Theme Week Upper Middle Rhine Valley – Ehrenbreitstein Fortress

31 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Phantom3Pix/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Phantom3Pix/cc-by-sa-4.0

Ehrenbreitstein Fortress (German: Festung Ehrenbreitstein) is a fortress in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the east bank of the Rhine where it is joined by the Moselle, overlooking the town of Koblenz.   read more…

Theme Week Upper Middle Rhine Valley – Lorelei

30 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

© imehling/cc-by-sa-3.0

© imehling/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Lorelei (German: Loreley or Lorelei; also found as Loreleï, Lore Lay, Lore-Ley, Lurley, Lurelei and Lurlei throughout history) is a 132-metre-high (433 ft), steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge (or Middle Rhine) at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany, part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 1930s Loreley Amphitheatre is on top of the rock.   read more…

Theme Week Upper Middle Rhine Valley – Stahleck Castle

29 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Hotels, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  10 minutes

© Harald Nachtigall/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Harald Nachtigall/cc-by-sa-3.0

Stahleck Castle (German: Burg Stahleck) is a 12th-century fortified castle in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley at Bacharach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It stands on a crag approximately 160 metres (520 ft) above sea level on the left bank of the river at the mouth of the Steeg valley, approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Koblenz, and offers a commanding view of the Lorelei valley. Its name means “impregnable castle on a crag”, from the Middle High German words stahel (steel) and ecke (here: crag). It has a water-filled partial moat, a rarity in Germany. Built on the orders of the Archbishop of Cologne, it was destroyed in the late 17th century but rebuilt in the 20th and is now a hostel.   read more…

Theme Week Upper Middle Rhine Valley – Stolzenfels Castle

27 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Rolf Kranz/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Rolf Kranz/cc-by-sa-4.0

Stolzenfels Castle (German: Schloss Stolzenfels) is a former medieval fortress castle (“Burg”) turned into a palace, near Koblenz on the left bank of the Rhine, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Stolzenfels was a ruined 13th-century castle, gifted to the Prussian crown prince, Frederick William in 1823. He had it rebuilt as a 19th-century palace in Gothic Revival style. Today, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley. After substantial renovation work the castle and its parks were reopened in 2011. The castle is open to the public.   read more…

Theme Week Upper Middle Rhine Valley

26 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein in the middle of the river, at Kaub, in the background Burg Gutenfels © Holger Weinandt/cc-by-sa-3.0

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein in the middle of the river, at Kaub, in the background Burg Gutenfels
© Holger Weinandt/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km (40 mi) section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rüdesheim in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in Germany. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in June 2002 because of its beauty as a cultural landscape, its importance as a route of transport across Europe, and the unique adaptations of the buildings and terraces to the steep slopes of the gorge.   read more…

Bacharach on the Rhine

25 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Joschi71/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Joschi71/cc-by-sa-4.0

Bacharach (also known as Bacharach am Rhein) is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds. The original name Baccaracus suggests a Celtic origin. Above the town stands Stahleck Castle (Burg Stahleck), now a youth hostel.   read more…

Oppenheim, city of wine

1 August 2022 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Town Hall and Market Square © Immanuel Giel/cc-by-sa-4.0

Town Hall and Market Square © Immanuel Giel/cc-by-sa-4.0

Oppenheim is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is a well-known wine center, being the home of the German Winegrowing Museum, and is particularly known for the wines from the Oppenheimer Krötenbrunnen vineyards. The town lies on the Upper Rhine in Rhenish Hesse between Mainz and Worms. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde (special administrative district).   read more…

Speyer in Rhineland-Palatinate

10 January 2022 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

View from Altpörtel tower towards Speyer Cathedral © Roman Eisele/cc-by-sa-4.0

View from Altpörtel tower towards Speyer Cathedral © Roman Eisele/cc-by-sa-4.0

Speyer is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer lies 25 km (16 miles) south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, and 21 km (13 miles) south-west of Heidelberg. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany’s oldest cities.   read more…

Speyer Cathedral

4 August 2021 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

© Sebastian Mierzwa/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Sebastian Mierzwa/cc-by-sa-4.0

Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae (German: Dom zu Unserer lieben Frau in Speyer) in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St. Mary, patron saint of Speyer (“Patrona Spirensis”) and St. Stephen is generally known as the Kaiserdom zu Speyer (Imperial Cathedral of Speyer). Pope Pius XI raised Speyer Cathedral to the rank of a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. In 1981, the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites as “a major monument of Romanesque art in the German Empire“.   read more…

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