Drivin' Adair by Bimmer 09: Room at the Top

Here's our little round hotel room

and the view from the bedroom window

A small lounge area

There was a decanter with some brandy and a bowl of apples awaiting us-a nice touch

The bathroom with it's gold-plated bidet faucets. The shower alas was one of those hand held only units so one had to kneel in the bathtub ( not shown) to prevent soaking the floor as there was no shower curtain.

A small but cosy hotel room. We had a 19 inch TV and a CD player with speakers and a lot of books to read if we chose to.

We spent most of our room time sitting on the balcony which has two small benches with a table between them.

The hotel has a fine dining restaurant which is open to the public. We were offered a complimentary dinner there and accepted. It was a great meal- German food -but elegantly presented and with excellent service from a young polished waitstaff. It also saved us having to go down to Oberwesel and hunt for food.

Afterwards we sat outside in a small courtyard, looking up at the stars. I rounded off my meal with an excellent espresso and Samba before retiring for the night. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of a Nightingale singing merrily on the castle ramparts.

Next morning we enjoyed a typical German breakfast, again complimentary, in a beautiful room on the ground floor. There is also an outdoor terrace if you want to dine with a Rhine view.

This little path and archway lead to the outdoor terrace from outside

Some random hotel shots...

Another beautiful sunny day!

After breakfast and a walk around the property we decided on an excursion to some more Rick Steves recommendations- Castle Burg Eltz and the riverside town of Beilstein on the banks of the nearby river Rhone which is known as the Mosel in Germany. This would involve climbing up, away from the river and over the verdant pastures 1,000 feet above and then down the other side. The car would do all the climbing of course and I would just drive it, without breaking a sweat.

Here we are half an hour later, deep in the countryside with Burg Eltz in the valley behind

There's a small shuttle bus that will save you this long walk downhill and back again

Alas, no photos of the interior. We took a guided tour but flash wasn't allowed owing to the many tapestries hanging on the walls, some of them of an "adult nature" but we also got to see the ancient kitchen- basically a huge open fireplace where pots could be hung to heat.

There was of course a gift shop and a small cafe where I was able to quench my thirst with a beer on a bench outside-very civilized.

The sleuths among you will realize that the Eltz photos are from 2005 which was our 2nd stay in Oberwesel. The 2005 trip is a blog of the future and may be a year away from appearing here but I figured that if anyone reading this Oberwesel section was interested in going there or to nearby Cologne you might be interested to see what day trips you could make. Pencil in a visit to Burg Eltz!

After the castle we drove on towards the Rhone/Mosel and passed through the town of Cochem but didn't stop as it was so busy with tourists. We drove along the Mosel to Beilstein where we planned to have lunch at Haus Lippman which is the hotel of choice for Rick Steves. We dined outdoors and the food-basic German meat and potatoes-was superb.

Here's Beilstein

The view from our lunch table

The vineyards

A pleasant drive back to the hotel to relax before dinner. Tonight we would branch out and return to the quaint town of Bacharach for a quiet dinner outdoors at sunset. We drove back to the castle in the dark and enjoyed a drink before bedtime. In the morning we would have to leave and drive to Munich to hand the car over to the shippers-Harms and Co. They would get it on a ship and send it to New Jersey and from there it would be trucked to Indiana to my dealership. That took 5 weeks of waiting for me.

Next morning we packed after breakfast then took one last look down onto Oberwesel