Like France, Germany has well established cycle paths. I would say not all are quite to the level of those in France - a little less smooth and some stretches not quite as well maintained- but still in a different league to those back home. That said, cycling seems to be more in the German culture than the French. Cycle paths abound and are signposted as well as any road and bicycles are absolutely everywhere; in the more scenic cities it is well nigh impossible to park your bike at a bike rack and bicycles are leaning on walls at every street corner. There were times when I was wishing I had had a stand fitted to my bike to make things easier.
One thing I have seen more of in Germany are 'service points', a pump and tools at a station in the street so you can tinker with your bike should you require. Some also have bike charging points for e-bikes. I have seen a lot of e-bikes here; they seem to be as common as non electric bikes among both young and old (although it is very dispiriting as they go whizzing past me as I puff my way up a hill). I have even had a few people express surprise that my bike is not electric (my standard response now is that my bike is not electric but my legs are…) although I am not sure of the practicalities of doing this whole trip on an e-bike: it might be easier on the legs but the need to charge it each night could prove problematic. Something else I have seen, and only here in Germany, is 'the half recumbent tandem'. where the front rider is laying back and the rear one is sitting up. Apparently it allows both people to have an unencumbered forward view while 'bringing heads together for more sociable cycling', all for a mere £7550.
I have got used to the signage here but care is still needed. Signs are often last minute (not helpful if you have to cut across the road), positioned badly or simply hard to see even when you are looking. Twice I missed signs and ended up on the wrong side of the Danube although in neither case was it a problem (although one could have been). And there was the case of the erroneous EV6 sign that took me off my expected route (and made me cautious enough that I avoided it happening on a second occasion). But the outcome is lots of time consuming double-checking against my stored route.
Allowing the route app to actively navigate with the phone attached to the handlebars overcomes these issues but for me it is not ideal. The disembodied voice giving directions is more a distraction than a help and while it is useful, displaying how far the next turning is and in which direction, I find it just draws the eye as I wonder 'how much closer am I? or 'how much faster am I going now?', watching distances and speeds rather than enjoying the surroundings. It is also - and I know this is a personal issue and linked to how I think - limited to giving information on only the next few hundred yards with nothing on what is happening outside that; I prefer the broader context. The outcome of all this is that the phone gets attached to my bike only rarely.
Like France, the car drivers here are very considerate to cyclists and I have seen riders ploughing across junctions without even checking, on the basis that there is a cycle track across the road. Right of way or not, to me as a British cyclist, it feels risky. What I do feel though, is that the car is more embedded in German culture than in French; the cities are definitely busier and commuter rush hour feels more like that back home and being on a bike feels more vulnerable. Nevertheless, the balance between bike and car is definitely better than in Britain and the bike here appears to be seen as a perfectly normal means of daily transport rather than simply the domain of cycling enthusiasts.
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