Iron Curtain 2026 Region Trip://Leg 6~Wined and Rhined in Bacharach

                         Date:4/25/2026-5/6/2026

Destination: Poland, Germany

Goal: Energylandia, Phantasialand, Europa Park, Poland Culture, Germany Culture

Distance: 4700 Miles

Means of Travel: Flying, Train, Tour Bus

Potential Credits: 40

Day 6

"I hate to do this to you," I grumbled at Drew at 7 in the morning, "but we're gonna have to get up now. The 9 o'clock train is canceled."

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A view from a German winery past vines and umbrellas, looking past timber-framed gables and a tower to a hillside winery planted with grapes.

Today was slated to be our second culture day in Germany, this time focusing on more traditional life verses the grand utilitarianism of the city. I mean, who doesn't want to polka out with a stein in a traditional Biergarten surrounded by flowers and pretty timber-framed buildings? Problem is: this stereotype didn't really seem to exist in the city. So while watching Rhine travel content, they popped into this pretty town called Bacharach that looked like a stereotypical German village and it was settled. "Let's go there!" I pointed to the TV.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: An out of focus hand flashes a peace sign out the window of a departing train.

Deuces, most disgusting street in Europe! Hanging onto our possessions for dear life in the ominous Frankfurt morning, I dragged a cranky Drew, playing the role of Satan himself, to the train station, moving as quickly and kindly as he could considering he does not do mornings. But we made it and got on the train with time to spare.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Out a train window, vineyards rise into the hills surrounding the Rhine, with a boat moored on its banks.

Eventually, we got going where we needed. One connection led to another, both were pretty easy, and before we knew it, we were on a busy little commuter train along the Rhine. Rudesheim, Bingen, the random towns that led to Bacharach were ones I'd remembered hearing about when I planned this leg.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Jarrett smiles on a railroad track overpass, looking in front of a little German town in the hills.

The early morning put us in Bacharach before 10, which gave us more time in the beautiful German town, but one issue: our hotel didn't check in until later. Fortunately, Hotel Zur Post was run by this really chill Hungarian woman who, through use of Google Translate, communicated to us that she'd have our room ready in twenty minutes. So we dropped our bags, went out, and explored a little.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A row of German buildings, two of which have timber frame architecture, lead up to a dark tower.

Good morning, Bacharach!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Two German-styled timber framed hotels with dormers, gables, and turrets at the base of a green hill.

Does it look stereotypically German? Absolutely. But most of those German stereotypes originate in Bavaria, and it's not all 100% like you see at your town's Oktoberfest. There are different ways "German-ness" can look, and it's going to look a little different here on the Rhine than it will in Bavaria.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A cobblestoned German courtyard at the base of a wooded hill with Gothic chapel ruins at their tops.

Most notably, while German is stereotypically beer country and their beer has been amazing, this is Germany's wine country. It shares many similarities with the Alsace region of France, we even snagged a bottle of Riesling at a market that was made right here in Bacharach. Plan was to eat at this Biergarten tonight and get some good wine and German food.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A pink hotel with window boxes says "Gästehaus Rheinromantik" on its sign, in the foreground of a white church framed with red brick.

This was refreshing, not gonna lie. When we did France in 2022, we spent much of our time in little Normand villages like St. Vaast La Hogue and Barfleur, and I'd not really done the "small romantic European village" since. While culturally different, Bacharach has the same feel, even in ways I'd completely forgotten about. Every business in town being a mom and pop, the smell of amazing food in the street around meals, and just chill pacing life has in these places was so refreshing.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A German dining room with white walls painted with pretty frescoes of cows and an island in the Rhine.

We had reservations for a little river cruise, so we snagged lunch early at this winery. It's beautiful inside, but we had a nice patio and we were gonna use it!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A bottle of wine with a B insignia says "BACHARACHER RIESLING" on a table next to a pergola covered in vines.

Bacharacher Riesling comes from, well, Bacharach! I know most Americans think Riesling and think sweet, sugary wine that says Sutter Home on the bottle and costs $8, this is not real Riesling. This was a fair bit drier, but in a more acidic way than the bitterness that comes from a pinot grigio or chardonnay.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A wooden pizza paddle holds an oval-shaped pie topped with cream, onions, bacon and ham.

On the plate today was flamekuchen, a dish I've known as flemmekeuche, also called tarte flambee if you're in Alsace. The version my French grandmother makes eats like a medium to thin crust pizza, but here, it was more like a thin tortilla-like flatbread. I had the traditional toppings of onions, cream, ham and bacon, but Drew went a little crazy and got salmon and green onions. We swapped a slice and both were great!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: An ornate stone and shingle tower with a red timber framed box window over a stone arch.

As if our luck with transportation couldn't get any worse, we had a boat cruise that I had booked us through Booking advertising it as something to do in Bacharach. Well I pull it up...and it actually departs from Rudesheim? And there's no reliable way to reach it by car or bus unless you plan hours in advance. We took the L after trying to get an uber or cab to no avail...but then found that a similar cruise departs from Bacharach as a ferry!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A city park with benches and trees before a small European town at the foot of a hill growing grapes.

We headed to the riverbank, which is a cute little public park with a boat dock.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Jarrett stands on the banks of a river looking across the water, with a black and red buff on his head.

The Rhine River! 

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Drew stands on one foot atop a log on a riverbank, raising one foot in a crane stance.

Damn, these Karate Kid remakes just get worse and worse.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A paddleboat called the Goethe makes its way down the Rhine, waving red and white flags.

Here was our boat! It was an old school paddle wheeler, which I'd ridden before in Marietta as a child, but that was a sternwheeler. This was a sidewheeler, which featured two enclosed paddles on the sides.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A hillside overlooking the water has a castle on terraces, with campers parked at the base by the river.

I saw a graphic on Facebook saying that an advantage to living in Cologne is "Rhine Castle Weekends," and it took coming here to understand that. Cologne isn't much of a normal destination for normal people, it's very German in an industrious sense, and the people there are there to live and work as that entails. But hop on a train and you can be in not only Bacharach, but one of innumerable towns like it. Imagine being able to just pop your camper up at the base of a castle!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A church with a black steeple and two clocks in the corner stands before a small castle on a wooded hill.

So you chill on this boat as it takes you up and down the Rhine, and there are little recordings that tell you about each town and castle you pass.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Jarrett smiles into the camera, wearing a red and black headband and standing on a boat with green winery hills on the riverbanks.

Drew and I both brought Survivor buffs, his yellow one was the merge from the ongoing Survivor 50, my red and black one was from the medieval-themed Survivor 44 and featured a castle-themed logo and dragons. Fitting to wear here!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A small castle sits on a hillside at the edges of some cliffs.

Apparently this castle belonged to a robber baron, so that's cool.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A hand holds a green small wine bottle with a magenta label reading "LANIUS-KNAB 550 Oberwesel."

Bacharach wakes up around 10-11, and from the moment the town wakes up, there's wine flowing. There was wine at the winery, yes, but you wait on the boat and there's wine for sale. And on the boat? You can purchase wine if you didn't have enough while waiting on said boat. And at Rudesheim, you can get it out of the coolers at a souvenir shop. I'm convinced the water in the Rhine River even tastes of Riesling!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: An outdoor cafe and Romanesque Gothic church with an ornate spire featuring two segmented domes up to a cross of gold.

We arrived at the banks of Rudesheim, with maybe forty minutes to turn around and come back. Drew went to a souvenir store, and when I got out with another wine (don't judge), he was talking to some high school kids on a field trip who were acting like they'd never seen an American before.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A church sanctuary with a rounded white wall with tall, thin, slot-like stained glass windows of colorful fragments pouring light over a Jesus statue.

With our stop being so short, we popped into the cathedral in Rudesheim. Not quite Kolner Dom or St. Mary's, but it was beautiful, and had some clear Romanesque influence. I also burned myself lighting a candle, so there's that.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A small riverside town, with classical European architecture and modern buildings combined.

Taking the boat back, we passed Bingen, home of famous nun Hildegard of Bingen.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A black and white photo of a small tower with ramparts and a flag on the banks of a river.

The "smallest castle on the Rhine," we were told of this building.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A bunch of vacationers on a boat on the river under hills.

A white millennial couple on honeymoon with their crypto friends, a neurotic elderly woman, and a dysfunctional family take the boat to the White Lotus Resort, built in an old winery on the Rhine. However, upon arrival, they learn people have recently died in suspicious circumstances. Find out what happened over the last week on this season of The White Lotus!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A small white river cruise boat travels along the water downhill from a castle up on a rocky hillside.

I knew we'd found somewhere special when I saw one of Viking's legendary river cruises taking passengers up the Rhine.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A hilltop castle overlooks a river, in which a cargo barge carries a German flag and cars down the Rhine.

Old Germany and new Germany captured in one photo. This legendary river was a catalyst for so much political and economic activity, no wonder it's an icon with rich history.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A quaint German village nestled along a hilly forested riverbank from above.

"Let's head up the hill and check out the ruins," I suggested as one more activity before dinner. The path up here is a bit hidden, but the views of Bacharach and the Rhine are killer!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Sunlight glows through a reddish-pink brick structure of polygonal towers with ornate pointed Gothic window frames amd gargoyles.

The two buildings uphill from Bacharach that kind of "guard" the city are a castle at the very summit that operates as a hostel (glad they didn't have vacancies when we were there, I saw how high we'd have to lug our luggage!) and this ruins of the medieval Gothic Werner Chapel.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A medieval gothic chapel tower of reddish brick stands amid foliage against hills and a river.

According to the placard nearby, this took about 150 years to construct from the 13th to 15th centuries, and was destroyed in the 17th. It also noted the romanticism movement having high regard for these ruins. In high school, we visited the Dayton Art Institute with arts program Muse Machine for a tour regarding romanticism, and the piece to stick out most to me was William Louis Sonntag's "A Dream of Italy," which featured beautiful overgrown ruins overlooking a dramatic Tuscan landscape. When I read this, I could see exactly why this movement would be all over Werner Chapel.

Drew just said it looked like Elden Ring.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Jarrett smiles at the base of a medieval Gothic ruin.

While up here, I ran into a really cool German family on vacation, and talked to the parents briefly. I mentioned I was American, they responded by pointing at my shirt and saying, "we can tell, you love New York." After explaining that I'd never actually visited New York City, and that the shirt was a shoutout to my partner who lives Upstate, they introduced me to their son. This young man had been taking English in school and it was so cool being able to just say simple things like "hi, my name is Jarrett, I am from Ohio," and ask this kid basic questions. He was a bit shy, but I think he was proud of himself for being able to actually use his English in the wild. It's a thrill getting to the country and dropping a "hello," "please," "thank you," maybe you're a hotshot and can order a meal, and having them actually respond in a way you expect and can understand is really cool. So that was a fun memory for a whole family and I felt good having been a part of their vacation, because I know firsthand how cool that is.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A wine store with paintings on the wall sells wine bottles out of wooden crates lined with straw.

Dinner was at that biergarten-like place I found earlier, and while beer was very much a fixture here, this place was all about the wine. Think a biergarten with the drink menu of a winery.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Jarrett smiles in a German-styled courtyard drinking a glass of Riesling, with chapel ruins atop a hill.

I drank way too much wine today, but can ya blame me? Look where we are, everything here is delicious!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: On a table sits a piece of fried pork patty smothered in creamy mushroom gravy with fries, next to a glass of wine. The table is in a courtyard surrounded by a timber framed building and overlooked by overgrown Gothic ruins.

We'd smelled probably the best sauerkraut I'd ever smelled in the streets earlier, but couldn't find it on the menu of either place we picked. Oh well, I like schnitzel! This German dish, consisting of a pan fried veal or pork tenderloin that's been pounded paper thin and topped with gravy, is a favorite of mine from the culture at home.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A sunset hotel lobby with stained glass horse and carriage and German postal horn in the wavy glass, with steins, cups, and pamphlets on the windowsill. 

We went back to the zimmer after this to watch the latest Survivor that I was behind on. Plan was to crack open another bottle of Bacharacher Riesling (oops) and watch on my laptop, but German Paramount+ wasn't having it. Fortunatley, I got my phone to work, but Drew and I had to huddle around my little 2-inch iPhone screen to watch.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A cobblestone city street lined with timbe-framed German buildings under a tall hill with a streetlamp.

I've found destinations through some pretty odd ways. Murder-obsessed girlfriend, French class, watching South Park make fun of Denmark, the Sid Meier's Civilization franchise even made me aware of cool places like Cahokia Mounds or Skansen Outdoor Museum. But this might be the first instance of me doing things the conservative way and just throwing on travel porn and saying "let's go here, that's pretty!" And while we may have drank just as much on the New Year's Eve when we found this place as we did when we were actually there, it's a time I'll never forget. It's beautiful, it's quaint, life is comfortably paced here, and the food will knock your socks off. And at an easy train ride from Frankfurt, this is why you come here. Not for the industrial iron sprawl that has defined modern Germany, but for a past they have chosen to preserve out of plain sight.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A messy twist of steel black and leather-colored coaster track with a dive out of an inversion into launch stators, a short gunmetal-colored train says "VOLTRON" on the grill in gold letters.

UP NEXT: Our Germany adventure hits its final leg before returning home, and as this may be my last time in Europe for a hot minute, what a better way to say "see ya later" to this incredible mix of nations than all at once? After all this, we've earned our place in the Adventurer's Club of Europe! Europa Park holds swashbuckling Dutch privateers, Parisian nights, meals overlooking misty fjords, and everything else I've come to love from my adventures here. Join us for one of the best parks in the world, and see what Voltron shakes up!