Last year I started my first long bicycle tour, along the D11 (Ostsee-Oberbayern-Radweg) across Germany. I made it about a quarter in, 500km. This year I wanted to continue for another 5-6 days but life got in the way, and so I could only do 3 days and 300km, still great fun.
Planning
As I already had some experience, it was just finding good stops along the route this time.
The plan was:
- Hilpoltstein (where I left the route last year) to Bamberg, 109km
- Bamberg to Himmelkron (near Bayreuth), 103km
- Himmelkron to Hof, 62km
Again I used this page for the route, but didn't keep to their daily routes, but assembled my own daily track with the help of gpxbox.com and gpx.studio. So my day 1 is their day 17 plus 25km, my day 2 is the rest of their day 16 plus their day 15 (minus 5km), and my day 3 is 2/3 of their day 14. Why? Mostly because theirs are too short, and my hotel on day 2 was 60% of the price of their proposed town, 5km further. Also there's a good train connection from Hof back to Munich, didn't see where the next good one crosses this route.
Preparations
As I've still not managed to get a replacement wheel for last year's used gravel bike after it broke, I'm taking the gravel bike I bought in early June, my KTM X-Strada. The bag setup is similar, but a little different. Different pannier, different handlebar bag, and a half-size frame bag. Other than that I booked my two hotel stays about two days before I started, and researched what trains to take and bought a couple snacks.
Day 0
Deutsche Bahn letting me down? What a surprise! The train I wanted to take (from Munich to Allersberg at 7:05) the next day was canceled, as was the 9:05 one. Yes, Allersberg is not Roth, but it's only 10km away, to the north east, so I was gonna go along Rothsee and do the same amount of kilometers, I'm not that anal about the exact route. Anyway, so I had to take the train to Roth at 8:05, which is 11km off to the north west, so I might have skipped 5km here.
Day 1 - Roth - Bamberg
Getting up at 6:45, packing up the last things and arriving at Munich main station around 7:30, buying a ticket for myself and the bike, grabbing breakfast and waiting, getting to Roth at 9:45ish. Unfortunately it was raining for the first 2h, otherwise a nice start along the Main-Donau-Kanal into Nuremberg.
I was amazed how you can avoid most traffic lights by going over and under bridges near the city center. Was a bit cold, so I went for a bite but made the bad call to go into a small coffee joint (with rave reviews on Google Maps) which served luke warm espresso, luke warm coke (from a fridge tho...) and some ok cheesecake. Should have gone to the Korean place next door but I wasn't really hungry. Live and learn.
Next on to Fürth, directly adjacent, no rain anymore.
After that the route took me past Erlangen but I decided I wanted to see the city after all and made about a 4km detour into the city center and looked around for a bit then grabbed a beer at Kitzmann Bräuschenke. I suppose the Kitzmann brewery should thank JBO for the free advertisement when people still remember after over 20 years ;) Next stop was Forchheim where I did a quick tour around the city center and was looking for another beer garden as I had only around 30km to go and it was quite early.
Didn't see anything open or looking good until I rode past the RadOase, a small kiosk. Turned around, sat down, chatted with the locals and sampled more than one beer, then even had company while riding along to Bamberg. The only downside was that it was getting dark already now and I just went to the hotel (Hotel National, nothing special but absolutely nothing to complain for 60 EUR), took a shower, and looked for dinner.
Went to Bella Tandoori Express which despite the name is a freshly opened perfectly normal sit-down Indian restaurant and I had delicious Pakoras and Chicken Vindaloo for a fair price. Would recommend. After that I walked to the closest gas station for an evening snack because I had no sweets left.
Daily kilometers: 127
Total kilometers: 127
Day 2 - Bamberg - Himmelkron
Quick visit to a supermarket for breakfast, packing up things and got a bit of a late start at 9:00, again did a quick tour of the city center (and was happy there were less people than on Sunday evening for the "Sandkerwa").
The next part of the tour was not very exciting from a sightseeing point of view, Bad Staffelstein seemed nice though and when I rolled into Lichtenfels I took the chance to grab a quick bite at McDonalds because I was mostly after a big coke and not so much after food, then continued along the river Main to Kulmbach. Unfortunately I have to admit Kulmbach was the worst city for cycling of all the cities I'd seen, at least coming from the west and leaving in the east. Sat down for an alcohol free wheat beer and then continued on to Himmelkron.
I really wanted to go to Bayreuth for dinner and to look around but my legs didn't want to do another hilly 30km round trip after 110km that day.
My hotel was a bit weird, in the industry zone of this small town, the reception inside the gas station and the hotel building itself 200m behind the gas station. Anyway, it was clean and spacious and they had free water. Also not too bad for 80 EUR. They even provided free ear plugs because of the road/gas station parking lot close by. Had dinner at "Frankenfarm", a couple hundred meter down the road, got Schäufele and a beer, then headed back quickly.
Daily kilometers: 113
Total kilometers: 240
Day 3 - Himmelkron - Hof
I wanted to start early because I had a train to catch around noon, but after a little change of plans I slept a little longer and I would later get to regret that decision. Didn't really feel too good that morning, my stomach hurt a bit, my jaw was a bit weird (still is, as I write this a day later) and the legs also were a little sore.
First five kilometers to Bad Berneck were not great, stopped at a supermarket for a coffee and some batteries for my Garmin (had used my spares already and no more spares with me). After Bad Berneck the brutal part began, 10km of constant mellow climbing, which worked ok, with a couple quick stops, and then a bigger hill (still <100m of elevation but pretty steep), apparently I am not great at climbing at the moment, glad I didn't try crossing the alps this week...
After that I "just" had to get to the train station in Hof, "only" 40km, but absolutely struggling with every hill, pushing my average speed way down. I was stressing out a little, didn't stop for leisure, just to rest, didn't really care about taking photos, but I at least tried to get the views in, but it wasn't that exciting, I just hope I didn't miss anything great. Anyway, train was supposed to leave at 12:40 and in the end I made it there at 12:15, had time to buy drinks and snacks and then sit down in the train, still shaking.
Got off in Freising, got some ice cream and an espresso, walked around town for a bit, then had dinner at Ariston, delicious Bifteki. Fortunately my Bayernticket was also valid for the S-Bahn so I took the next one to the city and cycled the last 5-6km home, even without my stuff, yay. On the one hand I'm a bit sad the original plan of getting off in Regensburg didn't work out, on the other hand I really needed those 3.5h of rest on the train, I think.
Daily kilometers: 67
Total kilometers: 307
Packing list
Not sure I really want to repeat this, it's 90% the same as last year
- didn't use my buff
- was so happy about my wind jacket this time
- Shimano MTB shoes instead of the Five Tens
- didn't really eat as many bars and sweets this time
Stuff I want to improve:
- small power bank in the backpack, not the bigger one in the pannier
- should buy a 2nd bidon again instead of strapping bottles to the frame with a voile strap (it worked though)
- do not run out of AA batteries
- probably get a proper modern Garmin bike computer where I can add stuff without a laptop
Expenses
-
Preparation:
- another new bike, not counting that one
- bike equipment:
- 2 bottle cages
- half-frame bag by MIVELO
- handlebar bag
-
Hotels:
- Bamberg: 62 EUR
- Himmelkron: 80 EUR
-
Trains:
- 2x 6.50 EUR for the bike
- 26 EUR for München - Roth
- 29 EUR for a Bayernticket
Food is again a little hard to pin down because I simply don't care so much, I'm not eating at expensive restaurants if I can avoid it (same as at home) and 5 EUR here or there are not worth keeping track of for me.
- Munich: 2 EUR
- Nuremberg: 11 EUR
- Erlangen: 5 EUR + 3 EUR
- Forchheim: 12 EUR
- Bamberg: 27 EUR + 3 EUR + 5 EUR
- Lichtenfels: 11 EUR
- Himmelkron: 21 EUR + 5 EUR
- Hof: 6 EUR
So that's 22 EUR for 2 lunches, 48 EUR for 2 dinners, and 41 EUR for drinks, snacks, beer and I probably missed some stuff but I guess it's not more than 5 EUR for various bars and sweets I brought from home. Let's say 120 for 2.5 days.
I suppose the dinners would be the easiest way to save some money.
So excluding any equipment, that's 120+140+70 = 330 EUR for 3 days.
Small aside, as I talked to someone on the trip, we both agreed that calling it a "credit card tour" just because you sleep in a hotel feels wrong to both of us. Maybe there are some of these mythical cheap camping sites, but we've both not seen them in Germany. You will easily pay 20 EUR as a solo adult with a tent, and up to 30+ isn't too uncommon if you're in the wrong spot. All the while being hard to research and often you can't even reserve. Oh, and power for charging might be extra. So yes, I'm always using the cheapest hotel I can find on booking.com that was a relatively good rating, but so far I've not paid more than 80 per night. Totally worth it, but I suppose now after 5 nights I might have saved up enough to pay for the tent + sleeping bag + cooking system, but not completely sure.
Final thoughts
The first two days were superb, the third would have been better if I didn't have to catch the train. With all the climbing I would have probably made it an 80km day and take my time (if I only need dinner and get to my hotel room, I would have had 8 more hours). Wasn't the worst day on the bike though (but probably the worst 60km of my life :P).
So now I have 900km left to Rostock, then I will have completed the D11 from the Austrian border to the Baltic Sea. At this rate I will manage to finish it in 2026, but with all the big elevation days over, maybe I will make it in 2025.
