Germany’s best kept secret

Being a Dauner, I hope this still counts… but I love this video <3

100% my favorite region in Germany. Trier is my favorite city. I usually stay in Dreis or Salmtal when visiting. Thank you for the video, it’s nice to sit and watch places I love visiting!

I never used a helmet when I lived in the Netherlands but here in Germany I use it all the time. The bike infrastructure in our cities is too bad and we have a lot of unconscious drivers. Well, sometimes they are just idiots

"Enough of the criticisms" As a cycling commuter here in Germany, you can keep the critique going,
because I see this "normalized but marginalized" approach to cycling integration in traffic everyday and it annoys me deeply.
In the rural areas, at least there's not too much traffic, where sharing the road with motorists becomes an issue.
I live in Aachen, 250k – 270k inhabitants, very busy streets, often without any bike lane.

Edit: To leave on a positive note, I grew up in the Eifel (though not the Vulkaneifel, but much closer to the belgian Border)
Lovely place, not the best for cycling (lack of infrastructure and HILLS. LOTS AND LOTS OF HILLS), but the Mosel Area in particular is very nice.

Wow ,that’s a nice one . We have one that runs from Lenzkirch to Bonndorf but only about 7 km is paved.

Must be the car lobby putting a verboten on going to work by bike……funny

Being a Dutchy and outdoor enthusiast I've been there lots of times. Great area for hiking.

We're from the UK but spend a lot of time in Germany. 3 months in 2025. For the last couple of years we've stayed on a camp site near Bernkastel. We did this route back in June and also back in 2024. That diversion was there when we cycled it. We use the camp site as a base where we set of for two to three weeks of cycle touring. We've done the entire mosel, saar river/canal, the Marne Rhine canal from Nancy to Strasbourg and parts of the Rhine amongst many other tours. We had 3 months there this year. Some of the best times of our lives. Germany is a very under rated tourist destination. Some people here complain about the cycling infrastructure but we find that it's really excellent, especially when we compare it to the UK. I immediately recognised the viaduct in the thumbnail when it popped up on my feed.

Yield, stop, helmets and missing infrastructure make cycling less enjoyable in Germany and quite enjoyable in the Netherlands.

Fantastic views. It's incredible to follow your journey. . Some day I'll talk the other half into going. Keep on travelling!!!

I need to go!

Thank you very much for putting that together, Nic. I had no idea the Eifel region was so scenic and relatively peaceful. Now on my list for a visit; especially a cycling one.

A nice region to travel to just like the neighbouring Saarland. Maybe you can also do a video about that as well since it is also barely known in the US.

Funny when Americans mock how strict other nations laws are. Those absurd stories of bikers getting fined and pretending those cases occured on a daily basis in Germany is malicious. The case of Christopher Felix Hahn is odd even for Germans. Its in no way common practice. And you know what happens to him if he ignores the ban? He will get a fine of 25 Euros. At least in case he gets caught, which is highly unlikely.
In America on the other hand Christopher had to fear for his life. Cops could just shoot him if he wouldnt comply immediatelly.

Thanks Nic for your good job.

10 years ago we spent a few days in Nittel just outside to Trier. We were just about on top of the ridge overlooking the Mosel. It was early July. My daughter and I took a nice hike along predesignated routes along some vineyards. The grapes were still tiny. The region is SO picturesque! Thanks for sharing. Weather dependent, I bike commute from a suburb into downtown Buffalo NY (16 miles each way). Upgrading from a nice Specialized Gravel bike to their gravel style E-bike was transformational. It cut 10 to 20 minutes off each leg of the commute. I no longer dread a 15 to 20 mph headwind. The e-power allows me to still sustain about 20 mph steady speed along most of my route. The higher speeds are actually way safer than then 12 mph I’d be getting under pure body power on my older bike with strong headwind. 5 miles of my route requires me to be in the right lane on Main Street. Those Sharrows don’t really help. People still honk or yell at me to get out of the road and onto the sidewalk. If I can be closer to the speed of the cars I’m not holding them up much. As you said, an e-bike is not require, but for a long distance commute it allows this 55 year old over weight person to do it up to 3 times a week. My min requirements are that it isn’t raining, and the roads (bike lanes) are clear of snow or ice. I also can’t keep my feet warm with temperatures lower than 22F (even with winter cycling boots). Sadly it means I miss cycling for most of December through March. Once in a while we get a warm spell, the roads clear up and I get a day here and there in the winter. Thanks again for sharing your most recent adventure in Germany. We dream of retiring in Europe and having so much great cycling at my disposal. I’m in Amsterdam this week, but zero cycling for me. Ice and snow on the roads every day. It’s hard to walk. To say it’s dodgy to be out there on a bike is an understatement.

well thing about not using a helmet is that you only have one head and it is as simple as topple over with the bike at a curb and hit your head dumb on the ground and that was it for you, in the street where i work ther is a buisness owner who cleaned his motorcycle and just went down the street like 200m and while turning around he toppeld over and hit his head on the curb he is in his late 50s but now needs help for the rest of his life because of braindamage he suffered from that fall, and there he was at slow speed like 10-15km/h so 25 on bike can do that as well, so yes it might feel akward wearing such a helmet but you have to decide that for yourself look "good" or in worst case not have the only thing that might prevent you from having a serious injury that changes your life

Please don't compare the cycling infrastructure in Germany with that in the Netherlands. That makes us unhappy. https://youtu.be/CXPLJ-SBzO4 and https://youtu.be/2DvPgrs-Am8

EX Standard-gauge railway 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

if that's the second longest bike tunnel, schee gotta be the longest….

I’d argue that “cycle track” is a better translation of “Radweg”.

Thank you for the beautiful captures of the region south of my place. LOOVE Eifel, lived there for 8 years, Nürburgring being my second home. Pflanzgarten section 🤩 So I fully understand you fell in love with Daun, the region.
PS: they cleaned a part of the Cologne cathedral. When first saw it it made me cry for joy: even more stunning now to really witness how it looked like when freshly finished.

For the English speakers, when saying words with a 'w' in german like Radweg, you just switch the english w with v (which is what they call w); Radveg. Not perfect, but close enough; and getting that german R will take you too long, and finally, Germans love hearing us struggle with it.

1 Bier ist kein Bier.

6:45 I don't see the need for bicycle infrastructure on small residential streets like this.