Cyclo-hiking  from BAYREUTH to PRORA (RÜGEN)
via CZECH REPUBLIC

GENERAL DATA

CONTEXT

We had planned our summer 2021 to cycle in Germany and the Czech Republic. But due to the uncertainties of opening/closing borders with the COVID, we preferred to stay in France.

Our loop was not complete (missing 205 km theoretically). A technical problem with the bike meant that we had to stop for about ten days to repair it. As a result we skipped the section between Pont-Farcy and Saint-Malo.

Kilometres :

• Completed 1,532 km (including detours to campsites, shopping and little discover).
  Many parts have very few campsites so we often had to make long detours.
• Theoretical excluding detours: 1,258 km.

Details of the terrain:

SOURCING :

MAPS		ACCOMODATIONS
openstreetmap.org velomap.org/		ARCHIES Campings is dead see (not as good) OSM+OVERPASS ACSI Allemagne ACSI Tchéquie

FEEDBACK OF EXPERIENCE

This is a very nature-oriented trip.

Many of the routes taken are little known and therefore not often used by cyclists. However, the sections of the Main and Eger-Ohře rivers are beautiful.

THE MAIN

This first section of the Main (entirely German) is superb. Especially in the ascent between Bad Berneck im Fichtelgebirge and the spring (Weissmainsquelle) between Bischofsgrün and Fichtelberg.

THE EGER - OHŘE

As soon as you return to Bischofsgrün, you leave the Main and walk up to the watershed. Less than a kilometre further on you find the source of the Eger (Egerquelle). From the border with the Czech Republic its name becomes the Ohře.

This is one of the most beautiful parts of the trip, especially north of 'Chráněná krajinná oblast Slavkovský les', which is a national forest of Western Bohemia. 

THE ELBE

The Ohře River flows into the Elbe at Litoměřice. But our route joined the Elbe upstream, as early as Roudnice nad Labem.

Although the Elbe is mostly frequented by cyclists in its Germanic part, we were finally able to meet some of them on this Czech part... and even a young French couple on a Hase-Pino tandem on a 6-month trip through Europe.

We had discovered this beautiful Elbe 10 years earlier. This year we are only taking a very small part. But in Děčín we made up for our 2012 oversight by climbing the Elbe Sandstone Massif (Děčínská vrchovina) to its high point and famous observation tower (Rozhledna Děčínský Sněžník).

We return to Germany (former East Germany) in Bad-Schandau with a visit to the fantastic Königstein fortress (Festung Königstein). After a short souvenir trip to Dresden, we leave the Elbe and head towards the German-Polish border and the Neisse River.

NEISSE - ODER

To go to the Neisse we wanted to go through the "Národní park České Švýcarsko" (Bohemian Switzerland National Park) in the Czech Republic. But the intense heat of the summer of 2022 had caused fires there a few days before our visit, making it completely off limits. Therefore we diverted further north, above the "Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz" (Saxon Switzerland National Park) on the German side, which was also affected by the fires. Consequently, instead of joining the Neisse near Hrádek nad Nisou, we joined it further on at Görlitz.

This diversions allowed us to discover the famous timber-framed houses of Upper Lusatia (Umgebindehaus - Oberlausitz). They are magnificent (see our slideshow).

The Neisse, which marks the border between Germany and Poland, is a pleasant river with many woods and forests. Towards Neißemünde the Neisse flows into the Oder, which continues to mark the same border to the north.

This entire route is relatively unknown to cycle tourists.

It should be noted that another summer incident occurred further along the Oder. A pollution (suspected cyanobacteria) had led to a massive extermination of fish in the Polish part of the Oder. Hundreds of tons of dead fish had to be collected on the border area where we arrived a few days later. Fortunately the collection was very fast and efficient. We only saw a few fish with their bellies exposed. This probably saved us from the stench.

Beyond Frankfurt an der Oder the landscape is more monotonous, so we left the Oder at Lunow to reach the Ostsee (Baltic Sea) via Angermünde and Prenzlau.

This end of the journey up Germany is not the most pleasant of the trip. This part of the former GDR is not very attractive in terms of buildings. On the roads, streets and paths, between horrible cobblestones, dilapidated concrete slabs and lacy tarmac repaired by super-relief patches, we can't say that the ride is pleasant. Despite our good suspensions it is often quite painful.

OSTSEE RADWEG

We made the Ostsee-Radweg trip in 2013. But we had skipped the Island of Rügen. So we returned to the island via the same route.

Still in the former GDR, this is not the best part of the trip. If the building is nicer (than in the south-north ascent), many roads are in pavements of the most painful which are, on very long distances. Between Greifswald and Reinberg an old cobbled road runs alongside a modern main road. This old road with its hard cobblestones is used as a cycle path. When we passed, a section of several kilometres was under construction. It was to remove the cobbles... so very interesting! Except that all access was forbidden... and no diversion was proposed... except the adjacent main road! Fortunately drivers in the former East Germany (ex-GDR) have become almost as bike-friendly as drivers in the former West Germany (ex-FRG), this was not the case in 2013. But we have never had roadworks in the west without a diversion. This is quite incomprehensible!

RUGEN ISLAND

Everything is fine on the island of Rügen, the tracks and paths are very nice.

We discovered the famous and KOLOSSAL PRORA building complex. In the 1930s the Third Reich built what was to be the largest popular tourist resort in the world: several kilometres of 5-storey buildings, designed to accommodate 20,000 holiday guests: Wikipedia.FR - Prora.
The German Wikipedia version is much more detailed: Wikipedia.DE - Prora

SECTIONS

MAIN and EGER-OHŘE

SLIDESHOW of the portion (in French)

ELBE

SLIDESHOW of the portion (in French)

NEISSE - ODER

SLIDESHOW of the portion (in French)

OSTSEE - RÜGEN ISLAND

SLIDESHOW of the portion (in French)