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.