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Childrens Favourites

Polizei, Feuerwehr (fire service), bendy buses and Eis Cafes (ice cream parlours). The numbers of eis (ice) cafes is astounding. Good and cheap ice-cream parlours can be found in nearly every town. A blessing for children and cycling parents alike in hot weather. Food-wise, the wide availability of all kind of sausages and schwein-schnitzel (pork scallops) provides plenty of proteins for the children. It would be rude not to mention the wide variety of ultra-healthy-grainy german breads available in every bakerei (as well as plenty of delicious nutty cakes, yum yum).

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7th June - Hot - Swalmen to Hardt (Monchen Gladbach) - 31km

For our route to Germany please follow this link to the Netherlands

The border with Holland was only marked by a small sign but we felt the difference quickly. It looks like we will have to ween ourselves from the excellent Dutch cyclepaths. The cycle path to lovely Bruggen was mostly gravelled and gentle hills started to appear. There were barriers in the way that were tricky to manoeuvre around with the Chariot. Then we were back on roads with cars...

We made it to a hostel near Monchengladbach set in Hardt Forest. It is a wide forest crossed by many cycle paths and with good playgrounds. The "regime" of the Youth Hostel was quite different from the relaxed Dutch hostels: evening meal at 18.00 exactly ("you must turn up 15 minutes before"), breakfast at 8.00 and check-out at 9.00! Amazingly we manage to hit all the deadlines without crumbling under the stress!

8th June - Hardt to Grind - 55 km Train (20 km) and the Rhine again!

After a good look at the map, we decided to cycle to Monchengladbach and take the train to Neuss Rhein Park. This 20 km train ride saved us two days cycling through the big coal area of the Ruhr. The kids may have enjoyed the mining pits and the impressive machines but the lack of accommodation between Monchengladbach and the Rhine put us off.

So here we were on the Rhine again!

9th June - Grind to Koln - 35 km North Winds (Good) and Floods

The Rhine is still high and it is sometimes not possible to follow the marked cycle path. Other than this, cycling to Koln was easy with following winds and mostly flat. We stopped at the pretty village of Zons for Sunday lunch (the children had cheese and ham paninis, what a change from the usual cheese and ham sandwiches!).

We reached Koln Pathpoint Youth Hostel in good time and we were pleased to find out that the rules are not as strict as in Hardt Hostel!

10th June - Koln

Updating the website, cleaning very dirty clothes and climbing the 530 steps to the top of Koln Cathedral (according to Louis "they should not build churches that high"). Louis and Max won a well deserved ice-cream (and are sleeping well at the time of writing!).

11th June - Koln to Bonn - 43km

A relaxed start today slowed down by a visit to the post office to package up unwanted items to the UK. We cruised through the centre of Koln taking in the sights and stopped after 5km to have lunch. We had booked into another hostel in Bonn and we still had 40km to ride. The hostel choice was due to a lack of campsites in the vicinity of Bonn. The campsites we did see had been evacuated due to high floodwaters.

We had been expecting to follow the Rhine but at times we were alongside and in the Rhine. Around Wesseling we found the Shell refinery - spectacularly large and appears to be the turning point for the Koln tourist boats.

It was at this point that we spotted our first hills since England. An ominous sight as we had been told that Bonn hostel was at the top of a hill. And what a hill it was. A 130m, 12% climb at the end of a long afternoon. Louis raced against his mum and won by miles!

12th June - Bonn - another rest Day?

The stiff climb up to the Youth Hostel and the abundant cultural attractions of Bonn forced us to an unexpected additional "rest day". It was as resting as possible when showing a 4 year old and a 2 year old around modern art galleries! "Don't touch that", "Don't stand there", "Why is that painting not finished?".

Louis finished the art gallery with "Can we go now? There are too many things - I can't remember anything."

We followed the art gallery with an animal museum (the Koenig Museum) - this was much more successful and one of the best zoological museum we have visited so far. The big success of the day however was taking Bonn bendy bus and the metro/underground and being given Beethoven shaped sweets at the tourism office.

13th June - Bonn to Remagen - 25km

The cycle route hugs the Rhine all the way South to Mainz. Unfortunately so does the road and railway. At times the route is a mere pavement to the highway, at other times it runs through meadows and a separate embankment. Some stages alongside the railway can be deafening when the huge goods trains are passing by.

Today was noted for the first rain of our trip - an almighty downpour only 10 minutes away from the campsite. The tent was put up in the rain and the game of cards, all the cars, stickers and books came out. Louis had his first "I want to go home" outburst (he is normally prone to these kind of outbursts, sometimes within 20 minutes of arriving somewhere, so after more than two weeks travelling, we were proud of him!).

14th June - Remagen to Koblenz - 43km

A long day through to Koblenz. We started by the side of Remagen bridge, which was destroyed during the second world war (partly by the Americans, partly by the Germans before it finally gave up all by itself and collapsed into the Rhine taking 30 American soldiers with it. The days riding was mixed: the cycle path is at time wedged between the highway and the railway and the surface can be poor, not to mention the dust left by the recent flooding. We were keen to stay at Koblenz camping site, which is brilliantly situated opposite the giant statue of Emperor William I on Deutches Eck ("German Corner") where the river Mosel joins the Rhine. However, things have changed since we stayed there 8 years ago. The facilities for tents are abysmal, i.e, we could pitch on the road verges or behind the toilet block. Another campsite where tents are being pushed out in place of the more lucrative camper vans.

Twice today, we were told "Respect!" by fellow cyclists, usually in the steep bits when you turn all red and don't have enough breath to reply. Still, it is nice to be "respected" and pretend we are cool dudes, even though it feels strange as we are only doing a bit of cycling with our children.

15th June - Koblenz to Brey - 17km - 2 crashes and a World Heritage Site

Koblenz marks the start of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the middle Rhine Valley until Mainz. We started the day by a visit to the impressive Festung Ehrenbreitstein (military fort) above Koblenz. This is perched on a 100m high cliff on the opposite side of the Rhine. Luckily for us a cable car with a special car capable of taking bikes with trailers allowed us to pay an easy visit. The inside of the fort is very impressive and provides a maze of tunnels and battlements and great views across the city, the Mosel, the Rhine and the hills to the North and West.

The Rhine valley is from Koblenz much tighter and within the next 10 km, we spotted no less than three castles high up each side of the Rhine.

Isa lost a few points today by dropping the bike twice (tight gates and tiredness). Louis coped with it quite well.

Max is his usual enthusiastic self and get quite excited every time he sees a car/train/tractor/motorbike/castle/cow. However, he has not grasped the concept of our travelling. A typical conversation today was: "Look Max, there is a castle ahead." Why?" Because there are a lot of castles along this section of the Rhine" Max: "Where is the Rhine?"

16th June - Brey to St Goar - 25km

A relaxing day along the twists and turns of the Rhine, the most scenic day of the trip so far. Beautiful castles (we lost count, possibly a total of seven castles), old towns and play park after play park for the kids.

Eventually we have found a nice campsite in Germany. Cyclotourists tents (i.e. just us) have their own little paddock next to a stream and a steep woodland. There was no loud train, no loud boats and no road (a rarity on the Rhine route). We loved it so much that we decided to shelter in this beautiful corner from the forecasted heat wave for the next two days. (Campingplatze Friedenau)

17th & 18th June - St Goar - Hot Hot Hot

We visited Burg Rheinfels castle, which was only a short but steep walk from the campsite. The derelict castle and fort are a maze of tunnels, mines, staircases, corridors and chambers - a torch is essential to discover everything. It was an exciting way to escape the brief heatwave. Our plan for the following day (35 degrees C) was a trip to the local Freibad (open air swimming pool). It however seemed like everybody had the same idea and the pool was heaving despite it being a Tuesday.

19th June - St Goar to Rudesheim - 41km - 36 Degrees C

We attempted an early departure to avoid cycling during the hot part of the day, but despite our best endeavour, we only managed to leave at 9 o'clock and the temperature was already high. By the time we stocked up in town and spoke to some fellow cyclotourist from South Africa (who incidentally warned us that France is a dangerous country as they were robbed there!), it was 10 o'clock. So the going was hot but we reached our campsite in Rudesheim by 2 pm. We have decided to try our luck with the cycle path on the other side of the Rhine as according to our guide there is an interesting diversion from the classic Rhine route and most importantly, there are two campsites and two swimming pools next to each other.

Our campsite open air swimming pool was unfortunately full of mud. Like most campsites along the Rhine, this spot had been 1 metre underwater a week previously. It was therefore a bit soggy with lots of mosquitos and a child's playground motorbike full of stinky floodwater. Apart from that, it was one the second best campsite we have come across in Germany!

The rest of the afternoon was spent finding the second swimming pool (indoors this time)and fighting the automatic ticketing system, closely followed by another fight with the automatic entry system with special tokens. We made it in the water by 4 pm after much frustration (and possibly some swearing at the so-called german no-nonsense efficient systems).

20th June - Rudesheim to Mainz - 37km - Flooded route & Roadworks

Our intended diversion from the main Rhine cycle way was cut short by high water and road works on the main road. We decided to take the ferry and carry on the main route in hope to escape an impending storm. It seems that we were lucky: the rain briefly passed over our heads and we reached Mainz Youth Hostel dry and quickly thanks to the Northerly winds.

Crossing a big city is always really entertaining from the children. There are trams, bendy buses and lots of Polizei to look at. For the parents, it is a nice break from non-stop story telling.

21st June - Mainz to Oppenheim - 27km - Not Really a campsite

A morning visiting Mainz followed by a delightful cycle through the vineyards. Terry could not resist a spot of wine tasting and break the bank by purchasing a fine Riesling for £3.00 (and it was really good)!

We carried on to the campsite marked on our map and found out that it was "private", i.e., it was a static caravan park. The owner of the nearby restaurant took pity on us and allowed us to pitch the tent in their garden. Apart from the swarms of mosquitoes, which started biting in earnest straight away, the spot could have been ideal. We spent the evening by a sunny beach watching the ferries go by until the mosquitoes really got the better of us...

22nd June - Oppenheim to Lampertheim - 48km - Good Days, Bad days

The day started by finding a small tick in Max' left ear, which dropped off soon after (yuck!). We then went to the beautiful town of Oppenheim, up on a hill (not good for a start). We found out that for once we were too early: the tourist information office opens at 11.00 on Saturdays. We decided to keep going in order to find a pharmacist and to give a miss to the rather interesting Keller Labyrinth, which is an underground network of passages under the town. We found a friendly pharmacist in the next town, who tried to reassure Isa. Apparently, we are not cycling in an area with Lyme disease and Max's tick bite has been pushed back to an "amber" alert.

The rest of the morning was spent cycling along the rhine vineyard route, lovely again but possibly not very exciting for the children. Luckily, the firemen of Guntersblum were having a cleaning day following the recent floods and two of their lorries were on full display! The children were allowed in the lorries and in the fire station. How exciting!

The next town of the map was Worms (the kids love that name). This time, we were too late for the tourism office, which shut at 2pm. We cheered ourselves up with yet another stop at an amazing ice cafes, which had 7 queues going and no less than 25 different flavours of ice cream!!!

We quickly found out that the next camping had been shut for years and the second campsite was again a private caravan park. Wild camping was not an option because of the soggy ground. We decided to push on to the next town, Lampertheim in order to found accommodation there. We ended up in a small Greek restaurant and with a much bigger bill to pay than usual but we were all glad for the respite from the mosquitoes.

23rd June - Lampertheim to Mannheim - 27km - Chemical Factories & Mannheim

An easy Sunday morning start from our Greco German restaurant was slowed up by a conversation with a German Irish resident - he had a quite remarkable german accent with the gentle Irish lilt.

We have definitely left the touristic part of the Rhine cycle path now. The road coverage and sign posting leaves sometimes to be desired. But the landscape was fully industrial now as we were cycling on the other side of the massive BASF chemical factory site (about twice the size of Monaco).

Mannheim is also far from the romantic Rhine valley towns. The city centre has been destroyed many times and the building blocks are now arranged in a grid system. Another ice cafe stop gave us enough energy to reach our campsite next to Strandbad (the sand beach) South of Mannheim. Having learnt from our previous mistakes, we rang ahead to check the campsite was open this time. The beach, normally really long, was a small gravely affair next to an excellent pizza place. It was a good place for the children - passing boats, a playground and strangely enough no mosquitoes (perhaps a benefit of staying in the vicinity of a chemical factory)?

24th June - Mannheim to Speyer - 28km - Sorry no camping

We dodged rainstorms all day - sometimes more successfully than others. The road from Mannheim to Speyer was rather unexciting apart from the construction site of Mannheim's Block 9 coal power station. We counted no less than 13 cranes of all types and all sizes on site (who wrote the CDM Construction and Design Management)for this one exclaimed Terry!). We arrived at Speyer and decided to check if our proposed campsite existed. "Sorry there is no camping in or near Speyer" was the disappointing reply. We ended up in the Youth Hostel - again. Speyer has plenty to offer: a romantic style cathedral, a beautiful old town and most importantly for the boys, the Auto and Technik Museum with 60 aeroplanes, space shuttles, 150 cars and buses on display.

25th June - Speyer to Leimersheim - 38km - Russian Space Shuttle & Gingham Hideaway

A dreadfully leaden sky and soggy streets were of no concern as we were off to the Auto und Technik museum in Speyer. A full collection of vehicles from a Boeing 747 taking off and a Russian Space shuttle to a submarine U boat and MiG fighter jets. Everyone enjoyed it and we forgot we had to cycle 35 km to our pre-booked gingham hideaway (aka Villa Pettersson).

We left Speyer too late and set off at a good pace with 30 km to go - following a diversion of the Rhine Route and a closed bridge we had cycled 10 km and still had 30 km to cycle - a bit demoralising - and then the second big rain storm hit us.

We had pre-booked two nights in a lovely little bunkhouse in Leimersheim recommended by our friend Dietlinde - an excellent choice - Louis and Max could not contain their excitement at staying in their own "little house".

26th June - Leimersheim - Gingham Hideaway catching up with an old friend

We spent a rest day at Villa Pettersson feeding ducks, hens and painting snails! Our friend Dietlinde, who lives in Esslingen about 30 km away, came to visit us (on bike of course). We met Dietlinde in Harwich at the start of our first big trip in 2005 and got talking about Rolhoff hubs then. We kept in touch since. Dietlinde came with a full supply of Nussecken for us to eat, a list of up to date campsites and accommodation along the Rhine route and toys for the children. Thank you Didi!

Villa Pettersson provides some affordable luxury to weary cyclotourists. The website can be find under this link. The hosts Bernard and Iris speak excellent English. In the evening, an outside stove was lit for us and Bernard read Louis the story of farmer Pettersson and his cat Findus while we sipped some lovely local rose wine.

27th June - Leimersheim - Lauterbourg - 37km - Rainy day to France

We were mostly near the Rhine until another set of deviations of the Rhine route came into to operation due to works on the flood defence dykes. This deviation was in place for about 60km.

The day was rainy and not particularly interesting apart from a few storks sighting. The border crossing happened all of a sudden somewhere around a roundabout: on one side everything was written in German, and on the other one it was all in French and easy to read again (at least for Isa)!

For the continuation of a trip through Alsace please follow our France page

Strava Route Map Summary (courtesy of Strava)

© Isaetterry 2025