some trains have huge bike areas but others not. A one-way van hire would probably be an awful lot less stress, I have to say.

roffa · « **Reply #12 on:** 03 September, 2016, 11:04:01 pm »

Quote from: Joe.B on 30 August, 2016, 09:23:30 pm

My original idea was to head South East to The bridge Too far and then join the Rhine but cycling down the coast to the Hook and joining the Rhine where it meets the North Sea is starting to become quite an attractive idea now.

As we'll probably only have three weeks I first thought that we would take a week to cycle each way and pretty much just concentrate on reaching the destination. Now though I thing a better idea might be to take 12 days or so to cycle to the rally, taking it easy and deviating from the route to see interesting places. After the rally if time doesn't permit a ride back down the river to Amsterdam we'll hire a van to get us and the bikes back to the ferry port. Probably cheaper and easier than trying to get the four of us, a recumbent trike and trailer, tandem and a solo onto various trains.

If you go roughly south east from Amsterdam, you can cycle Utrechtse Heuvelrug (hills, albeit small ones) and cross Veluwe, our last quasi wilderness, to get to Arnhem. All this is really interesting cycling. Park Hoge Veluwe has the Kröller-Müller museum, famous for its Van Gogh collection by the way. The museum itself is also interesting as a building and there is a great sculpture garden. Really picturesque villages (the area around Baarn, close to Amsterdam is another such area), and a Nivon house in Bennekom, plus a good number of campsites (one favorite of mine though, Paasheuvel in Vierhouten, doesn't accept individual travelers anymore, only groups.)

google: campings veluwe, and you'll find loads.

Roughly, that route would be:

Amsterdam - Baarn - Leusden - Harskamp/Otterlo - Hoge Veluwe Park - Arnhem

Joe.B · « **Reply #13 on:** 31 January, 2017, 08:54:42 pm »

Having just started to arrange our travel plans for this trip it seems that getting to Germany may not be so simple after all. One-day-one-way van hire from Amsterdam to Mainz is bloody extortionate, £720 for a standard Transit, plus fuel and all the extras they always want to add on.

The train would now seem to be an altogether much more sensible choice were it not for the fact that Mrs B’s ICE trike is an older non-folding model. I suspect that with it, a tandem, and a regular DF we might be pushing our luck. I might have to talk to Mrs B about riding her DF bike rather than the trike but she won’t like it. $:-\$

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #14 on:** 31 January, 2017, 09:25:50 pm »

I have only ever folded my trike once on a German train, so that must be 40+ trips without folding it. If that helps...

Joe.B · « **Reply #15 on:** 31 January, 2017, 09:35:59 pm »

That's interesting to know and puts the idea of traveling by train back on the cards. Vanessa and I have just talked on the phone (I'm working away), and she's not intersted in riding anything other than her trike.
One idea we might think about is taking our own car to the rally and then after that relocating to another site in either Germany or Holland. We'll then leave the car there while we spend 12 days or so doing a circular tour.

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #16 on:** 01 February, 2017, 04:41:07 am »

You could actually do a great tour from this region (Niederrhein):

Ride to Aachen then Vennbahnradweg to Luxembourg (bits of the ride in Belgium)
Luxembourg to Koblenz along the Mosel
Koblenz to Niederrhein along the Rhein

I'm thinking of doing this tour this summer. I've done most of all of it before but not as one joined-up loop.

Joe.B · « **Reply #17 on:** 03 February, 2017, 02:09:15 pm »

We started looking at the idea of taking the car to the rally and then taking a circular tour in Germany eventually returning to where we left the car. Then I found out how much more expensive it was going to be to take the car on the Newcastle/Amsterdam crossing.

Mrs B fancied taking the car because it allows us to take the ‘kitchen sink & all’ camping kit for our stay at the Tandem Rally but the extra cost probably isn’t worth it.

Taking the train from Amsterdam to Mainz will probably work just fine. I had thought that the train would be impossible as Mrs B’s trike doesn’t fold, having heard Auntie Helen’s experiences I suspect that the worst case would be that we don’t get all the bikes on one train and end up splitting up onto separate trains, no big deal.

yoav · « **Reply #18 on:** 04 February, 2017, 08:07:07 pm »

As mentioned above, we took the train from Amsterdam to Mainz. Booked it on DB website and when you add bikes, it gives you a non-ICE route that takes longer, but you have no choice. After you've bought the tickets, you'll need to phone their (English speaking) customer service and book the bikes. They were very helpful.

Joe.B · « **Reply #19 on:** 04 February, 2017, 10:47:50 pm »

That's interesting to Know. I was playing around on the DB website at work last night and noticed that it was suggesting ICE trains which so far as I'm aware don't allow bikes, let alone trikes and tandems. I didn't go so far with the booking to include the bikes so didn't realise that the route changes with bikes selected.

I'm going to phone the DB english speaking customer service line before booking.

It's just the trike thats been worrying me as it isn't a folder but as Auntie Helen says thats unlikely to be a problem.

Anyway, after returning from a ride with a couple of pals this afternoon Mrs B has decided that she is rather keen to swap one of her current bikes for a Circle Helios tandem so we might not even take the trike now after all that.

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #20 on:** 05 February, 2017, 05:39:32 am »

With the DB Website you have to specify you are taking bikes - they are not allowed on ICE trains. You need to tick 'Fahrradmitnahme möglich' or choose all trains except ICE and IC.

If you are travelling on a weekend then the Schönes Wochenende Ticket is a great Option - 38ish Euro for up to five people to travel as far as you like in one day. Only RE and local trains, but they tend to be the only ones you can take bikes on anyway. You also need a bike ticket each which is about 6 EUR i think.

moroni15 · « **Reply #21 on:** 23 February, 2017, 10:04:23 pm »

My daughter and son and I plan to spend 3 - 5 days cycling from koblenz to Karlsruhe along the EuroVelo 15 this coming July. We are driving down from Sweden with our bikes --- cheaper than flying or train believe it or not -- and need a place to park our car in Koblenz for up to 5 days while we are biking. Any ideas? Thanks!

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #22 on:** 24 February, 2017, 06:30:44 am »

I reckon you could just find a very quiet residential street and put it there for 5 days. Option 2 is to see if a hotel will let you park it there (for a fee). I once did that for a two week tour but we stayed in the hotel the first and last nights too.

Veloman · « **Reply #23 on:** 24 February, 2017, 11:34:44 am »

Or fund a very cheap campsite to leave your car and very small tent for the period.

I have done this in the past fro a municipal site that was a very cheap and relatively secure way of leaving a car.

morbihan · « **Reply #24 on:** 24 February, 2017, 10:06:15 pm »

Evening all.
I'm looking at some of the Rhine route (mid section really) for a bike-packing race this summer.
Can any of you dudes who have previously ridden the route give me any idea of speed limitations along the river path.
I need to be able to roll along at about 25 kph average, starting super early (4 a.m. or so)
So while not smashing along I can't lallygag but I don't want to be the tosser carving a path through sedate family traffic if thats the norm.
If its not recommended I can choose alternate routes.
Thank Yee.