Walking Mehlem, Bonn's ferry village on the Rhine

The promenade and the ferry at Austraße

The Rheinpromenade Mehlem (John-J.-McCloy-Ufer) is flat asphalt and gravel under plane trees, with a low stone flood wall between the path and the water. Barges slide past close in, and across the river the twin humps of the Drachenfels and the Petersberg rise straight out of the far bank. The promenade runs from the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Rüngsdorf down to Siegfriedstraße, and the benches cluster near the ferry ramp. There is nothing to pay, and the path is wide enough that walking groups and cycle tours pass along it without crowding each other.

The Rheinfähre Königswinter–Mehlem (Austraße) sails from 05:20 to 21:50, and the first weekend crossing is at 07:50. You walk on without booking. An adult on foot pays €2.20 and a child €1.20; a bike costs €3.00 and a car including its driver €4.50. Deutschlandticket holders cross free on foot or by bike through 11 December 2026, and you arrange group tickets direct with the ferry operator.

The eight minutes on deck give you the whole Siebengebirge, with the Drachenfels summit ruin dead ahead as the blue-and-white flat deck noses onto the slipway. Cars and cyclists roll off at the top of the ramp. Cross both ways, and spend both crossings standing at the rail looking upriver.

Imbiss Zur Mehlemer Fähre (Austraße 33) works the promenade from a serving hatch a few steps from the ramp, with currywurst, bratwurst and ice cream at €. Seating is a handful of outdoor tables, and most people eat standing at the wall with the mountains filling the view. Hours follow the weather, so opening is shorter outside summer. Cyclists coming off the Rhine route stop here as a matter of course.

St. Severin and the chapel above the old village

Katholische Pfarrkirche St. Severin (Mainzer Straße) was first recorded in 1181, burnt out after a lightning strike in 1860 and was rebuilt by 1863 by the district architect Paul Richard Thomann, who raised the surviving tower. That is why a village church out-spires everything for 60 km upriver: the slim neo-Romanesque stone spire with its round-arched windows stands well clear of the low houses around it. Entry is free outside services, you keep quiet during Mass, and the parish arranges group visits.

Keep climbing to the corner where Bachemer Straße meets Meckenheimer Straße and the Kapelle zu den Sieben Schmerzen Mariens stands on its own, whitewashed under a slate-shingled pointed roof with an open porch. It went up in 1681 to replace a chapel destroyed along with three-quarters of Mehlem in 1633, and the seven sides of its rare plan count the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Inside is wooden sculpture from the 14th to the 17th centuries, including an Anna Selbdritt group, and a baroque Pietà altar. The interior holds a handful of people at a time, so a larger party looks in from the porch. Entry is free.

Villas on Siegfriedstraße and Rüdigerstraße

Below the church, a grid of quiet tree-lined streets drops back toward the river, where the Villenviertel Siegfriedstraße & Rüdigerstraße is a readable 15-minute walk through Bonn's embassy decades. The listed houses date from 1899 to 1934, stucco and half-timbered gables behind wrought-iron gates and mature gardens, several of them by the architects Willy Maß and Peter Wald. Villa Camphausen (Mainzer Str. 233) was the South Korean ambassador's residence and Haus Steineck (Rüdigerstr. 82) the Saudi one. They are private homes now, so you see them from the street and there are no interiors.

Off Oberaustraße, a short lane called Levyweg hides the Jüdischer Friedhof Mehlem between houses, where 43 marble and granite headstones step up a steep grassy slope behind a high hedge. Gottfried Levy gave the land in 1868 for Mehlem's own synagogue community, the last burial was in 1941, and an information board has marked the site since 2012. The iron gate stays locked, and you go in on a guided visit arranged through the city or the local history group; men should cover their heads. Sort that out before you travel rather than walking up Levyweg on spec.

Walking up the Rodderberg

The Rodderberg is the youngest volcano in the Drachenfelser Ländchen, and its warm tuff soils have made the crater a heat island that carries southern-European plants and insects. The crater floor sits 50 m below the rim, ringed by basaltic tuff and slag, with farmland and grass inside it and a 196 m summit on the edge. A 3.2 km loop circles the rim, and the Heinrichsblick opens north over the Rhine valley to the Siebengebirge.

Walk up from Mehlem station through the Mehlemer Bach valley and the view comes at the end of a climb; drivers use the walkers' car park at Broichhof. Paths are marked, and walking clubs are on them constantly. Carry water, because the crater has no facilities.

South to the Rolandsbogen and the Arp Museum

Three kilometres south of Mehlem, the Rolandsbogen is the last arch of Burg Rolandseck and was the Rhine Romantics' favourite ruin: one surviving Romanesque window arch standing alone on a wooded clifftop, with the river and the convent island of Nonnenwerth directly below it. A terrace of tables under parasols sits beside the arch, and behind it are the restaurant, a panorama winter garden, the Burgsaal and a beer garden. Cooking is €€€ and service runs Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00 to 22:00. Reserve ahead, and treat the arch as the turn-around point of a half-day walk out of the village.

Two kilometres south, and reachable on foot along the river, the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck holds the collection of Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp in a station that was an artists' salon in the 1960s. The cream neoclassical building of the 1850s keeps its arcaded loggia, and a tunnel and lift run through the hillside to Richard Meier's white steel-and-glass wing on the cliff above the Rhine tracks. Entry is €12, or €9 reduced and €18 for a family, with under-12s free; on Tuesdays, Museumsdienstag gives everyone the reduced rate. The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 to 18:00, and closes on 24 and 31 December and on Shrove Monday. Groups can book a tour in advance.

Tables on the river at Austraße and Fährstraße

Kleinpetersberg (Austraße 46) is the table locals name first, a wide stepped terrace of white-clothed tables set on the bank metres from the ferry ramp and looking straight across at the Drachenfels and the Petersberg. The kitchen cooks seasonally and changes its recommendations through the year. Hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 11:30 to 14:30 and 17:30 to 22:00, with Monday closed, and the price band is €€€. Book the terrace. Parking on site is free, dogs are welcome, and they set up step-free access if you ask.

K.u.K. im Weinhäuschen am Rhein (Fährstraße 26) occupies a listed inn building at the old ferry point, with a big shaded terrace of wooden tables facing the river. The cooking is Austrian, schnitzel and Tafelspitz with Austrian wine, and mains run €20 to €32. Doors open Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00 to 22:00, with Monday and Tuesday closed except on public holidays. The terrace fills fast on a sunny weekend, so phone before you come.

Eating on Mainzer Straße

Café Mehr (Mainzer Str. 199) keeps a glass counter of home-made tortes behind a modest shopfront, with small marble-topped tables inside and pavement seats on the village high street. It is the right first stop before the ferry, since nothing on the riverbank does breakfast this well, and the kitchen is vegetarian-friendly at €€. Opening is 09:00 to 17:00 Wednesday to Saturday and 09:30 to 17:00 on Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. The room is small: six or eight people are fine, and anything larger needs a call first.

Alte Schmiede La Fragua Tapas Bar (Mainzer Str. 173) fills a listed former village smithy, dark beams and bare brick with the iron fittings left in place, plus a separate drinks bar and a walled terrace out back. Gambas al ajillo, Spanish tapas and cocktails come at €€, and you book online through Quandoo. The split layout of dining room, bar and terrace absorbs a dozen or more comfortably, and the kitchen caters private celebrations. Of the addresses in Mehlem, this is the one that works as an evening out rather than a lunch.

Restaurant Bergischer Hof (Mainzer Str. 192) sends you upstairs to a summer terrace that looks across the Rhine to Schloss Drachenburg on its wooded ridge, with laid tables and a salad buffet in the rooms behind. The cooking is Balkan grill plates and schnitzel at village prices, €€, and Wednesday is the Balkan-Feuer grill night. The house reopened on 23 October 2026 after a break, so confirm hours when you reserve on 0228 348440; they usually run 11:30 to 15:00 and 17:30 to 00:00, closed Thursday. Function rooms take up to 50 people.

A room on the river

Rheinhotel Dreesen (Rheinstraße 45 to 49) is a long cream-rendered grand hotel of 1894 standing directly on the Rhine, fronted by the chestnut-shaded Kastaniengarten that runs down to the water and a new pavilion with a retractable roof. The same family has run it for five generations, and rooms sit at €105 to €190 per night. Charlie Chaplin and Konrad Adenauer both signed the book, and the house has its 1938 diplomatic history, which you ask about at reception rather than expecting to find on a display board. Six event rooms and the riverside pavilion hold up to 120 people. From Mehlem's ferry it is a 20-minute walk north along the McCloy-Ufer.

Closed days and bookings

Build the week around the closures: Monday and Tuesday shut most of the eating in Mehlem and the Arp Museum opens Tuesday to Sunday, while Bergischer Hof closes Thursday and the Rolandsbogen kitchen only works Wednesday to Sunday. Reserve the river terraces before you arrive, confirm Bergischer Hof's hours by phone, and arrange the cemetery visit in advance, since the gate stays locked. See the Bonn guide and the Bonn hotel search.