Snaking between vineyard-clad mountains, we sailed past half-timbered villages and medieval castles. And yet we weren’t on the Rhine, nor the Danube, but the waterway linking the two – the River Main.
This 325-mile-long tributary of the Rhine was only connected to the Danube via canal in 1992, though the first attempt to join the rivers dates back to Charlemagne, king of the Francs. And to sail up the Main is to immerse yourself in the history and culture of the German region of Franconia in an experience to rival that of its two better-known cousins.
We started in Frankfurt where our ship, – the third in Tui’s burgeoning river cruise fleet, which began sailing in April – was moored just 10 minutes’ walk
