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I want to take my bike on a train that goes through Germany and eventually to Hook of Holland.
In the UK, outside rush hour, I would just rock up and try to squeeze my bike on the train.
In California, on Caltrain, it's just amazing, and how all trains should be (apart from going very slowly and only once an hour).
But in Germany and the Netherlands you apparently have to book a ticket for your bike? Really? How? Does anyone know where from? The instructions are completely baffling.
Next time I'm going to take Ryan Air. It's much more straightforward.
Things get a bit complicated when you want to cross a border. I believe you need an international bike ticket for which you need to phone dB. Get yourself across to the cyclinguk forum and ask there.
The man in seat 61 website is my go to for all questions like this, worth a look!
As @tomB says, the man in seat 61 is the go to when I’ve travelled with bike in Europe.
In Germany you should book a ticket for high speed trains, but the regional bahns you can just put a bike on no problem, (and they generally have much more capacity than uk trains, just avoid rush hour in major cities).
Is it just one train all the way through?
If starting in Germany, just try bahn.de
In the Netherlands there are time restrictions https://www.ns.nl/en/travel-information/bikes-on-the-train.html
Though I don’t know what happens if it’s a cross border train.
There is this site for European train bookings... Might help.
https://www.thetrainline.com/
Thanks everyone, I think I've booked something via DB, including a bike ticket, stored on their app. The secret magic was searching for a "Fahrradtageskarte" on the DB site - thanks to the seat61 site for that.
I shall report back on whether this worked or not in a few weeks time.
(Goes off to grumble that I voted for Brexit so I wouldn't have to buy train tickets for my bike, this isn't the Brexit I voted for, sovrinty, etc, etc).
For future researchers seeking to understand this puzzle:
- I booked a ticket on the DB website and told the search thing I was taking a bike, so it avoided trains that needed anything special. You can also increase the transfer time allowed.
- On the same site you can separately buy a ticket just for the bike, for EUR8. You can download this to an Android app.
- and then go to the Dutch railway site to get a ticket for the Dutch section, same price, and another app.
No one ever actually looked at either ticket.
A few photos from the journey. I left midweek - the ride from Cambridge through Essex was in cold but glorious sunshine.
I got off the ferry in Hoek van Holland and stood around in the rain contemplating my Brexit Benefits, and then immediately got lost. Eventually found my way back to the coastal route up the coast to Den Haag, then across to Utrecht, Arnhem and into Germany. It rained pretty much the whole way.
Cycle paths were amazing (apart from the flints - I had a mad number of punctures, so much for GP5000s).
Most memorable meal was a giant warm, soft, crispy pretzel in the hotel restaurant in Xanten - delicious with beer!
Cool trip. I'd recommend some schwalbe marathons for avoiding punctures.
Taking bikes in the EU seems to be OK on the slower trains, but the high-speed ones are more like flying so you are restricted in size eg Eurostar will only take fold-up bikes atm.
Did you see the famous 123m tall steeple of Salisbury cathedral?
Did you see the famous 123m tall steeple of Salisbury cathedral?
Nope!
It's a sign on the way in to Xantes. Looks very official. Perhaps there is a "Wilkommen nach Xantes" in Salisbury somewhere?