Epic Bike Rides of the World

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• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781760341879
• Print ISBN:
  9781760340834

- EPIC BIKE RIDES OF THE WORLD -

BAVARIAN BEER RIDE

Cycle through the greatest concentration of breweries on Earth – pacing yourself in this corner of Germany is more about quantity of beer than fitness.

As I pedal through the Aisch Valley in Bavaria, the bars I’m thinking about are not handlebars. In this quiet, seemingly sober valley, things aren’t quite as they seem.

Beyond the facade of neat villages and cornfields is what’s said to be the highest concentration of breweries in the world – the equivalent of about one brewery every 0.6 miles (1km) through the valley. This is one ride in which I’m not being slowed by headwinds or hills, but by temptation.

I’m midway through a three-day cycle trip from Nuremberg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber that’s almost entirely defined by liquid: the Main Danube Canal, the Aisch River and, most importantly, the amber stream known as beer. The Aisch Valley is the ride’s centrepiece, but in this part of Bavaria, beer is a recurring theme.

I begin my ride in Nuremberg, following the Main Danube Canal north. Hovering high above the water is the canal towpath, peering down onto canal boats as they slip through a series of locks. Flowering canola fields colour the land, and towns betray themselves by the sudden presence of joggers and other cyclists on the unfailingly flat path.

© Peter Unger | Getty Images

Nuremberg, a city of brewers for more than 700 years

This day I have the pick of around 40 beer gardens that sit beside, or near to, the canal. I choose the town of Forchheim, once part of the Franconian royal court and now a cobblestoned monument to beer. Though there are a couple of breweries at the heart of the town, I pedal to its outskirts and the forested hill of Kellerberg.

Burrowed into the slopes of Kellerberg are more than a dozen caves used over the centuries to store beer at a constant temperature of 6°C to 10°C. Today the cool caves serve as cellar pubs.

Beneath Kellerberg’s tall trees, those in search of beer nirvana wander up the slopes to the pubs. I pedal past them all, parking my bike against the wall of one cellar pub. It’s fair to say that when I ride back out an hour or so later, I’m a little less steady on the bike than when I arrived.

BAMBERG BEER WAR

In 1907 Bamberg breweries upped the price of their beer, pushing the cost of a half-litre from 11 pfennigs to 12. Bamberg drinkers weren’t amused. In what became known as the Bamberg Beer War, innkeepers went on strike and patrons boycotted local brews. People power won the day. A week after the price hike, the breweries capitulated – the price remained at 11 pfennigs, as it had been for the previous 10 years.

The Aisch River is a just few miles ahead, pouring into the canal, but this day I ride on past its mouth, continuing beside the canal, which points north like a compass needle to Bamberg. Bike paths lead to the very heart of this beautiful medieval city, where the World Heritage-listed old town is like a Shakespearean stage set.

“The route switches between bike paths and undulating country roads that weave between cornfields and beer gardens”

Bamberg might just as well be called Bambeerg. At the start of the 19th century there were said to be 68 breweries in the city. The city now has the Franconian Brewery Museum, hillsides drilled with cellar caves, and a Bamberg Brewery Trail that guides visitors between the nine remaining breweries and their brewery pubs. I consider it carb loading for my next day of riding.

Cycling is a cure for hangovers, or so I’m claiming, as I return slowly back along the canal the next morning, turning west into the Aisch Valley after about an hour. Here I link into the Aisch Valley Bike Route, a marked 73-mile (117km) ride that will take me all the way to Rothenburg.

For the first time there are roads and hills, as the route switches between bike paths and gently undulating country roads that weave between fields of corn and more brewery beer gardens. Squirrels bounce across the trail, their jaws locked around acorns, and small birds of prey hover over ploughed fields. The Aisch River is my guiding line, though it’s rarely in sight.

I stop for lunch in Hochstadt, the largest town I’ll pass through this day, but my eye is really ahead to Voggendorf, a tiny village about 6 miles (10km) further down the road. Little more than a cluster of farm buildings, Voggendorf is typical of the Aisch Valley towns I ride through, containing no stores of any kind but possessing a brewery. I feel immediately welcome in the village as I pedal in past a roadside metal sculpture of a cyclist, albeit with its bum being bizarrely bitten by a fish.

On a rise behind the sculpture is Kellerberg Voggendorf, the beer cellar for the Prechtel Brewery in neighbouring Uehlfeld. Cloud has rolled in and the day outside is as damp as the inside of my stein as I sit under cover, staring out over fields and the surrounding towns, each one pierced by church spires.

After a night in a centuries-old brewery turned guesthouse on the banks of the Aisch River in Neustadt an der Aisch, I’m beginning to think that cycling might actually be bad for me. How else to explain this morning headache and dry mouth once again? But I ride on, albeit slowly, for one of Europe’s most beautiful medieval towns is my goal this day.

The spread of breweries thins past Neustadt, even as the scene gets more beautiful when I cross from the Aisch to the Tauber Valley. Tiny wooded hills punctuate the horizons, and I’m again winding through fields painted yellow with canola crops. The town of Ipsheim advertises a few wineries – heathens! – but there’s barely a beer to be seen.

A wind tows me forward towards my ride’s end in the cobbled squares of Rothenburg. As I near the city, beams of sunlight mark the occasion by suddenly breaking through the cloud cover, making Rothenburg’s roofs glitter like gold. It feels almost as though I’m riding towards some sort of heavenly welcome at the end of a pilgrimage. But really, there’s just another beer ahead. AB

TOOLKIT

Start // Nuremberg

End // Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Distance // 124 miles (200km)

Getting there // The nearest major airport is in Munich; trains run to Nuremberg and Rothenburg

Ride details // The ride follows the Main Danube Canal towpath and the Aisch Valley bike route. A 211-mile (340km) circuit can be cycled by following roads and bike paths along the Franconian Rezat River from Rothenburg to Nuremberg.

Bike hire // Hire from Partner of Sports (www.pos-nuernberg.de) in Nuremberg.

Where to stay // Kohlenmühle Gasthof (www.kohlenmuehle.de) in Neustadt an der Aisch has a guesthouse attached to a working brewery.

© Andreas Strauss / LOOK-foto

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, on the Aisch Valley Bike Route

- EPIC BIKE RIDES OF THE WORLD -

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• AFRICA
• AMERICAS
• ASIA
• EUROPE
• OCEANIA
• Copyright
• Back Cover