Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [440]
Hotel Martinskeller ( 134 75; www.hotel-bingen-rhein.com; Martinsstrasse 1-3; s €69-77, d €88-106; ) Creative use of some rather odd spaces gives this family-run, 15-room hotel, two blocks up the hill from the tourist office, a quirky but personal vibe. The comfortable rooms are big and each is unique – one is African inspired, another English.
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Eating & Drinking
Vinotek ( 991 203; Hindenburganlage; light mains €4.80-7.50, wine per glass €3-6; 11am-11pm Tue-Sun Easter-Oct, 5-11pm Wed-Sun Nov-Easter) A stylish riverfront wine bar – gorgeous on sunny evenings.
Gaggianer ( 148 82; Badergasse 36; mains €6.50-12.90; 4pm-midnight or later, hot dishes to 10pm Wed-Mon, closed Tue) A block inland from the Nahe, this informal restaurant serves wine by the glass, salads and full meals in a leafy beer garden and a rustic dining room, the latter with antique kitchen utensils, donated by friends and clients, dangling from the rafters. Endemic specialities include Zipfelchen (potato dough filled with fresh white cheese, cream cheese and herbs) and Viagra Naturell, whose ingredients include three eggs.
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RÜDESHEIM
06722 / pop 10,000
Rüdesheim am Rhein, capital of the Rheingau (famous for its superior rieslings), is on the Rhine’s right bank across from Bingen, to which it’s connected by passenger and car ferries. Administratively part of Hesse, it is deluged by day-tripping coach tourists – three million a year – and for some its most famous feature, Drosselgasse, brings to mind the words ‘tourist nightmare from hell’. If you’re looking for a souvenir thimble, this is definitely the place to come. That said, the exuberance can be fun, at least for a while, and the town is also a good place to begin a variety of delightful vineyard walks.
The tourist office ( 906 150; www.ruedesheim.de; Geisenheimer Strasse 22; 8.30am-6.30pm Mon-Fri & 10am-4pm Sat, Sun & holidays Apr-Oct, 11am-3pm Mon-Fri Nov-Mar, also 11am-3pm Sat & Sun late Nov-25 Dec) is 600m east of Drosselgasse.
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Sights & Activities
Drosselgasse, a tunnel-like alley so overloaded with signs that it looks like it might be in Hong Kong, is the Rhine at its most colourfully touristic – bad German pop wafts out of the pubs, which are filled with rollicking crowds. The Oberstrasse, at the top of Drosselgasse, is similarly overloaded with eateries and drinkeries, though to get away from the drunken madness all you have to do is wander a few blocks in any direction.
One island of relative calm, just 50m to the left from the top of Drosselgasse, is Siegfried’s Mechanisches Musikkabinett ( 492 17; www.siegfrieds-musikkabinett.de; Oberstrasse 29; tour adult/student €6/3; 10am-6pm Mar-Dec), a fun, working collection of 18th- and 19th-century mechanical musical instruments.
Near the Bingen car-ferry dock, in the 800-year-old Brömserburg castle, is the Weinmuseum (Wine Museum; 2348; www.rheingauer-weinmuseum.de, in German; Rheinstrasse 2; adult/student incl audioguide €5/3; 10am-6pm Apr-Oct), filled with wine paraphernalia from Roman times onwards. The tower affords great river views.
For an even better panorama, head up to the Niederwald Denkmal (inaugurated 1883), a bombastic monument on the wine slopes west of town starring Germania and celebrating the creation of the German Reich in 1871. You can walk up via the vineyards – trails, including one that begins at the western end of Oberstrasse, are signposted – but it’s faster to glide above the vineyards aboard the Seilbahn (cable car; 2402; www.seilbahn-ruedesheim.de; Oberstrasse; adult/5-13yr one-way €4.50/2, return €6.50/3; late Mar-early Nov & late Nov-23 Dec).
From the monument, a network of trails leads to destinations such as the Jagdschloss (hunting lodge; 2km) and, down the hill, the romantic Burg Ehrenfels ruin.
From near the Jagdschloss you can