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I recently spend 100 days in Germany and as of most of Europe bike riding opportunities abound, and is accepted as a way of life. I stayed in the Frankfurt area and wanted to give everyone a sense of what is available in the area to enjoy for riding. You could use almost any type of bike, I saw people with full suspension bikes and 80 years old with an old bike, taking their dog for a run. Europeans on a whole tend to enjoy the outdoors and take advantage of every chance they get. I would see youngsters and oldsters out biking, walking or running everyday. All of forest is open for everyone to enjoy The Frankfurt Stadtwald is the forest surrounding Frankfurt. Not understanding the language it took a while to figure out I was not breaking any laws. I also took about three weeks to find a map of the area, (you can find a map at www.bva-bieledfeld.de and I would recommend that you get one to have with you) but the most important piece of equipment I had was a GPS. (You can follow this link to AMAZON to get a GPS) You may think it is easy, that you would just head on a path and then take a left turn and another left turn on a path and another left and you would be back where you started but that is furthest from the truth, there were many days that I thought that and I would end up 5 miles from where I thought I should be. I would mark points in the GPS that I could back to my hotel and every underpass and overpass on railroads and autobahns. For the first couple of weeks, I was glad I was never lost, since I had my GPS and would be able to find my back to a starting point, or at least find the GPS track where I had been, since I had no clue where I was. 
I started this adventure in October and the weather was very delightful, this must have been one of the nicest falls and winters on record, since out of 100 days, there were only a handful when I did not ride due to rain or snow. 
The terrain was very level and not hard to go, the hardest part was just trying to find your way, but the forest was beautiful and just about everyday, I saw deer, owls, hawks and many other types of wildlife. Before I went to Germany, I rode about one hour day and when I got there, I started with one and half hours a day and progressed to about three hours a day. 
Everyday was an adventure on what you might see. Not only was the forest and animals you would see, but you would have the chance to see very unique architecture. 
Not sure why this house was next to the railroad tracks no one lived there, and may have been a railways keeper house, but I thought it was interesting. 
In the area between Scwhanheim and Goldstein was this interesting sculptor of a wild boar. Everyday I saw indications of where the boar had been tearing up the ground, but I never did see a boar, while I was riding. I saw some night while I was driving in a car as they crossed the road, and had wonderful boar at a restaurant. 
What was also interesting was there would be these picnic pavilions out in the forest. It is amazing that the United States has so much open land, but there is very little area set aside for everyone to enjoy the outdoors, no matter what your pursuit is. During the day, the school children and their teachers would also be out in the woods at these pavilions having their school day or recess. From an early age the children gain an appreciation for the outdoors and activities to enjoy the outdoors. 
Another interesting fact was at first I did not know what these signs meant, so I would take pictures of the German and then interpret on the internet, and this one means rabies area, I had no idea that rabies was something to worry about. Later on, I rode to Southern Germany and there were signs for wild boar area. The forest is also broken down into sections and is fenced in, where you would see the signs that it was a rabies area. One day I was riding in the area east of Waldorf and saw a forest workers trailer and it reminded me of 35 years ago when I visited Europe and saw the Gypsies traveling down the main roads on the horse drawn wagons. Today horses are not drawing the wagons, but they wagons are still put to good use. 
The natural areas also had many lakes in them and I thought I have to come back in the summer time, when the days are longer and people are enjoying the waldsees or forest lakes: 
The next building was an interesting building it is close to the Frankfurt International airport and is from the 1800s. I think it is part of the water distribution system, but to see the copper roof and out in the middle of nowhere it was very interesting to see. 
I think the area is just beautiful and the forest changes every few miles and is so well maintained, that the lower brush is cleaned out and has been managed for all to enjoy. So you may wonder what else did I see, well riding for over 1200 miles and carrying my camera with me most days, there are many more pictures to come. To consider I rode between 18-30 miles most days. One day I decided that I had to ride 75 miles and that is later. I am sure not too many have taken a ferry across the Rhein, but that is to come in a later posting. Thank you for visiting and come back to see more articles on riding in Germany. Follow the links below for more bike parts and thanks for visiting. If you have any questions email me at bike@callofwild.net . 
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