… chain of hostels, headquartered in Berlin, that targets young travelers and backpackers, offering cheap group rooms and inexpensive hotel rooms.
The hostels are generally centrally located, mostly close to train stations. A&O has 40 subsidiaries in nine countries, making it the biggest privately owned hostel-chain in Europe.
My one complaint is the hilariously poor common kitchens. Every effort has been made to keep their clients from using them. 😀
Early in the trip, Rhine Falls (Rheinfalls) was a major highlight.
Germany is probably the best nation in the world right now for cycling. The Deutschland Rail ticket is still next to free in 2024, so I could hop local trains as needed.
I’d long wanted to visit Strasbourg, France. And it is great.
Of course I stop and click much old architecture. It’s evocative.
I often detoured to parks and botanical gardens.
There are a surprising number of ferries crossing the Rhine.
I was back and forth, both sides of the river.
Vineyards. Vineyards. Vineyards.
Campgrounds are plentiful and inexpensive along the river.
I only wild camped 3 times.
Many fish the Rhine. I assumed it would be fished out — until watching a father and son reel in this monster.
Another highlight was seeing castles up on high points above the river.
I can’t say much about the cuisine as I mostly ate my own food. Plenty of good bread, blue cheese, hummus.
Certainly Germany is one of the easiest places in the world for bikepacking.
The campgrounds have chargers for electric bikes !
I’m more than a little worried about Faroe Islands and Iceland …
Over 2 days I did at least 100km in the Black Forest. Nice.
Wild camped.
Sadly, the final town no longer had a working train station. I scrambled, taking over 4 hours on three trains to get back to the Rhine. And into Strasbourg, France.
By coincidence, same day, France was playing Spain in sports ball … losing to Spain, 2-1.
I knew nothing of Karlsruhe before stopping here at a hostel on my Rhine cycling trip.
I’d gotten drenched wild camping the night before — my 4th tropical rain storm since arriving Germany.
When the lightning started, I quickly found this higher spot on the flood plain to set-up my tent. It WAS muddy.
HEY. In 1817, Karlsruhe-born Karl Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn devised a brilliant invention – he developed the world’s first two-wheeler – called “Draisine” in his honour. The original can still be admired at the City Museum in Prince Max Palace.
The first ran on rails.
It’s considered the precursor to the modern bicycle.
Turns out Karlsruhe will be hosting the World Games in 2029. This is the Olympics for non-Olympic sports like Power Tumbling and Double-mini Trampoline.
The city was planned with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the “fan city” (Fächerstadt). Almost all of these streets survive to this day.
By A.Savin
A nice stop. Very green. Plenty of parks to cycle.
Rick McCharles 