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Salzburg + southeast Germany
Sharon and I finally got to try out riding in Austria and Germany, and we
were very impressed. I put some photos up at http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b06/a/k What struck us: * incredibly organized routes and trailways for bicycling. * more people out riding than anywhere we've been so far. * high quality of the riding + scenery off the main river routes. * high density of quiet roads to explore with freedom. * new long distance cycle-touring routes that do not follow the rivers. What we found was lots of pretty farms with flowers and horses and cows, with mountains with pointy peaks as a background, variety of hills, some steep but most moderate, seemed like most of the climbs were led to nice views and/or fun downhills. Some lakes, lots of pretty villages with those funny-round-ish church steeples and bakeries. Roads mostly good-quality asphalt and sufficiently wide for the amount of vehicle traffic. We had been hesitant to go there because the reports we'd seen were about trailways along the major rivers like the Donau, Inn, Salzach -- and that's not our style. Instead we did our usual kind of riding like home in the Hudson valley, exploring out on the roads in the hills and valleys and villages of pretty farm country and finishing each day back where we started. Lots of fun for us, and we saw lots of local riders doing the same kind of thing. We stayed in a hotel near on the outskirts of Salzburg. A couple of days we rode from our hotel, a couple of other days we put the bicycle in our rental car to start somewhere else (in the Salzkammergut lakes and in the Czech republic). We started out planning our bicycling loops by choosing roads marked scenic green on our Michelin map which sorta took us to some objective that sounded interesting like a lake or a town -- so the first afternoon we picked the Obertrumer See, and another day we picked the Wagingersee. We soon discovered that the non-river areas were full of signed bicycle routes. Then on our way to the Wagingersee we stopped at a bookstore in Traunstein and they prominently displayed detailed bicycling maps -- usually two competing maps for any nearby region we could think of -- and that's not counting the computer CDs we could have bought. Actually trying to follow all those maps and signs was more entertaining. We eventually figured out that if we followed road signs naming villages we could find on our map, then at least we'd have a good clue where we were. other things: * long distance cycle-tourism: Two non-river routes which we happened to find ourselves on sections of -- which seemed nice we Mozart radweg (wanders around the Chiemgau area of Germany and in Austria within 150km of Salzburg) and Bodensee-to-Koenigssee radweg (from Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden) -- both have obvious websites. * Salzkammergut lakes were indeed pretty, and despite being surrounded by serious hills, much of the riding was gentle. We found some quiet pretty roads following a bicycle route with the romantic designation "R2". * the lengths to which Salzkammergut goes to be bicycle-friendly are amazing: a little bicycle ferry to make it more convenient to visit St Wolfgang, a separate bicycle tunnel (with view areas) next to the car tunnel. I do not know how other bicycling destinations intend to compete. * a large percentage of the off-road bicycle trails which do not follow rivers are next to vehicle roads. For my own bicycling I'd have been happy if they'd just used the same amount of space to make a wider roadway -- but if having a separated path gets lots more people out bicycling, I guess it must be good. * we were glad to find some nice bicycle paths in the city of Salzburg itself. * the number of people we saw out bicycling on weekdays was amazing. I don't know where people got the idea that Italy was a big bicycling country compared with this, and it seemed like clearly more riders than most places I've been in France. Ken P.S. We also spent a couple of days doing the same style of riding far west near the Bodensee and St Gallen (Switzerland + Germany around Lake Constance). Most of the same observations apply, except that the mountain peaks weren't as close. Lots more fun + pretty bicycling-friendly terrain to be explored -- except next time we ride around the west end of the Bodensee from Konstanz to Meersburg, we'll choose a non-weekend day so we won't have to deal with so much bicycling traffic. |
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#2
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
Ken Roberts wrote: * the number of people we saw out bicycling on weekdays was amazing. I don't know where people got the idea that Italy was a big bicycling country compared with this, I don't know either. As a matter of fact in Italy it is usually quite hard to find a reasonable way to bike from one place to another It takes a lot of experience and ingenuity in map reading, if not luck. Road signs are never put up for riders' benefit; tunnels are unlit or poorly so and detours simply forgotten about, if not just blocked off; trains that let you take a bike on are becoming rarer and rarer on most important lines; bicycle paths are put up to hit the headlines on the newspapers, for political reasons in fact: they are just a joke. Beware! Sergio Pisa |
#3
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
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#4
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
R Brickston wrote
Next Euro trip, GPS is at the top of the packing list. I have not found navigation in Europe harder than in USA, and in one way easier -- based on riding so far in France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, and a day in the Czech republic. The key difference I find is that road signs in USA tend to be based on the _road_ -- its name or number. Road signs in Europe tend to be based on the _place_ or places the road is going toward -- though some areas, especially France, are adding lots of road numbers. Navigation by either system can break down if signs are missing or misleading, or if the name on the sign doesn't agree with your out-of-date or inaccurate map. Advantage of the European approach is that if the name of the place you want to get to has been selected to appear on the road signs, you can mostly just keep following that place name thru several intersections and turns to get to where you're going, not worry about changes in road names. Most of the time in Europe, Sharon and I have some 1:200000 map, and we find that if we stick to roads shown and places named on that scale of map (which does not show all the little roads), we don't have much problem with navigation and we find pretty + interesting riding (and for us this works in Italy just as well as in other countries). The tricky part comes when we see some interesting little road or bike route sign that lures us onto the smaller roads, and then things don't look like we expected -- especially if it's getting late in the day or the weather is turning bad. So I have not used GPS for navigation in Europe, and have not thought I needed it. I briefly tried GPS in USA, but found it more of hassle than it was worth, so now I'm back to maps and road signs for both. Ken |
#5
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
Ken Roberts wrote: I have not found navigation in Europe harder than in USA, and in one way easier -- based on riding so far in France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, and a day in the Czech republic. Europe is rather varied, I reckon. Let me talk Italy. Identification numbers of the roads are not always easy, nor possible, to spot. You invariable have to rely on signs telling destination towns: these are always there. Which towns in that direction is up to the Authority that put up the signs; so often they are simply stupid, and they can be quite misleading. More often than not, when a new road has been opened to avoid through traffic, you simply cannot identify the most direct road, usually the old road, that you want to stay on. So, if you follow the signs, you might be taken on a long detour and, in some cases, to the entrance of a tunnel that you are not allowed to enter, and in fact you would not want to challange. In short, you often simply must ignore signs put up for motorists; nor are there so many of them for bike riders. Sergio Pisa |
#6
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
Sergio wrote
Let me talk about Italy I do not remember navigating in Italy to be significantly harder or easier than other European countries or the United States -- and I've cycled and skated on roads in lots of places around Italy -- though surely not as many places and as many days as Sergio. So maybe I've just been lucky. Or maybe since I'm just a visitor, I don't attempt as sophisticated routes and difficult goals as Sergio. Or maybe since I'm from USA, I don't expect much support for bicyclists or road-skaters. Anyway I sure hope I'll get the chance to go to Italy for more bicycle touring. I do bring one special piece of equipment for safer + better cycling in Europe: GSM mobile phone with SIM card(s) that works in the countries I'm visiting. Ken |
#7
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
Ken Roberts writes:
Let me talk about Italy I do not remember navigating in Italy to be significantly harder or easier than other European countries or the United States -- and I've cycled and skated on roads in lots of places around Italy -- though surely not as many places and as many days as Sergio. Typically in south Tirol between Merano and Bolzano, roundabouts have been built at many road junctions with signs that try to direct people to their toll autostrada with no alternative sign for the conventional highway. I've learned to follow my nose in those area and not the signs. In addition, a destination at one road junction often has no distance given and is not present on the sign at the next road junction. This was once better and may again get better as enough complaints are registered. So maybe I've just been lucky. Or maybe since I'm just a visitor, I don't attempt as sophisticated routes and difficult goals as Sergio. Or maybe since I'm from USA, I don't expect much support for bicyclists or road-skaters. Anyway I sure hope I'll get the chance to go to Italy for more bicycle touring. The route I described is not complex and was once easily understood. I do bring one special piece of equipment for safer + better cycling in Europe: GSM mobile phone with SIM card(s) that works in the countries I'm visiting. You can do that with Cingular, for instance, the expanded service costs $5.60/mo and works like a charm. You can enter phone numbers into your directory with the international and country area code and they will work everywhere. I had no problem telephoning from Praha or Slovenia, tho the USA, local calls, and to my riding companion who also had international service. Jobst Brandt |
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
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#9
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
Ken Roberts wrote: I do not remember navigating in Italy to be significantly harder or easier than other European countries or the United States -- and I've cycled and skated on roads in lots of places around Italy -- though surely not as many places and as many days as Sergio. So maybe I've just been lucky. Or maybe since I'm just a visitor, I don't attempt as sophisticated routes and difficult goals as Sergio. Or maybe since I'm from USA, I don't expect much support for bicyclists or road-skaters. Anyway I sure hope I'll get the chance to go to Italy for more bicycle touring. I do bring one special piece of equipment for safer + better cycling in Europe: GSM mobile phone with SIM card(s) that works in the countries I'm visiting. Ken I also didn't have any problem finding my way in northern Italy. Near the end of my two week bike tour of northern Italy, I ride into Trento and from Trento I put my bike and myself on the train to Milan. At Milan central station I had intended to ride to Milan international airport. Couldn't do it. I don't think it's possible. The roads are too maze-like. I ended up putting my bike in a taxi . |
#10
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Salzburg + southeast Germany
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