Rhine River Bike Tour: TRIP PLANNING

Until this year! Changes in our work situations freed up our schedules, so we turned my semi-regular conference in Cologne (Köln), Germany into a vacation — a RHINE RIVER BIKE TOUR!

Planning our Rhine River Route

The last time we were in Cologne, we did a short day ride along the Rhine south of the city. But I know the Rhine River is long and that people cycle it for weeks, so I decided to check it out and bought this book:

Yes, I still buy books! I could plan the whole trip online, and I did use online resources like the official Euro Velo site and route maps in Komoot, but I love simply sitting down with a book in my hands and reading. And if for some reason the Internet and/or GPS disappears while we’re traveling, we’ll still have this book full of maps and route instructions.

Also, a book gives a nice at-a-glance overview of the whole ride. I knew we didn’t have time to do the entire Rhine River route from “Source to Sea”, not if we wanted to sightsee along the way. It is possible to race through the whole thing in about a month, but that wasn’t our goal.

NOTE: The guide book divides the route into 27 sections, aka “days of riding”.

So the big question was: Which sections should we ride? Which sections were the most scenic?

The answer was obvious: Switzerland!

We’ve never been to Switzerland, but it sounded so incredible I was determined to get there, even though we were beginning this trip in Cologne (Köln), Germany, two-thirds of the way to the North Sea. I didn’t know if we’d have time to ride from Cologne all the way to the source of the Rhine River in the Alps; plus, Pier might divorce me if I made him cycle UP into the mountains. So, best to start at the top! But how to get there?

Luckily, Europe has these lovely things called trains that run everywhere, even to remote Swiss mountains.

Booking a Train to Switzerland

The best source I found for info about trains is The Man in Seat 61. I searched his site for trains from Cologne, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland — Zurich is on the way to Oberalp Pass, so we had to stop and see it!

We had three main options to choose from:

1. Nightjet Sleeper Train
2. High-speed ICE Train
3. Swiss EuroCity Train

It’s important to mention that we had all the train options to choose from because of the Bromptons. If you’re travelling with full-sized bikes, you’d need to first make sure the train you’re booking has space for bikes, and often you have to book that space by buying a ticket for your bike too.

We bought our Swiss EuroCity train tickets a couple months in advance, which saved us a ton of money. The plan was to spend a couple days just hanging out around Cologne before catching the train to Switzerland. I didn’t want to go from plane to train without a buffer of a couple days, in case flights were delayed. Turns out, we needed that buffer!

Navigating an Airline Strike

I was supposed to fly out a few days earlier than Pier for Devcom, the same game developers conference I attended in 2023. However, just days before my departure, the union representing Air Canada’s flight attendants announced they would strike that Saturday if an agreement wasn’t reached. My flight was on Friday. Pier’s was on the following Tuesday, so he smartly booked himself a refundable backup ticket so he could still get to Europe. But I didn’t, believing that since my flight was scheduled to leave before the strike, I’d be fine.

But then Air Canada, who clearly had no intention of negotiating with the union anymore, started preemptively cancelling flights, but not in a timely manner. The morning I was supposed to fly out, my flight was cancelled, and I scrambled to rebook another flight — paid for by Air Canada if I could find something with one of their partner airlines.

I only had 3 options, none of them great. At a minimum, I’d arrive two days late, but those earlier options both had stopovers (one in the USA – no thanks!), so I chose the direct flight even though it meant arriving three whole days late.

TIP: If possible, allow 2-3 buffer days at the beginning of a bike tour to accommodate delays, be they from strikes, weather, lost luggage or corporate greed (i.e. airlines overbooking flights).

I was sad to miss Devcom, but it served as a good buffer so I didn’t miss any of the bike trip. And thankfully Pier booked a backup flight, since we only had two buffer days between his flight in and the train to Switzerland. If Air Canada had rebooked him for 3 days later, he would have missed the train! In the future, we’ll aim to increase our buffer to at least 3 days.

Flying with the Brompton + AirTag!

Even with the delay, I still flew out one day before Pier, so my Brompton and I took the UP Express train to Pearson all by ourselves.

For this trip, we attached AirTags to the bikes (duct-taped to the side of the front luggage block) for a little piece of mind. After checking my Brompton and putting it onto the Oversized conveyer belt, I watched it move away from me on Apple’s “Find My” app. When I boarded the plane, I watched it move closer until it was zero kilometres away, likely in the luggage hold directly below my feet!

It was a relief to know my bike was on board as we flew out of Toronto.

Hours later, while flying over the Rhine River in Germany, I thought, “We’ll soon be cycling that!”

After landing, I checked the app and saw that my Brompton had indeed arrived in Frankfurt with me. Waiting between the Oversized Luggage Area and Regular Luggage conveyer belt (because we never know where the bikes will come out) was much less stressful when I could track the bike.

NOTE: My bike came out with the Regular Luggage, even though it went in as Oversized. I suspect that when things are unloaded from the plane, the luggage handlers just eyeball the bag and if it looks regular-sized, that’s where they put it.

There, I took the bike out of the bag to check it over more thoroughly (all was good!), screw on the hinges, and inflate the tires.

I put it back in the Travel Bag so that I only had two pieces of luggage to get on the train (Travel Bag + Borough bag) rather than three (bike + Borough bag + rolled up Travel Bag).

Once I arrived in Cologne, I found a spot to unpack and reassemble into “riding mode”.

Then I cycled over the Hohenzollern Bridge that I spent so much time traversing in 2023, but this was the first time with my Brompton. Of course, the occasion needed to be marked with a photo.

The Trip Begins…

The next day Pier flew in to Frankfurt, took the train to Cologne, and from there we cycled to Monheim. Why not stay in Cologne? Well, with Gamescom taking place, all the hotels in Cologne were already booked or outrageously expensive, so we searched for more affordable places to stay along the Rhine River, and found a new Holiday Inn in Monheim’s business centre that fit the bill.

And we were off!

• DAY 1 – Rhine River Bike Tour: Cologne to Monheim (GERMANY)
• DAY 2 – Rhine River Bike Tour: Monheim to Dusseldorf (GERMANY)
• DAY 3 – Rhine River Tour: The Scenic Train to SWITZERLAND!
• 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)