The river nobly foams and flows, the charm of this enchanted ground, and all its thousand turns disclose some fresher beauty varying round.”
So wrote English poet Lord Byron about the view from the “castled crag of Drachenfels”, a hill that towers high above the German town of Konigswinter. Standing amid the crumbling ruins of its 12th-century castle, with miles of verdant riverbanks and milky blue water unfolding below, it’s easy to see what inspired him to wax lyrical.
He wasn’t the only one – this was one of the first regions in Germany to attract tourists, drawn to its forested slopes and fairy tale-like landscapes, rich with stories of fair maidens and
