I am exploring getting my bike carriered to  Munich rather than flying with it .

.anyone have any experience of getting a carrier to move a bike to Germany , or any other European destination 

Roger

Discerning friends rented touring bikes from this company in Spain. I was most impressed they were able to do a one way rental. They were very happy with the quality of the bikes. Noting that this wasn't your question, and it's not the correct country either!

But, if convenience is priority, perhaps a bike rental would be of interest?

We finished our tour this year in Munich (easy to navigate airport - we plan to return). We used this shop to pack our bikes. We would use them again. They have bicycle rentals. We stayed at the nearby Hotel Henry, which we definitely give two thumbs up.

Here is a description of our last riding day, into Erding (Munich). Perhaps the details will be of use to you.

Thx for offering assistance.. but as you said , wrong country and not directly relevant 

Putting a bit more flesh on my query , I aim to ride part of Danube , cross to Rhine , eventually to Hook of Holland and back home to Norwich, my own road bike is important , and I am trying to find the easiest way to get it to friends in Munich . Flying from Heathrow is tricky and expensive if I end up leaving a car there for quite a long time

Finding it hard to see where Munich comes into your stated routing, but you might want to look at using train(s) to go from ?Rhine ?Danube to Munich and back to your cycling route. Trains ARE stressful with bikes, but then so are packing for air flights or using other transport systems. We have used trains to cut our distances down to more manageable chunks many times in both France and Germany. So far it has worked out reasonably well.

Hi Roger -

I used Bikeflights (bikeflights.com) to send a bike from San Diego to France a few years ago.  The experience was positive and relatively painless.  

My experience was that the bike was delivered a few days before it was supposed to be.  It beat me to the destination.  By sheer luck, there was someone at the address who took delivery.

Since you have friends here that can receive the bike, that makes it easier.  You'll need a street address to send it to and someone to meet the carrier when they arrive.  

Hope this helps

I shall explore that suggestion thanks , but also trying to find a man with a van who takes stuff from U.K. to Germany. The ride is only starting June next year , so ages to decide how best to do it.

Hi
I assume you're in North America.

I once had reason to send a bike home from there to France. One of the large carriers collected it from a bike shop at which I'd left it. I forget the figures but I remember that the free insurance was for several hundreds of dollars. For a single dollar more, I could insure it for twice as much. There wasn't much chance of the plane crashing into the Atlantic with my bike in it but a single dollar for twice the compensation was attractive.

It was a mistake.

The bike shop that looked after the paperwork didn't think to mention that these were personal belongings being returned to their country of origin. The result was that my bike was judged to be an import and therefore attracted import or sales tax. Since I had opted for twice the compensation, that was taken as its value. And because of that I had to pay not only the tax but twice as much before they would release it from the airport.