Along with the Black Forest, the Rhineland is one of the most popular areas of Germany with British visitors. To see what the fuss was about, we spent a couple of days following the Rhine and camping alongside it at night.

The Rhine (Rhein) is a seriously big river that carries a lot of freight - spot the barge and cruise ship, on the far side

On leaving Baden-Baden, our first overnight stop was at Bacharach. This historic walled town is right by the Rhine and is very picturesque. Of more concern for residents, however, might be the fact that between the town’s walls and the Rhine itself, there is a busy railway line and a road. Our stellplatz was just across the road from the railway line and the noise, overnight, from the freight trains was quite surprising. I would hate to live in one of the old houses that is directly adjacent to the line…

The stellplatz at Bacharach is right by the Rhine

Despite this, it was a very pleasant place and evidently very popular with tourists in season – almost all the shops and restaurants were aimed at visitors and it must be very busy in summer.

Bacharach old town

As an indication of how popular the Rhineland is with visitors, there are no free Stellplatz in this area. However, the one we stayed on was right by the Rhine, with great views and all facilities and only cost €6 per night – pretty acceptable, really.

A fairly typical German motorhome service point - toilet waste under the metal flap, waste water down the drain and fresh water from the tap at the top (toilet rinsing water from the tap at the bottom)

We moved up the Rhine a little the next day to the small town of Braubach.

The road runs alongside the river (and the railway lines) for much of the time

The Rhineland is characterised by castles and vineyards such as these

Braubach is a town best explored on foot...

Although the weather had finally turned against us, with heavy rain most of the afternoon, our luck was in. Braubach’s annual wine festival was in full swing and we had a great evening sampling some of the local wines and listening to a live band, who had a certain Eurovision-esque quality to them…

Great wine, great music, great evening!

As a sidenote, our visit to Braubach made us realise that we had grossly underestimated German wines. The best white wines are really something quite special – we now wish we had brought more back home with us…

The castle above Braubach at night...