Rheinburgenweg: Leg 1 - Bingen am Rhein to Trechtingshausen (12.3 km)

So I started a new trail. And for this one, I went all the way to Rheinland-Pfalz for it. I stayed for an entire week in Mainz, and thankfully, the weather was cooperative and allowed me 5 days of good weather to do some hiking. This time, I tackled parts of the Rheinburgenweg, and I have to say, it was a fantastic trail!

This trail runs along the Rhine River, and stops by several of the castles and castle ruins along the way. I started from the south, where I picked up this trail in Bingen.

I have seen the Rhine before, but until now only from thew window of a train. This is the first time I am seeing it up close. I found the trail easily enough from the train station in Bingen, and soon enough it began, just behind a youth hostel.

There is actually a few trails running concurrently, so I saw several trail signs quite often during this trip. This is the first marker for the day, just behind the youth hostel.

I saw this interesting installation during this leg. It's a wooden contraption that allows a ball to roll all the way from the very top, all the way to the bottom, assuming there are no obstacles along the way. I tried it out, but as I was coming from the very bottom, I didn't see if the ball I dropped went all the way to the end.

There was a hanging wooden bridge. I tried it, but hated it. Thankfully, I didn't need to cross it.

There was this part, which was deep in the forest, and was running right by a small stream. There were several wooden bridges that I had to cross to go over this stream, and it was massively pretty.

There were in fact two castles I saw in this leg, but as I even visited the interior of these castles, I am devoting separate entries for them. So stay tuned for those, in the meantime, let me conclude this first leg of the fantastic Rheinburgenweg. There are several more.