FRANKFURT, GERMANY - Ingrid, the woman at the bike rental counter at Kobern-Gondorf rail station, reviewed the route my friends and I were about to embark on as we waited for the “cycle” train headed for Bingen to arrive.
“Cycling along the rivers is very good … very easy,” said the woman with the Lance Armstrong physic when we told her our two-day bike tour would take us along the banks of Germany’s famous Rhine River to the ancient town of Bacharach.
“Oh, the castles along the Rhine are very beautiful,” said Ingrid as the high-speed train came into view. “Bacharach is especially beautiful and the family home of the very famous composer …”
Ingrid’s voice trailed off before we could hear the composer’s name as we raced to get our bikes and ourselves aboard the train headed to Bingen, located 60 kilometres down the track and in an area known as the Romantic Rhine, where fairytale castles cling to lofty perches on hills lush with vineyards. A perfect place for our mini-bike tour to begin.
“Did anyone catch the name of that famous composer from Bacharach whom Ingrid was talking about?” I asked a friend as we hung our bikes on special cycle racks in the coach, supplied on most trains in Germany.
Germany offers visitors over 200 well marked cycle routes but the one that snakes along the Rhine between Bingen and Bacharach is highly recommended and never disappoints.
For the rest of the short train trip to Bingen, with my face pressed up against the glass watching the idyllic scenery flash past, I wondered whom the composer Ingrid talked about could be - Bach … Beethoven … Brahms … Strauss … - all the time not realizing the clue to his identity was in the town’s name.
At Bingen rail station, we collected ourselves and began peddling along the mighty Rhine River - still the economic artery of Germany’s heartland. The asphalt paths made the peddling easy and the people we met along the way, especially the group of female cyclists we surprised while several of them were answering nature’s call, were delightful.
Soon the castles Ingrid talked about came into view. Some dated back to the 1200s but many are mere shadows of their former greatness. Others have been preserved and now serve as museums, hotels (offering accommodation as low as $100 a night per couple, we were told), youth hostels and regal homes for the area’s rich wine merchants.
There are about 26 castles between Bingen and Bacharach and most are best viewed from the Rhine River Cruise ships that leave Bacharach each day. The cruise tours last anywhere from 30 minutes to a week.
 The most beautiful castles and famous Lorelei Rock can be seen on one of the night cruises that end in a sparkling fireworks display at Lorelei, the mythical rock where many a sailor was lured to their death.
(According to German legend, there was once a beautiful young maiden, named Lorelei, who threw herself head long into Rhine in despair over a faithless lover. Upon her death she was transformed into a siren and could from that time on be heard singing on a rock along the river, near St. Goar. Her hypnotic music lured sailors to their death. The legend is based on an echoing rock with that name near Sankt Goarshausen.

Visitors like coming to this part of Germany because the scenery is stunning. Whether you travel by car, train, or boat, you’ll see high hills stretching away from the river, topped with castles and lined with vineyards. In the area around the Lorelei, the river valley runs through dramatically elevated hillsides.
Soon we arrived in charming Bacharach, the small medieval hamlet filled with one of the finest collections of ancient half-timbered homes in all Germany.
Most of those homes have been transformed into charming gift shops or restaurants and on weekend’s Bacharach’s narrow cobbled streets are jam-packed with tourists.
The town square is one of the most charming in all Europe and is ringed with shops and wine rooms known as “weinstube.” Weinstubes are usually located in historic buildings and offer wine and some food, like breads and cheeses.
One of the most historic weinstube in Bacharach is the Altes Haus (old house), which dates back to 1368 and is the oldest in the town named for Bacchus, the ancient Roman god of wine.
While enjoying a meal of German sausage and sauerkraut in one of the old restaurants off the main square, I remembered Ingrid’s claim that this town was home to a famous composer, so I asked the server who it might be?
“Burt Bacharach, the famous American composer - his family comes from here,” the young woman boastfully told me.
Funny, but all these years I thought of Burt Bacharach as a simple writer of songs. Here, they consider him a composer.
Bacharach is such a charming and inviting place that we decided to check into a local hotel and buy a ticket for the nightly Rhine cruise, which comes complete with dinner and drinks for about 20 euros.
From 1300 to 1600 Bacharach was a major wine center. Due to shallow waters, ships had to unload upstream and reload in Bacharach, so every boat travelling the Rhine had to stop here. At its peak, Bacharach boasted a population of 6,000, though today it is closer to 1,000.
The town church is located just off the main square and, while not impressive as many others in Europe, the mix of pointed Gothic and rounded Romanesque arches make it worth a visit.
A bit further away from the church and on the same side of the Ober Strasse you will find the TI and Post office, or Posthof. You can recognize it by the golden horn shaped sign that hangs above the entrance. (These horns have long symbolized the postal service in Germany.) WWII buffs will want to enter the courtyard of the post office to see an eerie reminder of years past - a fascist eagle from 1936 over the door on your left.
Steep steps along the side of the church lead up to the town’s castle. Now a youth hostel it is probably not worth the hike if you aren’t staying there. However, you should follow the steps until you reach Werner Kapelle, a skeleton of an old chapel with no windows, doors or ceiling. It’s a beautiful sight when lit up at night. It was a regular stop on the Grand Tour in the 1800’s as a place to contemplate the impermanence of human endeavour.
The Jost family has two stores in town which specialize in steins and other typical Germany souvenirs. One of the stores is located in the town square, and the other sometimes less expensive one is on Rossen Strasse. They are happy to ship purchases back home for you. The shops are open until about 6 p.m., depending on the day of the week.
You can also walk along the top of the town’s walls on the sections nearest to the train tracks. While some parts are not very attractive and seem abandoned, you’ll get a feel of Medieval Bacharach.
That evening, after being on the night cruise for about an hour, we, along with about 60 other ships, gathered at Lorelei and for over two hours watched the night sky come alive with a breathtaking display of fireworks.
The fireworks were music to our ears.
*
*
INFORMATION
*For a complete list of German bike routes, go to www.germany-tourism.de
*You can rent bikes easily in Germany - the most we paid was 10 euros a day.
*Most airlines will ship you bike for free but do charge for the containers they must be placed in.
*Trains throughout Germany are equipped to handle your bikes.