Of the 8 riders, 4 decided to bring their own travel bikes while 4 rented bikes. I road the Dahon Speed P8 while my wife road the Birdy 8 Speed so we can do actual road tests on the bikes.

Renting bikes frees you from the chore of packing and transporting your bikes. Aside from the cost of rental (about $120 US for 7 days), there is the disadvantage of riding a sluggish and heavier sub 40 pound bike. So weigh your options before deciding which way to go.

We travel light - 3 sets of clothing (2 sets of riding clothes, one set for evening use and a spare shoe). We do laundry at the end of each day. If they're still damp the next morning, we hang them on the bike while riding. My camera gear was heavier than my clothes.

right: a typical rental bike

Getting into Passau

From Vienna, we had to take the train to get to our starting point in Passau, Germany. You can check the Austrian railway train schedule on the internet at http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/oebb.w02/query.exe/dn?from=Flughafen%20Wien. It's in German so time to learn the basics. Not all trains take full sized bikes. If you have a folding bike, just cover it and hand carry into any of the trains. It's only a 3 hour train ride on the express trains. Since some of us had regular bikes, we ended up taking the slower 5 hour train which carries cargo and bikes.

Buying your tickets in a group costs less.  They highly encourage public transportation. A single ticket to Passau was about 33+ Euros, while a ticket for 3 was about 24 Euros per person. You can buy your ticket the same day at the Westbahnhof station

right: the slow train that carries bike has a dedicated caboose to store bikes