Boppard is the largest town on the Middle Rhine and feels more lived-in than the smaller showpiece villages downstream. It sits inside the Bopparder Hamm, a huge horseshoe bend in the Rhine where steep slate slopes carry some of the valley's best Riesling vineyards.
The old town still has serious Roman bones. Parts of the late Roman fort wall stand around the centre, the market square stays busy without feeling staged, and St. Severus looks over it all with a pair of Romanesque towers. The Rhine promenade is long and easy, with boats nosing past and castle country beginning almost at once in both directions.
The reason to give Boppard a day, rather than just ride through by train, is the view from above. A chairlift climbs from the edge of town to Vierseenblick, where the Rhine's bend appears as four separate lakes. From there you can walk on to Gedeonseck, drop into the vineyards, or join a section of the Rheinburgenweg before coming back down for wine by the river.