Travel and Logistics

September 6, 2024

SHIPPING BIKES
We decided we'd like to use our own bikes rather than rent them over there. I ride recumbents, so there weren't many rental options for me anyway. We got plane tickets with United and they take bike boxes as a check in bag as long as it's under 50 lbs.

The week before our trip we dropped our bikes off at our favorite local bike shop in Baltimore (Princeton Sports) and they supplied the boxes and packed both our bikes in them for us. They left them open so we could pack other items in them and we ended up doing a lot of weighing and packing the two nights before we left to fit as much as we could in those boxes, making our carry on panniers more manageable.

Optimizing the contents of our bike boxes

PLANES
Our flight out was on Friday and we had our son JJ drop us of off at Dulles Airport. We had concerns that we might be an ounce or two over the 50 lb weight limit on either of our boxes if United's scales behaved differently than ours, but the check in folks were extremely friendly and didn't weigh anything. They just kept asking us... "You're sure these weigh under 50lbs?" as they put stickers all over them and we kept insisting they did.

Once we got checked in we got on the plane, everything on the flight went pretty smoothly. Our first hiccup happened at the Frankfurt Airport.

When we made it out of customs that Saturday morning, most of the bags were already off our carousel but our bikes weren't there. So we were directed to the bulky baggage claim. Our bike boxes weren't there yet either. So we asked the worker if they were still on the way. He said they were finished delivering items from our plane.

So we spent the next ~90 minutes wandering the labyrinth that is the Frankfurt International Airport talking to multiple United Airlines employees and making our way through secure gates into different terminals until we were ultimately directed back to our original baggage area to find that our bike boxes had simply arrived late.

It was still a HUGE relief to see those two big boxes sitting there when we finally got back

HOTELS
We had decided to book our room at the Frankfurt Sheraton at the Airport for a number of reasons. First of all we were looking to store our boxes at the airport so that when we returned after our two week trip, we'd have them ready to go and just re-pack everything in them again. Secondly, it was pretty simple to get our bikes and bags up to the hotel since it was only a couple elevators and walkways away from baggage claim. Thirdly, we had spent a decent amount of time looking around during our hotel search and we eventually received a discount that made the two night stay at the Sheraton somewhat reasonably priced.

So there were complications to think about if anyone's thinking about using the Sheraton. Although, multiple sources that also used the Sheraton had told us they would store our boxes, we wanted to get some sort of confirmation from the hotel that they would definitely store our boxes and not get surprised and have to figure out a different way to ship our bikes out on the return flight. We had also looked at staying at the Marriott and when we called about storing our boxes, they had us email their guest relations who said it was not possible to store our boxes with them. Since that email was shared for the Marriott and Sheraton hotels, we assumed this also meant we couldn't store them at the Sheraton. We had a feeling that if we could have actually reached the front desk at the hotel they would have confirmed the box storage for us. So we ultimately went with our gut and the recommendations of everyone else who had used them for similar bike trips and ultimately, they were completely fine storing the boxes for us during our two week trip.

The other complication was simply figuring out how to get to the Sheraton from baggage claim without dragging all our boxes/bags across the street and through traffic (and some construction) to the hotel building on the other side of the airport. We had heard that you could take a skywalk to the hotel, but it took us a little while to find the cargo elevator to get our gear all the way up to the top floor and then eventually over to the front desk at the hotel. It was also a really tight squeeze to get our boxes in the elevator.

Me in front of the tiny elevator that we had to squeeze our large bike boxes into so that we could get to the sky walk

We spent the day Saturday unpacking our bikes, putting them together and tweaking/adjusting them so they were ready to go for our ride out of Oberalppass. Also, since this was the first time we'd ever flown with our bikes packed like this, we took a bunch of pictures and did quite a bit of documenting on how to re-pack the bikes when we returned to Frankfurt two weeks later.

Frankfurt airport parking lot adjustments on Ellen's bike

TRAINS
We also spent a bit of time figuring out exactly which track our train early tomorrow was arriving at and the best way to get to it from our hotel. However even with all that train prep, it was all for naught as we ultimately missed three trains during our travel Sunday and ended up getting to our destination too late to be able to start our ride Sunday.

It started by realizing Sunday morning around 8:00 AM when our train was supposed to be arriving that the we actually needed to be at Track 2 at the Frankfurt Hbf station, NOT Track 2 at the Frankfurt Airport station where we were.

So we took a train to the Frankfurt Hbf station, and then were fortunate that the ticket coordinator was able to get a us a replacement train ride into Basel. But the high speed ICE trains require you to have a reservation for your bikes and none of the early replacement options had any bike slots available. So we weren't able to leave Frankfurt until a little before noon on a train to Basel with two available bike slots.

Eagerly anticipating boarding our train at the Frankfurt Hbf, (Which we really should have been at earlier that same morning)

Our next hurdle was making sure our bikes fit in the rack accommodations on the European trains. We've had some bad experiences before with Amtrak in the states... especially with my recumbent bike which although not that much larger in size that Ellen's traditional bike, it's different shape has caused issues. We were extremely fortunate that we didn't have a single issue with any of the bike storage options an any of the 6-7 trains we rode while we were in Europe.

Ellen expressing joy that both our bikes easily fit in the racks on the ICE train to Basel

Me next to both of our bikes on a rack on the ICE train from Basel to Andermatt

But after securing our bikes, we continued to have issues with train connections and destinations on our Sunday rides. After getting on a late train out of Frankfurt, we then missed our connecting train in Basel. So we had to wait another 45 minutes for the next train to Andermatt.

Then we didn't realize it, but our replacement ride to Andermatt (with end destination of Lugano) had two transfers rather than just the one from the earlier train to Andermatt (with end destination of Locarno). So as we thought we were getting close to Goeschenen, we actually ended up heading all the way to the edge of the Italian Alps and didn't realize it until we arrived at the Lugano train station where we had to hop off and figure out how to get back towards Andermatt. It was twilight though in the Italian Alps, so we walked across the street and took a couple of quick pictures of the scenery, before hopping back on the train.

Quick selfie in the Italian Alps across from the train station before turning around and heading back towards Andermatt

When we hopped back on a train heading back towards Andermatt, we were fortunate to meet a friendly woman who worked in Andermatt and was traveling to our destination train station, Goeschenen, where she lived and we had booked a hotel room for the night. So we simply stayed with her at the next transfer station and then once off the train, she actually led us to our hotel which was right across the street from where she lived.

After this experience, we made sure to always track train stations and transfers on the SBB or DB apps. It's easiest to book directly on those apps but since we weren't sure which trains needed bike reservations, we often went to the ticket counter instead. Understanding the train systems before the trip would have saved us some headaches.

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