Which European cities are best for a cycling getaway?

Q In your opinion, which European cities are best and worst for cycling?

Michael W

A The safety parameters that are important to me: the degree of separation from motor traffic; the attitude of drivers to cyclists; and the prevalence of surface hazards. Also important: how much actual fun is it?

Most UK cities perform poorly, though Cambridge, Oxford and Bristol stand out as above average for safety; usefully, they are also beautiful cities. I find Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester particularly challenging. London is a special case, because I live there and know where the biggest threats and most benign options lie.

Across continental Europe, cities in northwestern countries perform better than the south and east. The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia are excellent (and have road-accident rates almost as low, and sometimes lower, than the UK).

Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Rotterdam are among the most rewarding places to cycle, and smaller cities can be joy including Bonn in Germany with its riverside setting.

Conventional wisdom might deem Amsterdam to top the list of best cities. But based on many weeks of cycling there, I find it one of the worst. Much of the centre of the Dutch capital consists of cobbled streets, which is marvellous from an aesthetic point of view but uncomfortable for cycling and slippery when wet.

Add to that a plethora of tram tracks in which your front wheel may inadvertently get stuck, and some motorists taking out their frustrations about driving in Amsterdam on cyclists, and I rate the city 10 for walking but only 3 for cycling.

A similarly low rating applies to many cities in eastern Europe, as well as Brussels and Paris. There are some bright spots in France, notably Toulouse and Nice (where the rent-it-here, leave-it-there scheme even extends to the airport). Further south, Barcelona, Madrid, Naples and Rome are not for the faint-hearted. And I can only speculate about the reason you never see any elderly cyclists in Athens or Istanbul.

Worst of all, of course: Venice. While there are actually some parts of the city where you might rationally cycle, notably along the quayside Fondamenta delle Zattere to the south, trust me: it’s not worth all the hassle getting a bike to Venice.

Q I live in the East Midlands, and am due to fly from Manchester to Berlin on Friday. Do you think we would be exempt from quarantine?

Richard H

A Last Friday the German government designated much of the UK as a “risk area” – applied to places where there were more than 50 new coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days.

Scotland joined Northern Ireland and Wales, which were already on the danger list, and the northern portion of England (described as “North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber”) was also added. While I have been unable to find out exactly where Germany defines the boundaries, it is safe to assume that the Midlands and everywhere south in England are outside, while Manchester airport is inside.

The quarantine measures apply to anyone who has been in a risk area within the previous two weeks before arrival in Germany. If you board a flight in Manchester, bound for Berlin, you will be subject to the controls.

Here’s where it gets tricky. The public health body in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute, says you “may be subject to quarantine under the specific quarantine ordinances issued by the competent federal state”. Just as each UK nation has its own responsibility for health, so do the 16 German states – of which Berlin is one. The state government says anyone who has been in a risk area “at any time within the 14 days before entering the state of Berlin shall be obliged to go directly to their own home or other suitable accommodation immediately after entry and to remain there without interruption for a period of 14 days after entry”.

But there is an exception: if you can produce proof of a negative coronavirus test “carried out no more than 48 hours before entry into the Federal Republic of Germany”.

Obtaining a test privately should be feasible, for a fee of £100-£150, but of course this involves hassle as well as expense. You can avoid it all by buying a fresh ticket on Ryanair from East Midlands to Berlin on Friday afternoon. And if that gets you to the German capital too late, the same airline will take you from Stansted to Berlin, departing at 7.55am.

However, with the discovery of many thousands of “missing” positive tests, the UK’s infection rates are now so high that the Midlands and southern England may not stay off the German “high-risk” register for the rest of the week.

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder