Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the northern corner of Bavaria, in the valley of the Franconian Saale, between the Rhön hills and the Spessart. People have taken the waters here since the Middle Ages, and in the nineteenth century the town became one of the great resorts of Europe, visited by Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, by tsars and kings, and by Bismarck, who drafted his famous Kissinger Diktat in 1877. In 2021 UNESCO added the town to its list of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Karlsbad and others.
The centre is a pleasure to walk. A long spa park with a rose garden runs along the Saale, and the Wandelhalle, a long colonnade, and the Regentenbau, a building with a concert hall, show the confidence of the age, in pale stone and ornate halls. Mineral springs bubble up in pavilions, including the Rakoczy spring, and the water has a salty, iron taste, and is thought to be good for the digestion. Patients in dressing gowns and day trippers mingle on the promenades, and an orchestra often plays in the park in summer.
For riders, the town is a rewarding start for the Rhön, the so-called land of open distances. A few kilometres east, the Bavarian Rhön is a high plateau of rounded hills, meadows and beech woods, with roads that run along the ridges in smooth curves and offer long views. The Wasserkuppe, the highest summit in Hesse, at 950 metres, is a famous gliding site. Surfaces are good, the traffic moderate, and the weather can turn rough on the heights with fog and cold wind. In summer weekends, motorcyclists and cyclists are numerous, and the police patrol for speed.
Bad Kissingen is a town of twenty-one thousand with every service, including fuel, workshops, supermarkets and a good choice of hotels and restaurants. Local food is Franconian, with bratwurst, sauerkraut and trout, and the wine of the nearby Main valley, in the typical flat bottle called Bocksbeutel. Parking near the spa gardens is limited, so use the car parks on the outskirts, and bear in mind that the park has restrictions on vehicles. If you want a taste of the waters, bring a cup, and pay a small fee at the pump rooms.