Niedernberg is a quiet village on the left bank of the Main, a few kilometres downstream from Aschaffenburg, where the river was the Roman frontier. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, after running across the Odenwald, used the Main as its boundary between Großkrotzenburg and Miltenberg, and a fort with a civil settlement stood at Niedernberg, guarding the river line. The northern part of the civil settlement is listed separately as part of the UNESCO site. There is little to see above ground, as the remains lie under fields and houses, but the location by the river makes the Roman logic clear.
Today Niedernberg is best known for its lakes. Gravel extraction has left a series of large ponds along the Main valley, and the Niedernberger See has become a popular leisure area, with beaches, a camping site, swimming and water sports, and in summer it is crowded with families from the Rhine-Main area. The river itself, wide and slow, is busy with barges and pleasure boats, and the riverside path is popular with cyclists.
The riding in the immediate area is flat and suburban, but the hills are close. To the east, the Spessart, a large forested upland, offers some of the best riding in the region, with winding roads through beech and oak forests, quiet villages and the castle of Mespelbrunn, a beautiful moated castle in a forest valley. To the south, the Odenwald has more twisty roads, climbing through forests and valleys with views over the Main and the Rhine plain. Traffic around Aschaffenburg can be heavy, but the forests are quiet, especially on weekdays.
Sulzbach am Main, just over a kilometre away, has fuel, shops and restaurants, and Aschaffenburg, a short ride upstream, has everything, including the Renaissance castle of Johannisburg, built of red sandstone on the riverbank, and the Pompejanum, a replica of a Roman villa built for King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Local food includes Franconian dishes like Schäufele, roast pork shoulder, and the wines of the Main valley, which are bottled in the distinctive flat, round Bocksbeutel. Miltenberg, further upstream, is one of the prettiest towns on the Main.