Today we will take a nice panoramic autumn tour in the Rheingau, a quite famous wine region providing not only Germany with a yearly production of 27 million liters of this fine alcoholic beverage – almost 80 percent of this are gleaned from Riesling grapes, another 13 percent consists of Pinot Noir.

Let's start with a map of our hiking tour (that actually took place on 14th of October, two and a half weeks ago.) We'll start at the left at the red arrow pointing towards Assmannshausen (the main Pinot Noir region of the Rheingau) where the Rhine makes a slope upwards towards the north. We'll climb up a bit until we reach the lower hiking trail that will lead us “around the corner” of the Rhine until we reach the large vineyards looking towards the south and thus getting their marvelous sweetness out of the autumn sun. Walking through the vineyards we'll reach Rüdesheim, a quite touristic village, for a short stopover, and then will enjoy a ride with a cable car (gondola lift type) above the vineyards (look for the word “Kabinenbahn” indicating the cable car line on the map – left and slightly above of Rüdesheim). After a short look at the monumental Niederwalddenkmal – a quite nationalistic monument – we'll hike back to Assmannshausen using the upper hiking trail and will finally re-descend to this little “red wine town” using a chair lift:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940577/original.jpg

All set to go? Okay, then let's start!

It's autumn, the sun doesn't rise too far on the sky, and that's why the small alleys of Assmannshausen are in the shadows, even if it's almost 11 a.m.:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940571/original.jpg

Before ascending to the vineyards we see a load of empty wine bottles intended for last years harvest – indicating the “Assmannshauser Höllenberg” (the second word literally means “hell's mountain”):

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940549/original.jpg

Climbing up some slopes we're instantly rewarded with this scenic view of this “Höllenberg” (on the right), the village of Assmanshausen and the Rhine river – of course with one of the obligatory Rhine castles on the other bank:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118672820/original.jpg

A few meters from this we look up into one the vineyards, and if you ever wondered what the difference between red and white wine really is – well, here you can see it: ;-)

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940600/original.jpg

To be honest I'm not sure if the color of the leaves really has something to do with the color of the grapes …

Some time and kilometers later the ruins of Castle Ehrenfels appear before us – and a silvery shining Rhine. Some clouds have appeared by now on this fine autumn day:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118672822/original.jpg

We risk a view down some grapevines towards this “silver Rhine”, and see a part of the city of Bingen on the other bank:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940526/original.jpg

Now finally for the real thing! In mid October most of the grapes are harvested, but those few intended for the better quality “Spätlese” and “Auslese” are still there. We see some red ones – small, but tasty, I assure you … ;-)

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940618/original.jpg

… and later one some equally fantastic tasting white ones:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940627/original.jpg

We now have almost reached Rüdesheim and descend through the vineyards to reach it:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118672824/original.jpg

As I forewarned you Rüdesheim indeed is very touristic, with busloads of people flooding the village especially in the summer. It's full of restaurants and wine shops, but in the autumn the tourist stream ebbs a bit – fortunately. Here one of the typical restaurants: http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940643/original.jpg

Another view of it with its rather corny decoration in some of its front windows:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940634/original.jpg

And here a quick view into the famous “Drosselgasse”, a very narrow alley full of shops, bars and restaurants:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940542/original.jpg

We now leave Rüdesheim, and use a small cable car to climb up the mountains again – and this cable car offers a really spectacular view of the vineyards around the village:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118672817/original.jpg

After leaving the cable car we're offered a very wide view of the Rhine valley – if you look closely, you can see the cable car line in the left part of this panorama:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118672815/original.jpg

A short walk leads us to the Niederwalddenkmal, a large patriotic monument built more than 125 years ago to commemorate the foundation of the German Empire in 1871. Main sculpture is the “Germania”, the central figure of the monument more than 10 meters tall. Also you'll find a large war statue at the left of the monument, and a peace statue at its left:

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940564/original.jpg

Following the upper trail through the woods – the Niederwald – we have to veer off the path to get this view of Bingen through the autumn leaves - it's very cloudy now in the afternoon :

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940535/original.jpg

At the end of the trail we climb into a small chair lift bringing us back down to Assmannshausen where our tour started a few hours ago – and with this second, somewhat different view of the “Assmannshäuser Höllenberg” our little tour ends!

http://www.pbase.com/phsan/image/118940610/original.jpg

All pictures and panoramas taken with K20D and DA16-45, save #1, 2 and the last one – these taken with K20D and DA10-17. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Phil
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GMT +1
http://www.pbase.com/phsan