Another big question mark area was are the bikes allowed on trains, on which ones, etc...
Our experience was this:
Between Amsterdam and Brussels we caught the ICE train, which has a special room just for bikes. You need to buy a separate ticket for your bike, of which you get 2 copies, one to attach to your bike and one to take into the cabin with you. The bike-room was right next to where the conductors sit so it looked relatively safe. We locked our panniers, but didn't lock the bikes. The Amsterdam Centraal Station has lifts so that you can get your bike up to the platform, and then you just wheel them straight on.
In Brussels we saw people wheeling bikes straight onto the regular trains around the city. This was in off-peak times, and we didn't see any conductors, but it seemed to be normal practice.
Between Brussels and Paris we caught the Thalys high-speed train. These require that your bike is in a bag (more on the bags later). The luggage area at the end of the coach has enough space to accomodate the bagged bikes, although they are awkward to manouvre and difficult to pack neatly. There wasn't really enough space and our panniers blocked one of the entrances, but no-one seemed to mind. When we arrived in Paris we tried to get off first so that we could unblock the luggage area.
The trains inside France are regular trains, and the high-speed TGV. The TGV rules are the same as the Thalys. Bikes in bags only. For the regular trains some trains will take bikes as-is, and they have a bicycle compartment in one (or more) of the coaches. Although a bit difficult to manouvre a bike with panniers etc onto a train, this is a lot easier than partially disassembling your bike to fit inside a bag. We didn't pay particular attention to which trains took bikes when we booked our tickets, but clever planning here could save a lot of effort. Other regular trains will accept the bikes bagged, placed with everyone's luggage.
We also took our bagged bikes on the Paris metro to get from Gare L'Est to Gare Montparnasse. NOT RECOMMENDED. Many of the metro stations are buried deep underground and are reached via a labyrinth of steps. The distances are generally too far to walk comfortably with bagged bike and panniers, and would require regular stops to re-adjust holding positions and to rest shoulders and hands. There is usually an entrance after buying your tickets that will allow entry with oversize luggage, although you might need to call metro staff to open it up. Getting yourself, your bagged bike and your (heavy) panniers onto the metro is a race. The metro doors open and close automatically, so you have a limited time to get yourself and your stuff past others entering and exiting, onto the metro. We almost removed someone's kneecap during this process with a fast-moving bike-bag, and the metro door made a serious attempt at leaving my forearm and a pannier behind at the metro station.
The bags (that's housse in French!) we made ourselves (well, a friendly relative who knows how to operate a sewing machine made them for us!) according to instructions found at www.mayq.com/Best_european_trips/Housse.htm. We used a fairly light-weight cordura that we got from a camping shop, and we added handles made from webbing so that they'd be (relatively) easy to carry. When not in use they rolled up fairly small and were carried on my rear rack, under the tent. They don't weigh a lot so even if you're planning a trip where you're expecting only to take bike-friendly trains, they provide you with a lot more train options should you need them.
To fit a bike in its bag required the removal of both wheels, of all racks, and the handlebars. The seatpost is dropped as low as it goes, and if you wanted you could take off the pedals to make it easier to carry. On that point... carrying these bags is awkward at the best of times, and remember that you'll be carring your loaded panniers too, which generally aren't designed to be carried by hand.
We bought all of our train tickets online. The French rail company has a fairly good website at www.sncf.com where you can plan itineraries and buy your tickets. We bought our Amsterdam-Brussels tickets from the Dutch rail site www.ns.nl, although the international tickets where only available in Dutch. Not a problem if you speak Afrikaans (or Dutch!).
