The hook
The stretch of the Rhine where the river carves a steep gorge past a castle roughly every few kilometres, vineyards climbing the slate slopes, and a rock where a siren was said to wreck boatmen.
01Why it's worth it
For about sixty-five kilometres between Bingen and Koblenz the Rhine narrows into a winding gorge, and because whoever held the river held the tolls, medieval lords packed the banks with castles: some forty of them, hilltop ruins and restored keeps, plus one built on an island midstream to tax passing boats. Steep terraces of Riesling grow right down to the water, small wine villages line the banks, and the Lorelei, a slate cliff at the river's tightest, sharpest bend, gave rise to the legend of a siren who lured sailors onto the rocks. It is a landscape of the Romantic imagination, the one Byron and Turner came for, and it is easy to see slowly from a boat, a train, or a bike path without ever getting in a car. It reads as pleasant rather than jaw-dropping, so treat it as a relaxed day, not a headline sight.
02How to experience it
Take the river rather than the road. A boat between Bingen and Koblenz drifts you past the castles, or the railway and cycle path on the bank do the same for less. Stop in a wine village like Bacharach or Boppard, and taste the steep-slope Riesling where it grows.