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In Germany, the River Rhine cuts through steep hillsides and craggy cliffs to reveal quaint villages of half timbered houses around every bend. This 80 mile stretch between Bingen and Bonn makes up the Middle Rhine, but the area is more affectionately known as the Romantic Rhine. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this idyllic setting inspired Rhine Romanticism anartistic movement during which artists decried industrialization and turned instead to nature and the past for inspiration. Writers, painters, and composers, Lord Byron, William Turner, and Richard Wagner, among them. journeyed along this sublime waterway, coming away forever changed by the experience. This historic river inspired such works as Wagner's the Ring Cycle, Heine's poem, Die Lorelei, and some of Turner's finest landscapes, the result of several voyages along the Rhine. In 2002, a portion of the middle Rhine was designated a UNESCO World heritage site, in part because of its more than 40 medieval castles, such as Rheinstein Castle, once home to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph Von Hapsburg, 12th century Stahleck Castle, Built by the archbishops of Cologne and Marksburg, the only Rhine castle never conquered. Even more intriguing is Pfalzgrafenstein, a toll station built on an island in the middle of the river. Chains one stretched from this island across the entire Rhine. In order to pass, one had to pay a toll, a major source of medieval revenue for the castle landowners. This majestic waterway, long the domain of knights and princes, painters and poets offers a fascinating window into the past as well as some of the world's most spectacular vistas. The next time you are in Europe, I hope you'll take the opportunity to explore the romantic middle Rhine for yourself self.