German Weekend 2 – The Hotel

Our hotel was a revelation. The Zur Alstadt hotel was in the heart of the old town, right opposite the plaque explaining the waves of settlement into the town. Although the outside of the building blended right in, the inside was ultra modern. There was a bar on the left, a cake and pastry cafe on the right and reception straight ahead.

Checkin was efficient and they’d put a cot in the room for our daughter. (This was a translation error. We’d asked for a child’s bed, but ‘kinderbett’ in German is a cot, so that’s what we’d got.) I thought she might rebel but she loved the bright colors, and once we’d arranged it so she could climb out, she was happy.

Our room was large – we could have swung ten cats in there if we’d wanted to – and the shower was roomy and powerful. So far, I was very impressed. When my friend had told me her uncle had a hotel, I was picturing bed and breakfast, not near luxury. The hotel had a sauna on site, which I didn’t take advantage of.

The breakfast room was huge, with angled mirrors set off from the ceiling. More impressive was the spread: two kinds of juice, several kinds of bread, cold meats, cereal, cheese, eggs and some of the best cappucino I’ve tasted in a while. I was in heaven!

The culinary delights continued over the weekend, with delicious meals of salmon, potatoes and lots more. And the beer was good, too. I could easily visit that hotel again.

Next: The wedding ceremony

A web release from carinsurance.com heralds the launch of a new type of automotive insurance from Norwich Union in the UK. Short term car insurance lets people choose insurance for up to 28 days. This means that if you need to pick up your car from the showroom, or someone wants to borrow your car for a while, it’s easy to arrange cover. The short term car insurance costs £10 a day for the first two days and £4 a day after that. This type of insurance may well catch on in the US. In the meantime, carinsurance.com has competitive quotes on car insurance wherever you live in the US.