A cable car over the vines
The ascent passes directly over the terraced vineyards, and is half the pleasure.
Traveler100 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Johannes Schilling / Karl Weißbach — Public domain · Kreuzschnabel — CC BY-SA 3.0 · GerritR — CC BY-SA 4.0
A sixty-five-kilometre stretch of the Rhine between Bingen and Koblenz, UNESCO-listed since 2002. It holds more than forty castles and castle ruins on the hills, wine villages on both banks, and the famous Lorelei rock. It is seen by train along the bank or by the river boats that call at the villages.
A train from Frankfurt of about an hour. The cable car up to the monument, then a walk on the plateau, then down on foot through the vines or by cable car. Afterwards the old town, its lanes and wine shops. Anyone wanting more takes a river boat to a neighbouring village and returns by train.
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A colossal monument on a hill above the town of Rüdesheim, overlooking the UNESCO-listed Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It was raised between 1877 and 1883 to mark the unification of Germany in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War. It is crowned by a figure of Germania about twelve metres high holding the imperial crown and a sword, with the whole monument standing some thirty-eight metres. Something should be said about its meaning: this is a nineteenth-century nationalist monument raised in a moment of military victory, and its symbolism is explicit about that — the Germania figure faces France across the river. Reading it today requires awareness of that context rather than simply admiring it. What draws a visitor in practice is the position: the view from here over the confluence of the Rhine and the Nahe and across the terraced vineyards is among the best known in Germany. A cable car climbs to it from Rüdesheim directly over the vines, a short and enjoyable ride. The monument itself is open and free.
The ascent passes directly over the terraced vineyards, and is half the pleasure.
Nationalist, from a moment of military victory — reading it today requires awareness of that.
The view over the meeting of the Rhine and the Nahe is among Germany's best known.
Above Rüdesheim, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley