A Multimodal Backup Plan

But the night before, I started to worry… What if we had a mechanical problem with the bikes? The shortest cycle route back to Cologne didn’t follow a rail line; we couldn’t just hop on a train if something went wrong.

So I suggested to Pier that we take a train from Langenfeld to Cologne. As we knew from our trip back from Düsseldorf the day before, Langenfeld is only a short cycle (4 km) from Monheim, and the bike path runs along a road that has bus service, so if anything happened on that little stretch, we had backup.

I really didn’t want to miss the scenic train to Switzerland!

Pier agreed that we should take a train from Langenfeld to Cologne. We checked the schedule on the DB app and learned that a train ran every 20 minutes, with one connection.

TIP: The German train (Deutsche Bahn) app is wonderful! Not only can you check schedules and buy tickets right from your phone, it gives you live info on the status of every train – what stop the train is at, how late the train is running, what the expected arrival time is, etc.

We left the hotel in Monheim at 9am, giving ourselves 2 hours for a bike + train trip that would only take roughly an hour.

Note that I packed my back rack the way I’d done multiple times before — using the Brompton rack’s bungee cords to secure the folded Travel Bag. I also have a light pack of clothes on top. This is how I rode all the way from Cologne to Monheim.

We were barely out of Monheim, less than halfway to the Langenfeld train station, when BAM! By bike stopped dead. Luckily, I didn’t fall, but something was clearly wrong with my back wheel.

I called for Pier to stop, then got off and took a look, trying not to freak out…

I was almost relieved to see that it wasn’t a flat tire or a busted spoke that got caught or something else we couldn’t easily fix. Instead, a bungee cord had popped off the rack and wrapped around the rear cogs.

Thankfully, we had mini scissors in the first aid kit!

We cut the bungee out of the cog, straightened the bent fender, and used electrical tape to attach the broken rack stay. Then I gave it a test ride… and it was fine! Whew!

Pier was worried about missing the train, but we still had tons of time. Though if this had happened on the 22km cycle to Cologne, I would have been panicking. Thanks to the Multimodal Backup Plan, even with this setback, we still had more than enough time to catch our train.

Cologne Central Station (Köln Hbf)

Even though both German trains we took to get to Cologne were running behind (something we’d learned to expect after being in Germany just a couple days), we arrived at Cologne Central Station with more than half an hour to spare!

Using the DB app, we figured out which track our Swiss EuroCity train would arrive on, and which part of the platform we should be at to coincide with the train car we were on. (We had splurged and bought 1st class!)

Cologne Central Station is a nice place to wait for a train. It’s quite pretty.

Because we had some time, I opted to use the train station washroom rather than wait for the Swiss train to arrive.

German Public Washrooms

In Germany, most public washrooms (or “WC” as the signs say in Europe) are not free. Often the charge is as little as 50 cents, but sometimes, like at Cologne Central Station, a WC can cost a whopping 2.50 euros! In Canadian dollars, it cost me almost $5 to pee! At least the washroom was large and very clean. It even had a shower stalls section.

TIP: Keep some change in your pocket for the WCs. Sometimes, like at the Cologne train station, you can pay with your credit card (which comes with an extra fee), but most WCs only take coins.

The Scenic Swiss EuroCity Train

The Swiss train was about 10 minutes late, and the announcer on board was sooooo apologetic. We’d learn that Swiss trains are extremely punctual, and I believe they did their best, but when in Germany sharing tracks with German trains, it’s inevitable that the chronically late German trains would put the Swiss a bit behind schedule too. Still, it wasn’t that bad and we were amused by how devastated the announcer sounded about the slight lateness.

We were sitting in 1st class, but we didn’t pay extra for reserved seats. Since the train wasn’t at capacity, that didn’t seem to be a problem. However, as we pulled out of Cologne Central Station, a porter came by putting little pieces of paper above some of the seats, including ours.

I stood up to read it. Uh-oh. It said “Reserved” in red ink, then two station stops were written, “Bonn Hbf – Basel SBB”.

Looks like someone was getting on at Bonn and would want to sit in these seats!

So we moved to some unreserved seats at the back of the train car where we found a chatty older couple who were from Canada too.

For scale, below is a photo of the seat reservation slips – they are very small. The reservation slip is on the right, and no reservation (blank) is on the left.

Though it wasn’t the most beautiful day for views (a bit cloudy), we enjoyed spotting castles in the Rhine Gorge. It definitely made me hope we had time to get back to this section and cycle it!

But do note — The scenic part of this train is really just the first half, to Mainz. After that, the train leaves the Rhine River and travels west of it, still parallel to the river, but not nearly close enough to see it.

And with terrible timing, the sun came out for the less scenic part of the journey! Oh well, I got this nice photo just north of Mannheim (an industrial city we’d end up staying in later on this trip).

This is probably a good time to mention that though I did a LOT of trip planning before we left, I hadn’t had enough time to finish. I’d planned up until Strasbourg, France, but the remaining five days were question marks, and I did not yet know that we’d find ourselves in Mannheim, Germany on Day 18.

Speaking of Trip Planning, I mentioned in that post that we didn’t need to reserve a bike space for our Bromptons because they fold small enough to put on the luggage racks. If we’d been travelling with full-sized bikes, we would have had to book and pay for a spot.

After 8 hours of travel, and despite the slightly late start, we arrived in Switzerland right on time!

Notice in the photo above how I am now attaching the bags to my back rack with a strap? Very tightly. We deduced that the problem with the bungees is that they move, and if they move enough, they can unhook and pop off. Though the straps are way less convenient than the built-in rack bungees, they held solidly for the rest of the trip (even on a back rack with one broken stay).

Up next… We bike around Zurich!

Rhine River Bike Tour: Previous + Upcoming Posts!

• DAY 1 – Rhine River Bike Tour: Cologne to Monheim (GERMANY)
• DAY 2 – Rhine River Bike Tour: Monheim to Dusseldorf (GERMANY)
• DAY 4 – Cycle-Sightseeing in Zurich (SWITZERLAND)
• DAY 5 – Swiss Alps Hike to Devil’s Bridge
• DAY 6 – Rhine River Bike Tour: SWITZERLAND – From the top! (Stage 1)
• DAY 7 – Rhine River Bike Tour: SWITZERLAND – Gorge(ous) views! (Stage 2)
• DAY 8 – Swiss Alps Hike & Toboggan
• DAY 9 – Rhine River Bike Tour: SWISS DOWNPOUR! (Stage 3)