For much of its length the river Rhine is a big and nondescript waterway, responsible for draining much of Switzerland, Austria and Germany and carrying one helluva lot of freight en route. But for a comparatively short piece of its 1,233km journey from source to sea, it achieves true celebrity status as it cuts through the 260 metre deep Rhine gorge, creating some of the finest scenery in western Europe, to which mankind has added handsome towns, quirky watchtowers and towering castles. These features, together with the slings and arrows of history that went into creating them, has led to the whole gorge being listed as a site of world heritage by UNESCO. And that’s without even mentioning the wine; the gorge’s south-facing shores are slathered in some of the most productive vineyards in Europe.

The gorge has been inspirational for poets, painters and composers (Brahms, Wagner, Goethe) for several centuries – and buttock-clenching for ship’s captains for even longer. The artistically-inclined appreciate the contrast between the beautifully manicured layers of vines and the indomitable wildness of the water, which surges white-flecked through the gorge with a force that all but defeats the most resolute of marine diesels; a skipper needs special certification to tackle these waters.

The most spectacular stretch starts at Rudesheim (Bingen) in the south (frequent trains run from Frankfurt airport via Wiesbaden and take 75 minutes) and runs almost due north for around 65kms to Koblenz. For all of this distance – in fact all the way from Wiesbaden to Koblenz – a distance of 108kms, there are no bridges. Accordingly river transport is key, both in terms of cross-river ferries, and in long distance cruisers, some of them hotel boats savouring the scenery with leisurely stops and others of them day cruisers providing a regular scheduled service.

Three different approaches

For visitors there are three main choices of activity. For walkers, the Rheinsteig is one of Europe’s greatest long distance footpaths, and it follows the river on the east bank (the vineyard side) mostly in the state of Hesse. It sometimes dips down into towns, but much of the time it stays high, staying in shaded woodland of oak and birch, offering terrific views of the river below.

For cyclists, the west bank has the dedicated cycle path, down at river level, sometimes along the side of the road, sometimes doing its own thing at the water’s edge. It is impossible to get lost, and the river’s regular boats – or the trains, which serve both sides – are always at hand to return you to base if you don’t want to retrace your steps.

And then there are all the boat passengers, on day trips or on sleek, glittering hotel boats, sunning themselves in the gorge’s microclimate between stops at the key towns. These are Rudesheim, Bingen, Bacharach, Oberwesel, St Goar, Bad Salzig and Boppard, and they are usually linear in layout, with a castle above, with tower-encrusted walls, and collections of gabled and half timbered medieval houses, boasting plenty of places to sample the Riesling or the coffee and cake.

Elsewhere, the Rhine gorge remains pretty thinly populated, despite sitting at the heart of Europe’s most populous nation. Only wine-makers’ mansions break the patterns of vineyards, their tractors combing the slopes, and holding back rampant forest.

All in all it is a lovely place to pass a handful of days.

There’s no over-arching official website that covers the whole thing, but the Romantic Rhine is the best general site, and the Rheingau covers the wine-rich destinations at the southern and eastern end.

It’s tempting to concentrate on the city of Leipzig’s grand cultural and musical heritage and simply to start name-dropping, since some of the world’s most eminent musical figures and institutions are part and parcel of the city’s history: Bach, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Schumann, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the St Thomas’ Boys Choir. However, as important as all these most certainly are, 21st century Leipzig is a city that merges a number of ingredients into a very appealing urban cocktail (and lots of hidden treasures) – such as easy-going street life, innovative leisure ideas, impressive art nouveau and Renaissance architecture, plentiful green spaces plus a genuine fondness by the inhabitants for their city that is pleasingly evident in everyday life.

Just over an hour south of Berlin, locals call Leipzig ‘LE’, sounding like ‘LA’ in German. Fortunately, this is where the similarity with the US megalopolis ends since Leipzig has a proper city centre made for walking and exploring, whilst LA does not.

This is a city with a history that dates back more than 1,000 years and is still extremely buzzing. After Leipzig’s big birthday bash for the city’s 1000th anniversary in 2015, one might think the party is over but far from it: the city of books and music is as lively as ever and each year offers a calendar full of festivals and events.

The historical centre inside the so-called Ring which follows the old town fortification covers one square kilometre and is a maze of wide pedestrianised zones, small cobble-stoned lanes and a whole network of courtyards, passages or arcades and palatial trade fair halls, one of Leipzig’s stand-out features.

Much of the original city plan dates back a mere 500 years, when the distinctive city passages were built to save horse-drawn carriages from having to reverse in the courtyards and are closely connected to the city’s history as a trade hub. There are now 30 of these arcades, 20 of them originals, housing small shops, boutiques, cafés and restaurants. The old ones have been beautifully restored such as Mädler Passage, a splendid walkway featuring the famous Auerbach’s Keller which was immortalised in Goethe’s Faust. Barthels Hof, the last remaining trade courtyard from the trade fair period in the 18^th century, has a stunning Renaissance facade, the oldest surviving one from a Leipzig residence, and in Specks Hof, the oldest remaining passage, three colourful atriums feature murals and paintings by contemporary artists.

Welcome to LE where classic culture and street life meet

A walk around Leipzig’s city centre will also automatically lead to some of the aforementioned musical powerhouses. There’s the Bach Museum opposite St Thomas’ Church where the composer served as cantor from 1723 to 1750, the Mendelssohn House, the only remaining private residence of the composer, or the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Leipzig was able to transform and reinvent itself after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and one example of creative reinvention is the Spinnerei, a former cotton mill that is now a thriving artist community with galleries and artists’ workshops, most notably that of internationally renowned Neo Rauch, a key figure of the so-called ‘New Leipzig School’.

Another example of new uses for old industry is the Panometer, where Berlin-based panorama artist and architect Yadegar Asisi creates monumental 360-degree panoramas inside a former gasometer. The current exhibition (until 15 January 2017) is called  ‘Leipzig 1813 – in the turmoil of the Battle of the Nations’, and after that, a Titanic panorama will feature.

Apart from a very lively restaurant and bar scene with about 1,400 establishments including almost 400 with al fresco seating (or, a Freisitz, as they say in town), Leipzig also offers some attractive outdoor features: a maze of canals within the city that includes a water route from an inner city marina to Lake Cospuden outside town. ‘Route 1’ with a length of 11 km takes canoeists and paddlers along park landscapes and past late 19^th century villas to the Leipzig New Lakeland recreation area about 10km south of the city, a system of lakes that developed from former opencast mines.

Further waterways interconnect Leipzig with the whole of the New Lakeland, and that along with surrounding villages and countryside is now all being promoted as a region, and not just as a city. And there’s a new four-part Leipzig Region brand logo to go with the enlarged profile, representing the castles and history of surrounding Burgenland, the lakes and waterways of Lakeland, the nature experiences of the local heathland, and finally of course the city itself.

Leipzig seems to do it all with ease.

It is not easy to like Wagner, the man. Famously anti-semitic, rather self-centred and opinionated and something of a troublemaker, the composer had to spend some time in exile in Switzerland after he antagonized Saxony’s ruling dynasty.

But the composer’s music transcends his lifestory, and is particularly associated with a very beautiful section of Germany’s landscape. This main regional association is not with the area around Leipzig, where he was born, or Dresden, where he did much of his early work, but the stretch of the Rhine south of Bonn. This is where the river Rhine meanders its way between steep valley sides, lined with sloping vineyards, punctuated with attractive villages of half-timbered houses and dominated by the stern-looking fortresses and castles of robber barons, some of which date back to as early as the 9^th century.

Every cruise boat on the Rhine will play snatches of Wagner

This combination of fabulous landscape, long history, and a treacherous, powerful river has spawned a lot of story-telling. Much of the Rhine legend was seized up on by Wagner as good material for his operas, particularly the story of the Loreley, a beautiful siren who would sit on the clifftop high above the river, combing her hair and singing seductively to passing boatmen. His Ring cycle of four operas is a story of a battle between the Gods, played out between the Nibelungen, a Burgundian race said to have lived on the banks of the Rhine. The Ring itself is forged from gold stolen from mythical Rhinemaidens.

Virtually every cruise boat on the Rhine will play snatches of Wagner – the ride of the Valkyries, or Siegfried’s funeral march – at some stage in their journey, but the composer himself didn’t hang around the Rhine valley. After his exile in Switzerland he was lucky to find a patron in the form of Bavaria’s King Ludwig II, and Bavaria was to become his home, eventually building his ideal opera house in the town of Bayreuth. This is where the Ring cycle is still performed every year, as part of the Wagner Festspiele, a month-long festival of only Wagner’s music.

This exclusive festival is run by Wagner’s great grand-daughter, and attracts a cross section of Europe’s intellectual and cultural elite, although some high profile Germans can still be hesitant about attending. First-time visitors must apply in writing by October 15 the preceding year, and may wait years before they are granted tickets.