Ross McCarthy enjoys the sights along one of Europe's great rivers.
From on high it looks just like an elaborate model which has taken many painstaking hours to put together.
Tiny passenger and goods trains run at regular intervals on each side of the valley, while barges, laden with all kinds of cargo, along with pleasure cruise ships and ferries, plough up, down and across a broad river, dotted with small grassy islands.
The Upper Rhine Valley, a Unesco World Heritage Site south-west of Frankfurt, sprinkled with fairy- tale castles, is a spectacular and beautiful sight.
An ever-changing view of which you can never tire.
Travelling there, you soon hit the steadily flowing Rhine before arriving in Rudesheim, with its half timbered houses in its old town, cobbled streets and church of St James on the market square which dates back to the 14th century, along with family run hotels including Zum Grunen Kranz, where I enjoyed some local specialities for lunch.
The town boasts an unusual and fascinating museum, Siegfried’s Mechanisches Musikkabinett.
Here, for an entrance fee of just six euros, you can marvel at a spectacular collection of self-playing music instruments.
There are works of great ingenuity and intricacy, one machine replicating a whole orchestra, another with an oriental facade, while there is a piano seemingly played by an invisible pianist and a snuff box out of which pops a delicate singing bird.
The machines, with their cardboard sheet-music and wheels and rubber bands, have been collected by Siegfried Wendel, the oldest dating back to 1780. Nearly all of them had to be lovingly restored.
An all-inclusive ticket, costing 14 euros, will take you by cable car from Rudesheim, gliding over vineyards, up to the imposing Niederwald Monument.
Standing 38 metres tall, the figure of Germania, holding the German Imperial Crown, commemorates Germany’s victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the subsequent foundation of the German Empire.
The Niederwald is hiking and cycling country, and it is possible to follow the Rheinsteig Trail, covering a distance of 320 kilometres between Bonn and Wiesbaden.
We took a stroll through a forest, via an eagle sanctuary, before taking a chair-lift down to Assmannshausen, with its riverside hotels and restaurants.
The ticket also included a boat trip back to Rudesheim, where we visited the Drosselgasse, the main entertainment street with its wine taverns, beer gardens and intimate courtyards.
There are many places where you can sample fruits of the vine, this being a major wine growing area with around 3,200 hectares of vineyards. Before dinner, there was some wine-tasting to be done in a cellar with accompanying mood music and light show as we sipped fruity rieslings and sweet eiswein.
You might want to also try a Rudesheim coffee, made with Asbach brandy, which is lit with a match and has a dollop of whipped cream sprinkled with chocolate flakes.
A 10-minute ferry ride will take you to Bingen on the other side of the Rhine, where you can find the Jardins Surprises – 10 mini gardens with different themes. You can take a tourist train and find out about Bingen’s history, including the story of the Mouse Tower, which has a gruesome legend involving a miserly Archbishop of Mainz being devoured by an army of mice.
I didn’t see any squeaky vengeful mice while I was there, but there were a lot of musicians playing at Bingen’s three-day jazz festival, which takes place each year in June.
Performances take place on stages dotted around the town, starting at lunch time and continuing until the early hours.
I began with some easy listening Latin-
influenced jazz, before catching the end of a storming set by the Jimmy Reiter Band playing blues and R&B.
Moving further up to Bingen, a bigger stage accommodated the Glenn Miller Orchestra playing swing against the backdrop of Burg Klopp, built in 1240 and perched above the town.
It was there that I later had an evening meal while enjoying a panoramic view of the great river as the sun began to set.
We had a little time afterwards to take in the funk and soul of Ed Davis And The Superband – and they seemed pretty super to me – before reluctantly heading for the 10pm ferry back to Rudesheim.
Arriving by taxi back in Assmanshausen, a seemingly quiet place, hopes of finding a rocking joint for a Saturday night were not high, but just round the corner from our hotel we discovered a pub, Gasthof Schuster, where Charlie, on vocals and electric guitar, was playing up a storm.
You will not have any trouble finding lively venues in Frankfurt, with its pubs serving the local drink – apple wine – out of distinctive jugs called Bembels.
This buzzing metropolis in the heart of Europe has a Manhattan-style look, with its many skyscrapers dominating the skyline.
From the Main Tower, with its distinctive lollipop stick sticking out of the top, you can admire the fine view, and, if you time it right, watch the local weatherman reading the daily forecast.
Culture vultures can revel in Frankfurt’s many museums on the bank of the Main, which includes the Stadel Museum, one of the leading art museums in the world, with works by Rembrandt, Monet and Picasso.
Frankfurt also has a very efficient underground system. Alternatively, if you don’t mind being gawped at by people sitting outside pubs and cafes as you are taken through the cobbled streets of Frankfurt’s old quarter, you can hire a bicycle taxi.
South of Frankfurt is the Bergstrasse, a route which runs along the foot of the Odenwald Mountains, where there is another Unesco World Heritage Site, Lorsch Abbey and the Kings Hall, one of the oldest and best preserved buildings of post-Roman times in Germany; and Weinheim, known for its two castles, historical old town and beautifully laid-out parks and gardens.
Travel Facts
* Ross McCarthy travelled to Germany courtesy of Tour Comm Germany and Lufthansa.
* For more information about the Rhine-Main region, go to www.frankfurt-rhein-main.de
* Non-stop flights run between Birmingham and Frankfurt with Lufthansa. Visit www.lufthansa.com
