GERMANY - The Mighty Rhine

I have now moved from France to Germany and am staying in Bingen in the Rhine Valley. Rather than just nipping over the border from Strasbourg - the local trams actually also serve Kehl in Germany - I went the long way round up through Metz to Luxembourg. This not only meant that I got to ride one of CFL's (Luxembourg Railways) new double deckers but also have a lovely scenic journey along the Moselle Valley to Koblenz and thence down the Rhine Valley to Bingen.

So today I have been hiking along the Rhine Valley following the Rheinsteig long distance footpath from Ruedesheim to Lorchhausen. First things first though, there are no bridges across this part of the Rhine so to get on the correct side I had to take a ferry across. Once in Ruedesheim I could have walked up the side of the valley but as I had 20km of walking ahead of me I decided to go up via the cable car. This wasn't the plush type of gondola you get in the ski resorts this was a more rickety affair, that in my book - me not liking them - was more a series of buckets hung from a cable. Still it got me there whisking up above the vineyards to the Niederwald Monument.

The Niederwald Monument commemorates the victory during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 and the establishment of the German State in 1871. The bronze statue is of Germania, the personification of the German Empire - think Britainnia in relation to the British Empire - and dominates the landscape. There are also good views from up there.

Hiking in Germany is very easy as everything is very well marked

I continued high above the Rhine and its steep sided vineyards, dropping down into the sleepy village of Assmannshausen and then back up through the vineyards to continue before dropping down into Lorch and continuing at river level to the neighbouring settlement of Lorchhausen from where I caught a train back to Ruedesheim. Some of the views of the river and valley were suberb.

It would be interesting to return in the Autumn when they are harvesting the grapes because some of the terraces are really steep so it can't be an easy task. Once back in Ruedesheim, though, it was time for a glass of the local Riesling and the ferry back to across to Bingen.