Bacharach is so small and so well preserved that it feels more like a model than a town. About two thousand people live inside a medieval wall with tall watchtowers, in half-timbered houses that lean toward each other over cobbled lanes. Above the roofs, the ruin of the Wernerkapelle, a Gothic chapel never completed, stands against the sky, and higher still, Burg Stahleck sits on its spur and now serves as a youth hostel with one of the best views in the valley. Legend ties the name to Bacchus, the god of wine, and the town's wine trade was already famous in the Middle Ages.
The wine is Riesling, grown on steep slate slopes, and it was so prized in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that Bacharach became one of the main wine trading centres on the Rhine. Today the vineyards still cling to the slopes behind the town, and a few family estates welcome visitors for tastings. Timber-framed taverns in the lanes serve the local wine with simple food, and the courtyard of an old inn is a pleasant place on a summer evening. A few kilometres downstream, the Pfalzgrafenstein, a small toll castle shaped like a ship, sits on an island in the river near Kaub, and it is one of the strangest and most photogenic buildings on the Rhine.
The riding along this stretch of the Rhine is classic. The B9 runs through a narrow gorge with the river on one side and vineyards on the other, passing castle after castle on the heights, with curves that are gentle and a surface that is generally good. It is not a fast road, but it is a beautiful one. The railway runs beside it and can be loud, since freight trains pass through at all hours, so do not expect a quiet night in a room facing the tracks. For a quieter ride, side roads climb to the plateau, where the villages are tiny and the traffic is light.
Fuel is a question here. Bacharach is small, and Oberwesel, a few kilometres downstream, has a bit more, while Bingen am Rhein, about fourteen kilometres away, has everything. It is wise to top up there. In town, a wine tavern or a café on the old market square serves a good lunch, and the place is easy to explore on foot.
Visit in spring or autumn, when the crowds are smaller. The vineyards are at their best in October, with the leaves red and gold.