Bikeland, the proposed £33m cycle-based experience centre for Derby, will not be the world's first pedal-powered theme park. No, Velo Nova of the Netherlands has not leapt off the drawing board and into reality, there's a Bavarian bicycle theme park. It opened in May 2004.

Bicycle theme park? We already got one!

Fidelio Radlerpark is in Aufhausen in Niederbayern, heartland of Bavaria.

The ‘Bicycle Park’ sits close to a crossroads of two long-distance cycle-paths, one of which is traffic-free, the track of a former disused railway.

It’s a summer-only affair – May to September – and is run by Jürgen Schmid, a Munich-based retailer of Chariot cycle trailers, Brompton folding bikes and Burley Piccolo trailerbikes.

Fidelio Spezialgeschäft für Fahrradanhänger also sells children’s trikes, baby joggers and sleds.

Schmid’s Radlerpark looks decidedly ‘green’, something Bikeland’s Jim McGurn says he wants to avoid. The beer garden has a teepee or two in it and there are small wooden houses available for overnight rental.

Thanks to Markus Fritsch, editor of German trade mag SAZbike for pointing out this link:

http://www.radlerpark.de/index_seite.htm

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