Germany is at its most beguiling as you float through the Rhine Valley. This is the land of the Nibelungen saga's dwarfs, river maidens and darker heroes, of the enticing siren Lorelei, and of fairytale castle ruins atop soaring mist-shrouded crags. But it's also a land of historic vineyards, elegant avenues of poplars and flower-filled gardens. In the cheery, colourful villages, the quaint half-timbered gingerbread houses look good enough to eat. Rhinelanders themselves have a healthy appetite for the good life; where better to taste and compare wines than Koblenz, looking west the Mosel vineyards and south to those of the Rhine Valley?

But it is the small villages that give the Rhine Valley its distinctive character. If Rüdesheim is the best known of the wine villages, Bacharach may be the prettiest, while Boppard and Lorch, each with attractive castles and churches, can make equal claims to producing some of the Rhine's very best white wines. Assmannshausen boasts a potent red wine and hot springs that have cured aches and pains since Roman times. Bingen is famous both for its wines and for its legendary bishop, devoured in a dungeon in the middle of the river. And don't let anyone tell you these legends are not true. Five summer nights are true magic: between May and September, the 'Rhein in Flammen' (Rhine in Flames) firework displays illuminate the towns, villages, castles and palaces between Rüdesheim and Bonn—a splendid spectacle viewed from one of the steamers gliding slowly downstream.