Euro bike rally

hey everyone.....so, planning a little euro trip with a lady friend that wants to do some biking in north eastern frace/germany countryside. or wherever....our trip is pretty wide open. anyone done anything like this? of course a little climbing dabbled in here and there would be rad. Thanks.

i think i was in the rhine (sp) valley. base camp was a great little town named ottersheim (sp). the people were super nice. i climbed with folks who spoke as much english s i did german (none) and it was a hoot! we climbed about an hour (motorcycle ride) away and only about an hour from france too. great road riding, best early a.m. bread ever, super coffee, good castles, a few amazing churches and loads of great art! we bumped over to garmish partarkin (sp) for a few days (about 2 hr(?) train ride) of alpine climbing and alps fun... this was a long time ago but it was great. although i was pretty freaked out to be heading all that way with objectives other than climbing, in the end i think it made the entire trip better. enjoy the rides, the good food, the wine (avoid 'colavis' its coke and wine and is horrible...even after 10 glasses), the art, the raw corn and just hangin around euro style.

scott

Thanks Scott....sounds like an awesome trip! im psyched

Matt, you're talking about a bike bike, right, not a motorbike? My family lives close to that area in Germany and I take my bike (bicycle) over there with me everytime I go just to ride those roads. If you're going by bike, and even if by motorbike, the famous wine street is is a cool route to weave around. In Germany it's called the Weinstraße and you can start around Bad Durkheim and head south along classic bike paths, through small towns to the border. I usually cross at Wissembourg, or you can head into the Pfalzer forest to the west and cross. Once in France, the wine road continues as the Route des Vins d'Alsace. The cooler routes skirt the hills, so you'll bend west for a bit before you come back to run parallel to the Rhine (albeit further west of it). If you get tired of the hills in among the wine towns you can always go down into the Rhine valley and ride flat roads. I tend to stay away from Strasbourg when on the bike (just try to avoid big cities in general), plus the smaller villages hugging the hills to the west are way cooler. You can basically take this direction south as far as you want, bouncing through Switzerland and back into France.

Best recommendation is to get the Michelin maps for the areas you want to go, and link up the roads outlined in green - which designates a scenic road. Thin white or yellow marked roads that are outlined in green are phenomenal. The map makers don't travel every little village road, so not all the cool roads are outlined in green, but they are usually near a green one, so you can just figure they rock.

On the rock topic I really don't have much to add, as I haven't climbed in that area, just biked. But I'm sure you can go on a German climbing forum and people will help you out.

Hope the above helps.

EDIT: excuse any misspellings or grammatical screw-ups. Worked until 3am last night so a bit bushed.

thanks erik....that really helps...rhine valley sounds like the place

That entire Alsace-Lorraine area is gorgeous. In terms of being in the Rhine Valley there, I would actually recommend staying away from the Rhine itself. Very industrial in spots, and after a handful of miles it gets boring riding along it. Definitely skirt the hills there. Villages not to be missed are: Ribeauville, Riquewihr, Leistadt up in the north (mainly for the ride that goes up the hill to the SW of it and then drops into Altleiningen). The German side of that lower Rhine Valley is cool as well - it's the Black Forest - but not as fun on a bike..... and damn if the Black Forest hasn't seriously earned that reputation of being wicked. More ticks than I've ever encountered in my life - so beware of bandit camping down some random dirt road.

Link up the above towns and you'll be golden, and if you can go from Altkirch into Switzerland (Porrentruy) and back into France by way of Montancy, Glére, to Saint-Hippolyte you will be in for one of the coolest rides in that area of Europe.

Yeah!!!! Sounds rad. sooo great to have some imput from someone who knows the area. Its hard to know even where to start. Really appreciate the imput.