Riding Down the Rhine

There is probably no landscape so evocative of Germany as the Middle Rhine. It is as if everything from the water to the trees were composed by Richard Wagner. With its rolling green hills, the river bustling with barge traffic, the quaint villages and innumerable castles, the whole place is like the fever dream of some 19th century romantic poet. This is what I was here to explore.

I had traveled from Düsseldorf that morning (nearly a two-hour trip) and arrived in Koblenz—the largest city in...