The Rhine

This book was riveting reading from beginning to end. The humor was amazing and I frequently laughed out loud. I’m really looking forward to my own trip on the Rhine and now feel familiar with it in advance.

This is a very informative book that my husband and I are reading before we go in a Rhine cruise next year. He’s very into WWII history so knows more than I do but we’re both learning things!

This book was recommended as a travel guide. It is more of a story of 1 man's journey and is a bit outdated.

I took this book with me as my husband and I were headed to do a Rhine river cruise and it was the perfect companion (well, alongside my husband, of course). It helped give context to what we we seeing and united the many places we were visiting into a whole. Nice blend of geography and history and economics and culture and food and just good humor. Perfect trip book.

Thought this was a tour guide. I returned it.

I bought this book to read before my first trip to Europe and Rhine River Boat cruise. Buying this book was a great decision. Ben Coates is an awesome writer. He rides his bicycle, runs, swims, and eats his way up the river to its origin in Switzerland. The captures the culture, history, and paints images to delight any reader. He does not stray away from the politics, inventions, economics, and religions along the way. After reading this book I gained a great respect and admiration for the Rhine River and the importance it has to Europe and the World. A big benefit was that I really came to like Ben a great deal. He became my best friend by the end of the book. Great book, I would highly recommend.

This is an enjoyable book to prepare for a cruise on the Rhine. However, the few general maps at the beginning of the book do not answer the reader's constant question, "Where is he?" If the author had included maps pinpointing the location of the stories and descriptions, then the reader would not be lost. Also, the copy needs another edit to eliminate some errors (pp. 48, 51, 76, and 82 for starters). On p. 26, second paragraph, first sentence: the word should be "led," not "lead."

The author combines a travelogue of the Rhine river with plenty of historical information on each of the areas and towns he visits. Sometimes he dives too deep in the history and sometimes his European Liberal bias shows.

Well written. Interesting coverage though lack of maps meant frequent reference to an atlas map to keep sense of where we were going! Some of the content in the Dutch section seemed to overlap that in the author’s book on Holland. Despite these reservations, a good read.

I needed to know something about the Rhine and this book fulfilled the need in an enjoyable fashion. The only data missing is an account of how much traffic there was upstream before steam engines and how they did it.Google Earth was a constant companion during the reading in lieu of detailed maps.

I firstly read his book «Why the Dutch are different» and enjoyed it so much thatI decided to get his book «The Rhine.» I thoroughly enjoyed this title also. This is a very well researched account of the Rhine, the peoples living near it and how they and the nations were affected by it. Very interesting. I am sure everyone interested in European history and politics will learn a lot from it.

Experiences backed by impeccable research but contemporary opinion , descriptions and use of language. Amusing but kindly observation

good read