No room at the inn

So I really liked Beilstein, and I had heard great things about one hotel there in my research. We stopped there for coffee and I asked if they happened to have any rooms available. Sadly, they did not, at least not for that night, but they did for the next night. I decided to make a reservation and planned to return the next day.

Somewhere along the way we realized that today was a national holiday in Germany, (German reunification day or something,) which we were hoping explained the masses of people everywhere. Mike did his best to make me feel better and assured me that it would not be that busy all week.

Since everyplace seemed so busy, we decided we should go back to Cochem to try and find a room, since it was the largest town. I got discouraged at the Tourist Information office because it seemed like all the available places were far away from the town center and not within walking distance. So I reached into my "research bag of tricks" and pulled out the name of a B&B recommended by someone on Fodors. They had space and we walked over there.

Mike had never stayed in a B&B before, and he was a bit taken aback by it. I think he thought it was "too familiar," like staying at someones grandparent's house. But the price was great, and the owners were extremely friendly, if quite monolingual. The husband walked me to our car and showed me the incredibly indirect, difficult, circuitous route back to the free spaces in front of their house. We relaxed a bit on the incredibly comfortable bed and set out to wander the streets of Cochem and find some wine and eventually some dinner.