Rhine Christmas Markets — Arosa Brava

Four nights on the Rhine in the weeks when Germany smells of mulled wine and roasted almonds. From Cologne and its cathedral, the river carries you south to Rüdesheim and its tiny lanes of wine taverns, to Mainz and to Frankfurt, where the Christmas market fills the old Römerberg square.

On the way back the ship glides past the Loreley rock and the castles of the Rhine Gorge, stops in Koblenz where the Moselle meets the Rhine, and brings you home to Cologne as the markets light up again.