Rhineland-Palatinate & Saarland
RHINELAND-PALATINATE & SAARLAND taverns. The localpeople’s the Rheinpfalz.The region’s wine winescanallbesampledinamultitudeofambience-laden Rheinhessenand,famedforitsGermanWineRoad, Rhine,Nahe, Middle Moselle-Saar-Ruwer, andtouristssincetheearly19thcentury. castles andsnugwinevillageshave drawnartists picturesque slopes,medievalhilltop stretch, thestoriedRomanticRhine,whosevine-clad Romanesque cathedralsofMainz,WormsandSpeyer. ofMainzistheriver’s most Northwest state capital.Butalonghere there’s Ages: alsoagrandlegacyoftheMiddle themagnificent along the290kmstretch traversing Rhineland-Palatinate. to Rotterdam, butnowhere else hasitshapedthelandanditspeoplemore profoundlythan thing incommon–theRhine(Rhein).The river meandersfor1390kmfromtheSwissAlps WWII, united historicallydisparate bitsofBavaria,Hesseand Prussiathathadonlyone The state ofRhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz),patchedtogetherbytheFrench after & Saarland Rhineland-Palatinate 480 ideal for hiking andcycling.ideal forhiking better Frenchified knownforSaarbrücken’s urbanecharms,anditsverdant forests andfields– Most ofGermany’swineisgrowninRhineland-Palatinate’s sixwineregions: theAhrValley, Some ofEurope’s largest corporationsdominate thebanksofRhinesouthMainz, Tiny Saarland,inthesouthwest,wasonceacentre forheavyindustrybutthesedaysit’s
HIGHLIGHTS RHINELAND-PALATINATE POPULATION: 4 MILLION SAARLAND POPULATION: 1.04Million
ironworks ( p525 ) inVölklingen side theSaarland’shistoricVölklingerHütte Rusty, NotRustic Nürburgring racetrack( p498 ) Floor It from Trier( p517 ) Moselle, Saar,Kyll,RuwerandSauerRivers Five Rivers onTwoWheels ( p488 ) andSpeyer( p490 ) esque cathedralsinMainz( p484 ), Worms Imperial Cathedrals of RomanTrier( p514 ) Roman Relics between KoblenzandBingen Rhine( along thecastle-studded p499 ) Romantic Rhine Take ahigh-speedspinaround the Explore ruins theremarkable Cruise, cycleorramble Admire colourful art in- art Admire colourful Marvel attheRoman- Marvel joiedevivre Cyclethe findsexpression inthemanywinefestivals.
SAARLAND AREA:2569SQKM RHINELAND-PALATINATE AREA : 19,853 SQKM Trier Völklingen Romantic Rhine Nürburgring Worms Speyer Mainz A6 A5 A45 RHINELAND-PALATINATE & SAARLAND 481 Hanau HESSE A67 BADEN A5 Giessen Frankfurt Airport Offenbach WÜRTTEMBURG Sinsheim Darmstadt Heppenheim A45 (RP-Ticket; adult/ (RP-Ticket; Heidelberg Marburg
Mörfelden A3 Mannheim A35 Wetzlar
Frankfurt am Main Rüsselsheim River Speyer A61 Brühl
Schifferstadt Bürstadt
Gerau
Gross-
A65
e n B40 Rhi
Durmersheim , you can take any re- , you can take
Weilburg Road
Haiger Germersheim Worms Deidesheim Wine Neustadt an der Weinstrasse Alzey Siegen 00 50 km 30 miles Mainz Limburg Landau Wörth Oppenheim Bad
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Grünstadt
See Romantic Rhine Map p500 Dürkheim Lauterbourg r Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket
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e Rhine Hochspeyer
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B270
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A6
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ä ALSACE
f Wissembourg Grenzhausen P gional train (RE, IRE, RB and S-Bahn), tram, within bus or local bus anywhere intercity for and the Saarland Rhineland-Palatinate a full day – from 9am to 3am Monday to day on Saturdays, Friday and for the entire it Sundays and holidays. On some rail routes such as Mainz, Worms, Speyer, the German as Mainz, such a few to transfer Wine Road (be prepared Rhine the Romantic times) and some of vil- served ones right-bank especially lages, by from Wiesbaden. trains direct Getting Around With the group of up to 5 €19/27) linked by easy public transport to places public transport to places by easy linked To Strasbourg (60km) St Goar Bacharach Disibodenberg Nahe B41 Nord B327 Kaiserslautern Pirmasens Vosges du Boppard
B9
A3 River ὈὈ ὈὈ ὈὈ Moselkern Sinzig Homberg Frankfurt- Hahn Airport Bad Honnef Idar- Oberstein Mendig Tiefenstein Bad Bodendorf Beilstein A48 Maria Laach Neuwied Blieskastel Zell
Andernach Moselle Reinheim A6 Mayen Bliesbruck- Kulturpark
Burg Eltz B41
Trarbach Traben- Europäischer Bad Hunsrück Mountains Hunsrück F R A N C E
B49
B269 To Strasbourg (65km) Rhine s Ahrweiler
Neuenahr- B259
Remagen
n (747m) i Bonn near many
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B257 is
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o Rv B327 Wittlich
Dhron Neumagen-
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SAARLAND See Moselle Valley Map p513 Map Valley Moselle See
A1 e l Lebach Daun Nürburgring A8
ll er A320
e v f se B52
i o Ri Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
B268 Sarreguemines M
E Schweich wer River B258 A620 B257 Ru River Kyllburg
Erdorf er Saar Mettlach Völklingen R iv Konz Kyll B268 06543-509 200; www.hahn-airport.de,
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Saar River i & SAARLAND •• Getting & Away There RHINELAND-PALATINATE
A4 e
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h
er
B51 c s %
v r , a Ryanair hub, is misleadingly a
a A4 Orscholz Bitburg S Ri Perl A60 B257
NORTH RHINE–WESTPHALIA Sauer B419 River
Nennig Moselle Aachen
Metz B E L G I U M
LORRAINE RHINELAND-PALATINATE & SAARLAND & RHINELAND-PALATINATE L U X E M B O U R G LUXEMBOURG click ‘Getting There’ and then ‘By Bus’. and then click ‘Getting There’ .de for details; €16, eight daily) and Worms. at www.hahn-airport.de – available Details are daily), Saarbrücken (seedaily), Saarbrücken www.scherer-reisen (bus 610; €14, 65 minutes, six daily), Mainz six daily), Mainz (bus 610; €14, 65 minutes, 14 daily), Trier (stops at (€11, 70 minutes, for details; seewww.flibco.com Nells Park; one hour, 20 as €5, about online as cheap and they have a point. But it and they have www.flyhahn.com) near Frankfurt,named because it’s nowhere People complain that People (airport code HHN; Getting There & Away Getting There & Away and in this chapter covered the places of bus to destinations including by is linked Koblenz Idar-Oberstein, Cochem, Bingen, lonelyplanet.com A27