On the Rhine river between Bingen and Boppard

Thursday, 02 June 2022 09:58
Written by Portal Editor

Summer time – vacation time, also in Brita's house in Albertshofen. And since the basic idea of driving further north in Germany had been in our heads for a long time anyway, concrete common goals were quickly defined, which we want to find out in the coming days.

So the decision was quickly made to first drive along the Rhine, then in Boppard turning to the town and castle of Cochem on the Moselle and then to Remagen for the night, where we were able to book a cheap hotel over the Internet.

Hohneck Castle, Fürstenberg Castle, Herzogenstein Castle

We want to bypass the greater Frankfurt area coming from Würzburg through the Spessart, with a short stop at the haunted castle, and then get to the Rhine near Mainz, which turned out to be a bad solution. The traffic on the country roads is too heavy with many time-consuming local thoroughfares and endless construction sites. At some point we finally arrived in Mainz, drive through the city in the direction of Bingen and immediately decide to come back to Mainz for an extensive visit, and not just because of the Roman roots. From Bingen, you first walk along the western bank of the Rhine. Due to the position of the sun for taking photos, we decide to use the next possibility of a ferry crossing at Niederheimbach to the other bank. The access to the ferry through the tunnel under the railway line was narrow, as was the parking strip in front of the ferry. Nevertheless, we were able to enjoy the first Rhine crossing a little later, because the sky was cloudy but without any rain.

We used various stops at prominent locations such as Hohneck Castle, Fürstenberg Castle, Herzogenstein Castle, Sankt Goarshausen with the Loreley and St. Severus for a few photos, but it quickly became clear that the bicycle is absolutely the best means of transport along the banks of the Rhine. So many motifs in such short succession are simply not to be enjoyed in the car, especially not when you always have to look for parking spaces first. Exploring by bike has been an issue for us for quite some time, especially since optimal conditions have prevailed in all the places we have visited, because the network of bike paths seems to be almost endless. So our recommendation is very clear: Find a location, whether it's a hotel or a caravan, and explore the area around the Rhine by bike. The same applies to other goals, by the way.

From Boppard we went up to the Hirschkopf

We used the eastern bank of the Rhine to Boppard and then took the ferry across again. This time it was the ferry that amazed us, because only 6 vehicles could be taken per tour, and the vehicles had to be parked across the ferry. But that wasn't really a problem either, so some photos were possible again. From Boppard we then went up to the Hirschkopf, because we had chosen the path to the Moselle past Udenhausen. So we drove up to the Moselle from above just before the entrance to the Moselle bridge near Löf, which gave us a great view of the river. Basically, we had favored the visit to Eltz Castle, but wanted to walk from Moselkern. Due to the advanced time (the walk takes about 40 minutes), we decided to use the rest of the day for the castle and the city of Cochem.

Cochem Castle and city tour

Even the way along the Moselle was interesting in that almost all camping pitches on the right and left along the Moselle appeared to be fully booked. We probably didn't expect so much rush. Also in the city of Cochem there was a lot going on so that we had to look for something before we found a parking space. First we went up the winding path along the Burg Berg to the castle, which made an overwhelming impression from afar. We were a bit lucky, as there was a last guided tour through the castle, so we had to quickly get the tickets and off to the castle tour. Right at the beginning there were explanatory notes on the history of the castle complex, on the respective owners and possessors.

The tour itself provided a deep insight into the history of the castle, the furnishings and other objects, so that one could easily imagine the life of the lords of the castle. We were particularly impressed by the wine jugs, which meant a daily ration of an impressive 5 liters of wine for the monks of the castle complex, while for the nuns the jugs only provided 3 liters as a daily ration. Just the thought of consuming that much wine, even with just a little alcohol content, made us shudder. Who can handle 5 liters of wine? Even 3 liters is more than enough. The door lock design with a key guide on the door plate was also very interesting, so that even the drunken monk could insert the key into the keyhole in order to return to his living area after the colliery. The entire tour turned out to be quite interesting and peppered with a few anecdotes quite entertaining.

On the way to Remagen

The town of Cochem, which we visited briefly after the castle tour, was absolutely overcrowded that day, but with its historic buildings, small cafés and restaurants it was a really nice spot. When we then went back to the vehicle on the banks of the Moselle, it was also clear that an extended, repeated stay would definitely be worthwhile. Especially since the visit to Eltz Castle didn't work out either.

Thanks to navigation, the route to Remagen was completed very quickly, only when the destination was reached was there a slight uncertainty: About 450 meters before the destination, the navigation system announced: Destination reached in 450 meters, then it was still there 50 meters and with the slogan "Destination reached" and the vehicle stopped, there was no hotel-like building, just a park bench on the right side of the path.

After a first saying: "That's why the accommodation offer was so cheap!", the solution quickly came: The hotel was high above the road, quite hidden in the forest, only the access had been changed.