Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [476]
Kulturzentrum Schlachthof ( 974 450; www.schlachthof-wiesbaden.de, in German; Murnaustrasse 1) Live music, top-name DJs and a tumultuous program make this venue, one long block southeast of the train station, a draw for party animals.
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Getting There & Around
S-Bahn trains link Wiesbaden with Frankfurt’s Hauptbahnhof (€6.95, 50 minutes, every 15 minutes). S1 goes direct; S8 and S9 go via Frankfurt Airport; S8 also serves Mainz, a major rail hub. RE trains take just 34 minutes to Frankfurt.
Buses (www.eswe-verkehr.de, in German) linking the Hauptbahnhof with the city centre include 1, 4, 8, 14, 27 and 47. A single ticket costs €2.30 (€1.45 for up to three bus stops); a day pass for one/up to five people costs €5.60/8.40.
Bicycles can be rented from Der Radler (Hauptbahnhof; per hr/day €2/10, electric bikes €3/15; 7am-7pm Mon-Fri year-round, 8am-1pm Sat May-Sep), in an old blue rail car on what used to be track 11.
There’s a Park & Ride on Moltkering, about 1.5km east of the Rathaus.
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LAHN VALLEY
Hugely popular with cyclists, the majestic valley carved by the Lahn River (www.daslahntal.de, in German), which rises north of Marburg (right) and spills into the Rhine a bit south of Koblenz, divides the Taunus hills (to the south) and the Westerwald hills (to the north). The 44km stretch between Weilburg and Limburg, known as the Romantische Mittellahn (Romantic Middle Lahn), is particularly alluring.
Virtually encircled by the river, the Altstadt section of Weilburg (www.weilburg.de, in German) – by car, follow the signs to ‘Zentrum’ – is dominated by the early-18th-century Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall; Marktplatz), painted burnt orange and cream, and the adjacent Schloss ( 06471-912 70; www.schloesser-hessen.de; adult/student/family €4/2.50/8; 10am-5pm Tue-Sun Mar-Oct, 10am-4pm Tue-Sun Nov-Feb), a sprawling rococo complex whose meticulously tended, 3.3-hectare gardens ( 8am-dusk) offer splendid and very romantic river views. Weilburg is home to Germany’s only ship tunnel, a 195m-long structure built under the entrance to the Altstadt in 1847 as a short cut for river boats. This is a great place to embark on a trip downstream by canoe ( 06471-2277; www.dobi-trans.de, in German; Niedergasse 8, Weilburg; 1-/2-person kayak per day €18/23).
For details on the Lahntal Radweg (Lahn Valley Bike Path) and bike rental in the Marburg area, Click here. In Weilburg, bicycles can be rented at the tourist office ( 06471-314 67; Mauerstrasse; 9am-6pm Mon-Fr, 10am-noon Sat Apr-Oct, 10am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-noon Sat Nov-Mar).
A wing of Weilburg’s Schloss has been turned into the Schlosshotel Weilburg ( 06471-509 00; www.schlosshotel-weilburg.de; Am Schloss, Langgasse 25; s/d from €63/94; ), with 50 comfortable rooms.
Weilburg is on a secondary rail line served by the Lahntalbahn, which links Koblenz with Limburg and Giessen (midway between Marburg and Frankfurt).
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MARBURG
06421 / pop 79,000
Hilly, historic and humming at all hours, the university town of Marburg is some 90km north of Frankfurt. Narrow lanes wind through its vibrant Altstadt, which has a castle above it and a spectacular Gothic church below. Founded in 1527, Philipps-Universität – the world’s oldest Protestant university – once counted the bookish Brothers Grimm among its students, of whom there are now 18,000. Thanks to them you’ll find plenty of cafes and nightspots.
By an accident of history, this tranquil town has one of the world’s grisliest haemorrhagic fevers named after it. In 1967 African green monkeys brought here from Uganda infected local lab workers with a close relative of the Ebola virus, and ever since the name ‘Marburg virus’ has been synonymous with ‘bleeding from every orifice’ and ‘death’.
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