Gast und Weinhof Beim Schneemann - Valwig, Germany     

Set back on the vine clad valley side in the village of Valwig just over the river from Cochem. Valwig is a village of a dozen or so small hotels and restaurants. It is quiet, no tourist shops. The hotel is more like a larger bed and breakfast and reception, which you enter through a patio door, looks like it is someone's private lounge. The rooms are pleasant and clean, but no soap or shampoo. Also no tea or coffee facilities either in the room or in the hotel!, all a bit strange. But, and this is the big plus, the food is wonderful. The hotel seems to be run by the chefs mother who doesn't speak any English but the chef, who runs the restaurant, speaks perfect English and produces some of the most delicious food you will ever taste in a beautiful restaurant in caves underneath the hotel. We spent a very pleasant 2 nights in Valwig , sitting outside in the early evening sunshine, in a real wine bar, picking grapes off the vines and sipping various varieties of the local produce, before heading back to the hotel for the delicious food. Heaven