Biking the Tauern Bike Path (Tauernradweg), Austria / © 2005 by Brian Wasson

• Getting to Krimml
• Train travel in Germany and Austria
• Where to spend the night (finding a B&B, etc.)
• Weather
• Guidebook Recommendations
• Language Issues
• Connections: Internet, phones, cell phones, calling cards, etc.
• German Words for Bike Parts

Getting to the start of the Tauern path in Krimml, Austria

Krimml is not the easiest place to get to. Without renting a vehicle, you have three main options to get there: van transfer, train, and bus transfer. All suggestions assume that you will be starting your trip at the Munich airport. Flying into Salzburg would make things a bit easier and save you some time, but it's a much smaller airport with less convenient flights from the USA (indeed, I'm not sure that any airline flies directly to Salzburg from the USA).

Van transfer: this is the fastest (2-3 hours), most convenient, and most expensive way to get to Krimml from the Munich airport. I've used van transfer services on two occasions to get to Krimml. The first time, I used TirolConnect (which may not be in business any longer; their Web site seems to be shut down). The second time, I used 4-Seasons Travel. Both companies are based in Innsbruck and provide scheduled service between the Munich airport and Innsbruck. However, a transfer to Krimml is a custom transfer, and can be expensive. For this trip (2002) the cost was around 130 Euros for the two of us. Thankfully, at the time the exchange rate was well in favor of the US dollar, so the trip actually only cost us around $115 US. Still, it's not cheap, and at current 2005 exchange rates would be pretty expensive. However, the time savings and lack of hassle make this an option to consider. It's very nice to get off the plane, get your bags and bike, and then be whisked away by your own van to your pension in Krimml in less than three hours. We were there in time to have a late lunch, with plenty of time to put the bike together, get organized, and see the sights. Both transfer services use standard-sized European vans like the Ford Transit. We had no problem getting the tandem in either van. Several companies also offer regular van service from the Munich airport to Salzburg, where you could then take the train to Krimml or Zell am See (see below).

Train: It is possible to get to Krimml via train, but it requires a number of transfers and takes anywhere from 6-9 hours. First, take the S-bahn commuter train (about 30 minutes) from the Munich airport to the Munich main station (Hauptbahnhof). Then, take one of the regularly scheduled regional trains from Munich to Salzburg (around 1.5 hours); both German Deutsche Bahn (DB) trains and Austrian railways (OBB) trains serve this route, so you have a pretty good selection of times. See the discussion on my "bikes on trains" page about special fares good for up to five people; both the weekend and Bavarian tickets allow travel to Salzburg, and if you have two or more people you are likely to save money by purchasing one of these fares. There is a DB ticket counter in the Munich airport where you can ask questions and buy your tickets. In Salzburg catch another train to Zell am See (most trains are direct, but you may have to make another connection in Bischofshofen). In Zell am See you then must connect to the narrow-gauge Pinzgaubahn railway, which connects Zell am See with Krimml (seemingly stopping at every haystack en route). If you plan to do the train option, many people travel to Zell am See and spend the night there. Book your room for two nights, and early the next morning take the Pinzgaubahn to Krimml and ride back from there to Zell (i.e. leave your bags in Zell and do a day trip). On our 2004 trip we traveled to Zell am See from Linz via train (actually, we started from the Czech Republic), and it was a very long trip.

Bus transfer: Austria Radreisen, one of the large Austrian bike touring companies, offers daily biker transfers (at 3:00 p.m.) between Schaerding, Austria and Krimml. The cost is 36 Euros, and the trip takes about four hours. Preference is given to customers on their arranged tours, but if they have room they will also transfer other bikers. Reservations are essential. This is probably the least-attractive option, unless you are ending another tour in Passau (perhaps the Danube tour?) or have a vehicle that you need to leave at the end of the ride. From Passau/Schaerding there is no direct train connection to Salzburg; you must transfer in Wels.

Train Travel in Germany and Austria

NEW! The information about trains previously contained on this page has been moved to a separate page just about traveling by train with bikes in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. I've also added a lot more photos and useful info.

The bike car on the DB train from Passau to Munich. Note the bike symbol on the side of the car.	Our tandem on the DB regional train from Passau to Munich. This is the dedicated bike area on the train (see outside photo of train car, left).

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Where to spend the night?

NEW! The lodging information and hints previously contained on this page have been moved to a separate page. View it here.

Weather

For the average American, weather forecasts in Europe can be frustrating. We're used to the 10-minute, 10-day forecast broadcast every hour (seemingly) on American TV. European weather forecasts have become much more readily available over the past few years, but can still be a challenge to find when you need them. On TV, you can often see the forecast at the very end of the morning and evening newscasts (usually near the top of the hour). Even if you don't understand German you can usually get the gist of the forecast because they use a lot of pictograms (sun, clouds, etc.). When on our trips, we often stop at an Internet cafe to check the weather (especially if it's raining where we are!). Useful sites include weather.com, wetter.com, and wetter.de. I usually cross-reference the three to see where they agree and disagree. One word of warning: all three of the sites often show rain in their picture displays, but when you click on the detailed daily view you'll see that there is only a chance of rain (like 30% or 40%). So, if it looks like rain for the next two weeks, don't despair until you look at each day on it's own (and if it's still mostly rain, take a train to southern Italy or Provence!).

Guidebook Recommendations

For biking you'll likely want to consult two types of guidebooks: 1) Guides specific to the bike tour, with maps, route info, and (usually) lists of places to stay, and 2) General tourist guides.

The most popular biking guidebooks in Austria and Germany are those put out by Esterbauer, which has a mind-boggling catalog of biking guides and maps in print. Their "BikeLine" guides feature super-detailed and easily read maps, commentary on the route, lists of lodgings by town name, and other useful info. The down side is that, with few exceptions, all their guidebooks are in German. In any event, their superlative maps are well worth the purchase price alone. For this ride along the Tauren we used the BikeLine "Tauernradweg" guidebook. The BikeLine books are difficult to find in the USA (try PedalthePlanet.com for a decent selection), but are just about everywhere in Europe. You'll easily find them in any bookstore, and also in the towns along your route. The German bicycle club ADFC also publishes very detailed biking maps covering all of Germany, as well as other popular biking areas. Their maps detail long-distance bike routes, local bike paths, bike lanes on streets, and other good areas for biking. They also mark most hills on the map with arrows to designate the steepness of the climb. If we are riding a set "route" like the Tauern, we'll usually carry both the appropriate BikeLine guide as well as the relevant ADFC map. This allows us to make detours from the established route whenever we feel like it.

There are many good general tourist guidebooks for Europe. We mainly use the Lonely Planet series and Rick Steves' guides. Rick Steves' books are more narrowly focused, and are best for highly touristed areas. He does a good job of explaining major sights, and usually provides some sort of annotated walking tour. We like his coverage of Salzburg and Munich, for example.

However, his books are basically useless once you get away from the main touristy areas (which is kind of the point when bike touring). For these areas we recommend the Lonely Planet guides. They generally have at least some info on even the smallest town.

For this trip I photocopied relevant pages from our personal copy of Rick Steves' Austria book and left the book at home. When we were done with a particular section, we'd throw it away or give it to another traveler. This is a great way to keep the weight/bulk of guidebooks down when bike touring. Hint: with Rick Steves' books, it is possible to reduce the pages on a photocopier and get 16 pages of the book on one double-sided photocopy.

I also took photocopies of the relevant pages from our Lonely Planet guide to Austria. We had traveled often in Austria and Germany, so we only took a few photocopied pages pertaining to Salzburg and Munich hotels from Rick Steves' books. Again, Rick Steves is good for the major cities, and Lonely Planet is best for the countryside.

Rick Steves' Web site has a very useful collection of travel tips, which I highly recommend perusing.

Language Issues

We speak conversational German, so we didn't have much of a language barrier on this trip. However, those that do not speak German should not worry too much. Whenever we travel to a country where we do not speak the language we make an effort to learn a few key survival/courtesy phrases, such as "Sorry, I do not speak (French, Czech, etc.)," "Do you speak English," "Do you have a room with a double bed," "thank you," etc. Most any phrase book will work fine. We've used both the Lonely Planet and Rick Steves phrase books. Learn how to say the basics, and then simply point out the other phrases you need when trying to communicate. Above all, keep an open mind and a friendly demeanor and you'll do fine. Bike tourists in Germany and Austria are well respected, and the fact that you are an English-speaking person traveling as the locals do will get you a lot of help. You'd be amazed how much you can communicate without knowing any of a language! (Draw little pictures if you have to... this worked well for us many times when we were in the Czech Republic.) A small German-English dictionary is also well worth bringing along (we use the Langenscheidt mini dictionary, which pretty much lives in the handlebar bag when we're touring).

The "German for Travelers" Web site offers a handy online guide to basic German words and phrases. It even has audio clips to help you learn pronunciation. Beware: the site's info is useful, but it has a lot of ads and occasional pop-ups.

Also, for translations of common bike part words (how do you tell that bike shop owner that you need a new spoke?) see the "German words for bike parts" resource that I've included below.

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Keeping in Touch: Phones, Internet, etc.

While one of the appealing aspects of a bike tour is the ability to leave the "real world" behind, if you're like me you'll probably want to keep in touch at least a little bit. Staying connected is not a problem in Germany and Austria. In particular, we use the Internet a lot while traveling to help plan our trips; we check weather sites to see where the sun is shining (it's usually only a train ride away), to find cheap hotels at our next stop, etc.

Internet: Most cities, and even many small towns, have some sort of public Internet access. Usually this is a pay-per-minute setup in an Internet cafe or your hotel, but you may also find free access in the local library (bibliotek) or university. In Salzburg, for example, on our most recent trip we had the choice of Net access from our hotel lobby (actually fairly reasonable) or several public Internet cafes in the center of town. There's even free (!!) wireless Internet access in a square near the university (it was very cool to sit there in Salzburg with my laptop and surf for free on a recent non-biking trip). And, in Munich, there is the huge Easy Internet Cafe directly across from the main train station (Hauptbahnhof). Before our trips I usually create a special links page that I post on the Web; this allows me quick and direct access to links relevant to the trip (weather sites, tourism offices, remote e-mail clients, etc.) without having to remember URLs or use Google. When you are paying for Net access by the minute, a time-saver like this can be very useful. Also read Rick Steves' article on Internet use in Europe for more info.

Telephones: For the average American visitor to Europe the telephone system can be something of a roadblock. It's frustrating to not understand this most basic appliance of modern life that we use everyday at home. The challenge is understanding the calling codes. Each country has its own country code, and you must use it when dialing (for example, the USA's code is 001, which is why we must dial "1" before the area code when dialing numbers inside the USA). To learn more about how to call to and from Europe, I suggest reading Rick Steves' primer on the topic.

Cell phones: Cell/mobile phones are hugely popular in Europe. Most German-speakers call them "Handys," and you are likely to see people riding their bike and chatting away on the phone. Some American cell phone providers do offer roaming service in Europe. However, this will only work if you have a GSM phone that works on the "bands" used in Europe, which are different from those in the USA. Usually you will need a dual- or tri-band GSM phone. The advantage to this is that callers can reach you in Europe by simply calling your regular USA cell phone number. The disadvantage is that it is very expensive, usually more than $1.00 US per minute!

Another option is to purchase a pre-paid cell phone "SIM" chip that will allow you to use your GSM-compatible cell phone in Europe. This is the route we took. For this to work your phone must be "unlocked," or able to use any SIM chip (if you purchased your phone from a service provider like T-Mobile it is most likely "locked" to only work on their system; it can be unlocked by calling the provider and obtaining a special unlocking access code). We purchased an unlocked tri-band GSM phone from an online retailer in the USA, and then bought a SIM chip in Europe. Usually these are fairly inexpensive, and come with some credit built-in. For example, in 2005 we bought a pre-paid SIM chip from T-Mobile in Germany for 25 Euros, with 10 Euros calling credit (essentially, the chip and phone number cost us 15 Euros). The time is easily "topped up" by purchasing additional minutes at most convenience stores, Tabak stores, etc. The advantage to this is that you have cheap rates in-country, and reasonable rates for calling other countries. The biggest advantage is that in Europe, ALL INCOMING MINUTES ARE FREE! Yes, you do not pay for any incoming calls. The person who placed the call, though, is hit with a small surcharge on his/her bill. For example, we have a Sprint international calling plan on our home phone. Calling our friend on his cell phone in Holland costs us around 9 cents more per minute (around 19 cents per minute total). Again, Rick Steves has a great writeup on the topic, so I won't reinvent the wheel here.

Calling cards: Prepaid calling cards let you easily make calls from pay phones in Europe. In fact, many public phones only take calling cards. If you don't have one, you're out of luck. In Austria, long-distance International calling cards offer exceptionally good rates and are well worth buying. Rates are much higher in Germany (compared to Austria), but are still a good value. Calling cards can be purchased just about anywhere, but you are most likely to find them at Tabak stores and convenience markets/gas stations.

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German Words for Bike Parts

I came across this handy mini-dictionary for bike parts somewhere over the past five years. Unfortunately, I did not document its source, and so it's impossible to correctly reference it.

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Updated Dec. 15, 2005