Tag: Ockenheim

2020-09-21 (Mon). Ockenheim & Zell am Mosel.

The bells didn’t stop overnight. They chimed on every quarter, plus a full-blown count of the hour on each and every hour. With a prolonged, 10 minute long clanging call-to-prayer (presumably) at 07:00. I woke at 03:45 and never got back to sleep again. The sleeplessness was further aided by aircraft coming in to land directly overhead from 05:00 onwards. It turns out we’re right under the flight path for Frankfurt airport. Yawn.

Zell, on the Mosel is our next stop, it taking just over an hour to get there, driving across the Hunsrück. That was the theory. Roadworks again prolonged the journey, so it took us a good two hours.

Fortunately, we grabbed the last place available on the Stellplatz, sandwiched between an old Hymer A class on one side, and an enormous US imported vehicle with slide-out sides on the other side. No shade again. A pity, because it’s another baking hot day.

We took a walk over the bridge into Zell Zentrum. Fairly pretty, but very touristy. Every second shop is a wine producer.

2020-09-20 (Sunday). Heilbronn – Bingen am Rhein – oops – Ockenheim!

No shouty youths overnight last night, thank heavens. Just BELLS!

We decided our next stop on the long journey home should be Bingen am Rhein – about 3 1/2 motorhome hours away. Why Bingen? There’s a large Stellplatz there where we stayed overnight last year. It’s not the greatest. It’s next to a railway line, and it’s actually about 35 mins walk outside of Bingen, though somewhat closer to Bingen-Kempten, which, in itself, is not terribly exciting.

So upon arrival, after many Autobahn roadwork-induced delays, we arrived at the Stellplatz at around 13:00 to find it completely full. German staycationers strike again! Quickly consulting our MoHo apps, we found another Stellplatz only 4 km away in Ockenheim – allegedly taking 20 units. Amazingly, there were a couple of free spaces.

It’s a lovely location, nestling amongst the vinyards – which are all pretty busy bringing in the harvest right now. It has very little in the way of tree cover or other forms of shade, which – in this unseasonably hot & sunny September – causes a little discomfort during the afternoon. You can order bread for delivery the next morning; there are two showers; full MoHo service facilities; waste disposal, including taking compostable food – the only one we’ve come across anywhere; and a very helpful person in charge of running the site. Asking him where the open Gaststätte were, he pointed us to two possibilities, adding then that there was also a Straußwirtschaft (Weingut Feser) in the town that was open today! No contest: off to the Straußwirtschaft with every intention of having just a couple of glasses of wine, then back to the MoHo to cook dinner.

One glass of wine led to another, the food menu looked good, and – apart from the very large and noisy group of Ockenheimer jahrgänge (school alumni group) – it was a very pleasant evening. TBH, the large group didn’t spoil things at all. The staff were lovely and we had several conversations with them. One of them thought I was her former teacher, or doppelganger thereof!

Got back to the MoHo at a very sensible 21:00 or so, for an early night.