julies

We've got one entire day this summer to spend in this area before we fly home the next morning from DUS. We like the idea of a day biking around some interesting places--perhaps along the Rhine has been a thought? We're open to all sorts of suggestions. Do you know of any nice places we could find for biking? We're willing to take a train for an hour and a half or so if we could find an interesting place. Then, we need to find good quality rental bikes, so that needs to be factored in too. We could ride up to around 50 or 60K. Does anyone have any good ideas for us? We could also spend the night in Cologne, rather than Dusseldorf, before our flight out of the Dusseldorf airport the next morning if that would open up some different possibilities. I appreciate the help.

BTilke

One of the nicest places to bicycle is in Munsterland, esp. along route 58 and the surrounding roads that take you though the pretty villages of Senden, Luedinghause, Nordkirchen. Seppenrade (also in that area) has one of the prettiest rose gardens I've seen.
http://www.gemeinde-senden.de/html/portal.html

The area is very friendly to bicycles, they have their own lanes, high quality bike rentals are easily arranged.

This is a VERY pretty area, full of castles, gardens, cafes, restaurants, fairly easy cycling.

http://www.luedinghausen-tourismus.de/radelpark.html

BTilke

Forgot to add, although the area is easily reached from Dusseldorf, it's off the usual tourist radar, so you will have far fewer tourists, buses, cars, etc., to deal with. And they specifically promote the area to bicyclists.

mr_compass

I don't have any experience to offer just the desire to do some ond day. But here is a website to check out which seems to have some good advice.
http://www.germanytourism.de/biking/index.html

Enjoy !!

julies

Thanks to both of you for the suggestions. I will follow up on both. I'm actually wondering if Munsterland might deserve a separate trip someday and should be saved for then.