Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [425]
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BAD NEUENAHR & AHRWEILER
02641 / pop 27,600
Bad Neuenahr and Ahrweiler are a bit of an odd couple. Bad Neuenahr is a spa town, whose healing waters have been sought out by the moneyed and the famous (including Karl Marx and Johannes Brahms) for a century and a half. Ahrweiler, by contrast, is an attractive medieval town encircled by a wall and criss-crossed by pedestrianised lanes lined with half-timbered houses. What the two do have in common, however, is wine, which can be enjoyed in both towns at taverns and restaurants.
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Orientation
From Ahrweiler’s Bahnhof (now just a train stop with a ticket machine), walk 600m west along Wilhelmstrasse to get to the old town; more convenient is the Ahrweiler Markt train stop, just north of the old town.
From the proper Bahnhof in Bad Neuenahr, it’s a five-minute walk to the centre, which is around car-free Poststrasse.
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Information
Let’s Play (Ahrhutstrasse 23, Ahrweiler; per hr €2; 9am-11pm) Internet access, across the square from the tourist office. This place doubles as a casino so you must be over 18 to enter.
Tourist offices ( 917 10; www.ahrtaltourismus.de, in German; 9am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 10am-3pm Sat, Sun & holidays) Ahrweiler (Blankartshof 1); Bad Neuenahr (Hauptstrasse 80) The Bad Neuenahr branch is a block to the right when exiting the Bahnhof. Both offices sell walking and cycling maps of the area.
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Sights & Activities
AHRWEILER
Ahrweiler preserves a delightful, pedestrianised Altstadt, almost entirely encircled by a medieval town wall with four gates. The focal point is the Marktplatz and its yellow Gothic church, Pfarrkirche St Laurentius, beautifully decorated with floral frescos from the 14th century and luminous stained-glass windows, some of which show farmers working their vineyards.
Ahrweiler’s Roman roots spring to life at the Museum Roemervilla ( 5311; Am Silberberg 1; adult/student/family €4/2/8; 10am-5pm Tue-Sun Apr–mid-Nov, closed mid-Nov-Mar) on the northwest edge of town. Protected by a lofty glass and wood structure are 1st- to 3rd-century ruins – a veritable Rhenish Pompeii – which reveal the remarkable standard of living enjoyed by wealthy Romans. A detailed English pamphlet is included in the price.
During the Cold War, there was no vast, top-secret bunker complex bored into the hillside 500m up the slope from the Museum Roemervilla – at least not officially. Had you asked a George Smiley type what was going on up there, on a forested slope just 30km from Bonn, you might have been told, ‘I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you’. Since 2008, though, you can have a look for yourself – at a 200m section of the nuclear-proof ‘Emergency Seat of the Constitutional Organs of the Federal Republic of Germany’, rechristened (in inimitable bureaucratese) as the Dokumentationsstätte Regierungsbunker (Government Bunker Documentation Site; 917 10; www.ausweichstitz.de, www.bunker-doku.de, in German; adult/under 13yr/13-16yr/student/senior/family €8/free/3.50/5/7/20; 10am-5pm Wed, Sat, Sun & holidays early Mar–mid-Nov, closed mid-Nov–early Mar).
BAD NEUENAHR
The focal point of Bad Neuenahr, bisected by the Ahr, is the stately Kurhaus, an art-nouveau structure built in 1903; next door is the casino. The nearby river banks are great for strolling.
Neuenahr owes its ‘Bad reputation’ (ie its spa status) to its mineral springs, whose soothing qualities can be experienced in the Ahr Resort ( 801 100; www.ahr-resort.de; Felix-Rütten-Strasse 3; weekday/weekend day pass €15/17, sauna extra €5; 9am-11pm or midnight). Besides swimming pools, options include a