Bacharach & Oberwessel, Germany

Bacharach & Oberwessel

We had a bit of a scare turning left into the Stellplatz as we were indicating to turn left and were halfway across the road when a car tried to overtake.   He overtook the cars waiting behind us, and I don’t know how he missed not smashing into the side of us.

Once we turned into the stellplatz, we could see it was full, so we had to park up on the campsite beside it. Many of the Stellplätze in Germany are located alongside campsites.  We were pleased that this one had one, as we needed to de-stress.  Once we got set up on the site, which cost us 19.50 euros instead of 10 euros for the stellplatz, we went up to the bar/restaurant for a drink and ended up having a burger and chips to save cooking.  I must admit it was the best burger and chips we have ever had.  We sat overlooking the Rhine, taking in the scenery on the balcony of the restaurant, and it didn’t take long to start relaxing.

The campsite was fantastic as we were parked up overlooking the Rhine, watching the various boats going up and downstream. It was fascinating watching the River Cruise Ships.  Above us, perched on the hill, was Stahleck Castle, which is today a youth hostel.  Just a short 5-minute walk along the river was the landing stop for the River Cruises and the beautiful little medieval town of Bacharach.

The architecture was something to marvel at, and we were impressed by the many overlapping timbered houses and their pointed roofs.  We briefly stood in front of the oldest and most famous building, the “Altes Haus” (Old House) restaurant, and then watched as the classic cars drove past and through the town.

The next day, Sunday, we cycled along the river cycle path to the next small town of Oberwessel. It was about 5 miles and was a really lovely, easy, flat ride.  We walked around the city, then sat and had a coffee, enjoying the sun and doing some of our favourites, people watching.

We managed fine for the weekend without running water (it was just like camping again – although we still had all the other comforts). We filled a small plastic bowl with water and placed it in the sink next to the toilet to wash our hands. We also had a glass, which we filled from the bowl, for flushing the toilet.  We filled the plastic watering can, which we always carry with us now, and used it to fill the kettle with water to boil for washing up.

Monday morning, we asked reception to call Truma for us, in case there was no one English-speaking on the other end of the phone, and also because whenever I dialled the number, I kept getting a recorded message and couldn’t understand what they were saying. A few days later, when I tried again, I found out it was the operator’s fault, and I had been leaving the “00” off where the + sign was in front of the number, of course!  Anyway, the receptionist said that they were all still dismantling displays from the show and we would not be able to get it booked in until the following week.