Upper Middle Rhine Valley

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Upper Middle Rhine Valley (2002); About 65 Km Of Gorge Between Bingen And Koblenz Carrying Some Forty Castles And Ruins, Terraced Vineyards And The Lorelei Rock · Sankt Goarshausen, Rhineland-Palatinate

The Upper Middle Rhine Valley is the roughly 65 km gorge the Rhine has cut between Bingen and Koblenz, listed by UNESCO in 2002 as a cultural landscape and carrying some forty castles and castle ruins in a single day's travel - the densest concentration in Europe. Its centre is the Lorelei, a slate rock about 132 m above the water at Sankt Goarshausen where the river narrows and deepens and where the legend of a siren combing her hair while boatmen drowned was invented by Clemens Brentano in 1801 and made famous by Heinrich Heine's 1824 poem. Steep Riesling terraces, half-timbered wine towns such as Bacharach, Oberwesel, Boppard and Sankt Goar, and the Deutsches Eck confluence at Koblenz fill the rest. There are three ways to see it: the seasonal river boats, the ordinary regional trains that run along both banks, and the B9 and B42 roads. No bridge crosses the river between Koblenz and Bingen, so every crossing is a car ferry. The honest caveat is noise: both banks carry heavy freight railways that run all night.

The Rhine gorge between Bingen and Koblenz, about 65 km; the Lorelei rock above Sankt Goarshausen is its centre, Sankt Goarshausen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The valley is a lived-in landscape, open and free at all times, and the roads, footpaths, viewpoints and ferries work year-round. The scheduled Rhine boats are seasonal, running roughly from around Easter to late October with the fullest timetable in July and August and a thin or suspended service outside it - confirm dates and times with the operator before you build a day around a sailing. Castles keep museum hours: most open daily in season, several close for the winter or go to weekends only, and Marksburg runs guided tours only, at set times. Car ferries generally run from early morning to mid or late evening, shorter in winter, and stop in flood or ice. Trains on both banks run hourly or better all year, including evenings.

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