On the Lahntal Bicycle Trail from Dietz to Lahnstein

From Diez to Lahnstein: 50 km. 
 The train goes once per hour.
Good to know for the return trip.

Road forbidden for any vehicle - just open  for cyclists.

Quiet landscape near Diez with geologically interesting rock

Until in the fifties farmers used to load grain onto boats with this system.

Sun shielded cycling under roofs of green

A Railway Bridge across the River

Balduinstein Castle

For some kilometers cyclists have to share the road with car drivers

If you follow the former towing path at Gleinau you will cut off
 a few steep and tiresome kilometers on the road. However, the
 trail by the river is  narrow and demanding.  Very romantic, though.

For a couple of kilometers the path is romantic and difficult to ride.

One of  many sluices

After a few kilometers on the road the cyclists get their own lane again.

Entering the village of Obernhof you cannot miss the vinyards.
This man is probably enjoying his Riesling or Spaetburgunder
which are the favourite wines here.

Two recumbent e-trikers are leaving after they have helped me fix a puncture.

Monastery Arnstein (1360) near Obernhof/Lahn

Nassau, former  residence city

Castle of Nassau

Central Spa Hotel at Bad Ems

Sculpture of  Russian Tsar Alexander II
who used to meet the German emperor in Bad Ems during the summer

Sporting dresses in the fashion of the 19th century in Bad Ems

Inside the sluice, waiting for the door to open

Coming out of the sluice, while passenger boat is waiting

Inviting mermaid on a mural painting at the famous
"Wirtshaus an der Lahn" of which drinking song
verses have been rhymed for centuries
(Lahnstein)

Where then river Lahn flows into the Rhine you perceive Castle Stolzenfels
 (19th century), formerly the summer residence of Prussian King Wilhelm IV
located opposite Lahnstein on the left side of the Rhine

Waiting for the train