Rhine Cycle Route – Full GPS Route Map – Andermatt to Rotterdam

I’ve spent far too much time compiling the entire Rhine cycle route. I bought the guides and plotted the route on both sides of the river. Some resources show the route continuing north on both sides of the Rhine beyond Duisburg, but my guide shows a single route only.

So … just need to decide how much of and in which direction I may do this route !

Rhein-Radweg #1 Andermatt to Schaffhausen (188 miles)
via Chur, along the Bodensee and through Konstanz

Rhein-Radweg #2E Schaffhausen to Karlsruhe (209 miles)
via Basel and north on the German side of the Rhine

Rhein-Radweg #2W Schaffhausen to Karlsruhe (222 miles)
via Basel, then through Strasbourg on the French side of the Rhine

Rhein-Radweg #3 Karlsruhe to Leimersheim (10 miles)
A short single route section

Rhein-Radweg #4E Leimersham to Mainz (104 miles)
via Mannhein on the east side

Rhein-Radweg #4W Leimersheim to Mainz (86 miles)
on the west side, via Speyer and Mannheim, and Worms

Rhein-Radweg #5 Mainz to Bad Honnef (99 miles)
via Koblenz

Rhein-Radweg #6E Bad Honnef to Duisburg (87 miles)
via Bonn, Koln and Dusseldorf on the east side

Rhein-Radweg #6W Bad Honnef to Duisburg (91 miles)
via Bonn, Koln and Neuss on the west side

Rhein-Radweg #7 Duisburg to Rotterdam (198 miles)
via Arnhem and Dordrecht

Danube Bike Trail – Full GPS Route Map – Passau to Vienna

Also known as the Donau-Radweg, Passau-Wien. The Danube Bike Trail is along both banks of the Danube, for the most part, but I’ve compiled mostly the northern bank route here. Vienna to Budapest was covered in an earlier post.

Rhone Cycle Route – Full GPS Route Map – Andermatt to Geneva

Thinking about touring options for next year, I’ve compiled a detailed route for the Rhone Cycle Route. From Andermatt, the route takes a westerly direction to Geneva.

You can see it here.

Danube Bike Trail – Vienna to Budapest by Bike

Following a stop over day in Vienna we continued our trip along the Danube.

Day seven was an easy ride into Bratislava, under 50 miles. After a joint departure from Vienna we separated to cycle solo, but we soon caught up with each other again. There wasn’t much scope for varying the route along this section.

Once again we got caught out a little with our campsite. We could see a tent symbol on the map but because of the large scale it wasn’t possible to see just which road it was on. I made the best estimate I could and set the gps to navigate us there. On arrival, we could see the site but it was at the other side of a lake. We cycled very carefully along a dirt track round the lake, which was quite a tourist attraction if somewhat dirty around the shore, and ended up at a grubby bar. The site was a lot nearer but out of reach beyond a wire fence which extended into the lake – it may have been possible to carry the bikes into the water and around the fence but I decided against this due to the potential for accidents and losing my camera underwater. The only roadway that would have got us there was a motorway and there was no cycle facility. We had no choice but to retrace our steps round the dirt track and go the opposite way around the lake, along some very dodgy areas, to find the site entrance.

Once there it turned out to be something of a culture shock. The buildings were old and poorly maintained, the site was noisy, there was a dodgem car fairground ride near the tent space, and we felt pretty uneasy about camping there; but after the trial of actually getting there we knew we would be staying the night.

On day eight, we cycled just 36 miles and settled early at Kisbodak, on a site in a clearing in a wood. The shower was an outdoor affair, just a three-sided timber fence and a tarpaulin for a door, and solar heating. Despite the all day heat the water was cool.

The following morning, we had a detour into Mosonmagyaróvár to see the castle and town. The building may have started out as a castle but now looked more like a municipal building. Interesting enough but hardly worth a couple of hours extra cycling. So far we had cycled for three days on the Danube Bike Trail and barely seen the river; we wondered if we had to wait until Budapest. We continued to Győr, and found a municipal site on the edge of the town. It looked as though it might have been a repeat of the Bratislava experience, which we couldn’t face again, so we cycled back into the town and booked into a small hotel instead. At least we weren’t restricted to three minutes of hot water in the shower.

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Day ten brought us no sight of the river either, until we arrived at camp. We passed through Tata and rested a while, in preparation for a big climb just out of the town. At the top of the hill, the Danube was at last in sight. This was to be the last climb of the trip. We camped at the best site so far, with excellent facilities on the shores of the Danube.

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Our view of the Danube was to be short lived as on day eleven, the trail moved inland again until we reached the Mária Valéria Bridge at Esztergom. We kept our view of the river for most of the rest of the day, including waiting a while for a ferry crossing to the North side at Szob. We returned to the South side to get to our target site at Tahitótfalu.

Our final day was a leisurely 26 miles to Budapest, following the path along the Danube to the city centre. We made our way to the excellent “Biker Camp”, a small site in an urban garden with all facilities.

The next day we had a look around Budapest before our departure.

Czech Greenways – Prague to Vienna by Bike

Our travel plan – to use the Czech Greenways route to get to Prague and then the Danube Bike Trail to Budapest.

I found this site with routes and gpx files for my Garmin.

I downloaded the gpx files and consolidated them into one route, then sub-divided at suitable points so I could upload to my gps. The final section, Valtice to Vienna, was not available as a gpx file so I compiled this route myself using Google maps, in mapping and satellite mode, by reference to other resources.

The routes turned out to be very accurate, virtually turn-perfect. Overlaying the track file onto the planned route shows hardly any deviation that was not planned.

On day one, we cycled almost 58 miles together, finishing at Sedlčany. Our campsite was a sports ground (with permission). We resolved to identify a campsite from our large-scale map and aim for that each day. Just as well as we came across very few by chance.

Day two, we found ourselves cycling along rolling countryide in the heat, passing through Tabor. During the hottest part of the day we rested in the shade so on this day we cycled just 46 miles. We departed from the route, so far followed perfectly, at Plana Nad Luznici to get to our chosen campsite near Skalice.

Day three, we re-joined our route and 44 miles later made camp early, by a lake at Nová Bystrica. The following morning we decided to cycle separately; my pace was faster, and I preferred to continue following the “official” route instead of taking the occasional short cut along the busier roads to avoid the hills.

On Day four, I cycled mostly alone, crossing the Vranov Dam and on through the Národny Park Podyji. At one point in this heavily wooded area, the path became ever more overgrown and eventually was blocked with a bale of straw. Here, I was cycling alone, without a paper map, so I had to use the gps to find a way out. The forest tracks weren’t marked on the gps so all I could do was head for the nearest village and keep moving in that direction along the many twisting paths. I couldn’t see any way to get out to the South, where I needed to be, so I took a long detour to the North and round the forest to the next target camp site. I crossed into Austria and we met up again at Retzbach. I cycled 74 miles that day.

The next morning we crossed back into Slovakia and then I cycled alone along the planned route to Poysdorf. The last part was back across the border into Austria, at Schrattenburg, and this is the point where I was navigating using my own route towards Vienna. I planned the route from a large scale overview and a bit of intuition using Google satellite view. This turned out to be quite successful and even if it didn’t follow the official route precisely it got me along 60 miles with hardly a hitch.

On the last day, we cycled to Vienna using our own route choice again, upon arrival there was the most spectacular thunderstorm I have seen for many years ! I took shelter along with many other pedestrians under the canopy of a petrol station, before making the final few miles of 60 in total to the chosen campsite. It was ideally placed close to the Danube Bike Trail, the second leg of our trip to be followed after a day in Vienna.

If you are planning a similar route using gps, I can recommend using the route files from here, but with an alternative way through the Národny Park Podyji. I ended up on mountain bike routes and had to push up through some very poor tracks through the forest.

We had just one large-scale map to share so on three of the six days I cycled with just the gps for navigation; it worked flawlessley even though I wouldn’t normally suggest going without a map.

There seemed to be very few campsites along the route but plenty of shops and small supermarkets, so stocking up with provisions was never a problem.

Checking on Google satellite view later, showed that the forest route certainly did seem to exist, so I cannot explain why it should have been blocked.

Danube Bike Trail – Full GPS Route Map – Vienna to Budapest

Vienna to Bratislava

Bratislava to Cunovo Branch

Cunovo Branch to Komarno (N)

Cunovo Branch to Komárom (S)

Komarno to Esztergom Branch (N)

Komárom to Esztergom Branch (S)

Esztergom Branch to Tahitótfalu (N)

Esztergom Branch to Tahitótfalu (S)

Tahitótfalu to Budapest

Netherlands Take Two

Following my last tour around the Netherlands I took another week out and promised myself a slightly less frantic pace. This time I had a tent.

My route wasn’t so dissimilar to the last time, except it was in the opposite direction !

Europort to Woudrichem via Rotterdam and Dordrecht
Netherlands day one (74 miles)

What is it about Cuijk ? I got horribly lost the last time and found myself in the same situation again. Whilst searching for a campsite nearby I found myself cycling along the same wrong road again. The campsite couldn’t be found so I decided to get out of the place and found a good site at Plasmolen.

Woudrichem to Plasmolen
Netherlands day two (77 miles)

A lost u-lock key meant I didn’t leave the Plasmolen site until 11:00 am. Following a triple search of all four panniers and the tent interior I wandered off to reception to ask if they had someone who would take an angle griner to it. Fortunately the key had been handed in by someone !

Plasmolen to near Arnhem via Nijmegen
Netherlands day three (60 miles)

Arnhem to Ijsselstein
Netherlands day four (83 miles)

Ijsselstein to Brielle via Den Haag
Netherlands day five (81 miles)

around South Holland
Netherlands day six (48 miles)

Cycle Dash around the Netherlands

This post could just as easily have been titled “how not to do a tour of the Netherlands”. Load up the bike with far too much gear, including enough wet weather gear to survive a monsoon, then head off during a heatwave. Oh, and don’t book any accommodation.

Firstly, I compiled an out and back route from the gps files on this site. I can’t read what it says about them, but I downloaded them anyway. Here, I read that the LF routes are good ones for touring. Once underway it became apparent that the route was generally very accurate and rarely did I need to refer to my too-large scale fietsroute map. Every twist and turn popped up on my GPS, even though I had to filter each track to 250 points or less in MapSource. Then I converted the track to a route using GPSbabel. For some reason MapSource doesn’t do this conversion. Once converted I re-opened the track file back in MapSource and then Transferred to my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx.

My route was parts of LF12, Maas-en Vestingroute, LF2, Stedenroute, LF4, Midden Nederlandroute, and LF3, Maasroute. You can get an overview here

Day one saw a detour via Kinderdijk and on to Utrecht arriving at dusk. Pressing “find” on Garmin and picking a Best Western directed me neatly to a building site. I asked some locals who pointed me in the direction of a small private hotel.

Day two, passing through Arnhem and Nijmegen. After Nijmegen the area becomes quite hilly but incredibly having already pedalled 90 miles or so I found myself hauling the heavy load up long inclines at my best pace yet. My intended stopover town was closed, it was getting dark and I had no choice but to take a flyer to the next village. I had to fix my lights, I packed them of course, and cycle along some very dark wooded paths adjacent to a lake. So another 15 miles or so and a late night knock on the door at Motel Koolen brought a good welcome.

Day three was a scorcher. From around 10am I had to wear my “Lawrence of Arabia” style cap and neck shield, and put my long-sleeved dark shirt back on to stop my arms from burning. A navigation error at Heusden caused me to lose an hour or so before I realised the way forwards was actually a mile or so back the way I came and across a ferry. This mistake, the excessive heat and lack of proper meal the previous night conspired to prevent me from completing the 140 or so miles back to Europort so I had a third night in Dordrecht before a leisurely cycle to the port next morning.

Despite (because of?) the big mileages covered this route was superb for the pleasure of cycling. Mostly on smooth paths, it takes in quite a variation of the Dutch countryside. I’d do it again, but with a tent, and I would give the cities a complete miss. I’d certainly use the lf_nederland files again to compile a route.

Europort to Utrecht via Rotterdam, Kinderdijk, Gouda and Woerden
Netherlands day one (89 miles)

Utrecht, Arnhem, Nijmegen
Netherlands day two (113 miles)

near Nijmegen to Dordrecht
Netherlands day three (98 miles)

Dordrecht to Europort via Rotterdam
Netherlands day four (42 miles)

Brief Take on Mapping Websites

MapMyRide.com seems to drastically reduce the number of trackpoints in a track.
bikely.com retains them all.

3165 waypoint gpx file uploaded to mapmyride.com

3165 waypoint gpx file uploaded to bikely.com

I can’t see how many trackpoints have been saved in MapMyRide, but zoom in on Gouda to see the difference.

bikehike.co.uk

This mapping site looks so good I immediately uploaded one of my Trans Pennine Trail sections to try it out. You can view it here.

I’ll be watching the development of this one with keen interest