Kaub Guide

Kaub is a small town on the right bank of the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, squeezed between the water and the steep slopes of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. It sits exactly halfway between Mainz and Koblenz, 46 km from each along the river. Most passenger ships do not stop here, so the town stays calm while the better-known stretches of the Middle Rhine fill up.

What you come for is Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, a castle on a rocky island in the middle of the river. Victor Hugo called it a stone ship, eternally floating on the Rhine and eternally anchored before the Palatinate town. A small passenger ferry runs out to it from Kaub. Inside it is rather bare, so you wander freely without a guide, past furniture from the 17th to 19th centuries and a 17th-century pizza oven on the second floor.

Take the stairs slowly, because they are steep and a bit tricky. Back on the bank, walk up to the vineyards south of Burg Gutenfels, where you get a fine view of the Rhine and the toll castle below. Gutenfels itself has been in private hands since 2006, so you can only walk around the outside.

In town, the Blücher Museum fills a villa furnished in the style of the early 19th century and tells how General Blücher crossed the Rhine here in 1813-14. A walkable stretch of the old town wall survives with five main towers still standing, so a loop through Kaub does not take long.

Walkers get the most out of the place. The Rheinsteig trail drops into the centre and climbs the other side of the Blüchertal, and from there you can walk on to the Loreley or to Lorch. The Rheingauer Riesling Pfad starts or ends in town, and across the river the Rheinburgenweg follows the left bank.

If you would rather be on the water, rafting trips down the Rhine leave from Kaub. One traveller called the guided tour very fun, with friendly guides who knew interesting facts about the surroundings. Between trips, the quiet riverbank is the real pleasure: with so few ships stopping, the Rhine traffic simply passes you by. Kaub is also home to the gauging station, a decisive measuring point for Rhine water levels, because the town lies at the shallowest part of the Middle Rhine.