(Recommended by Intexa2 - Bill)

Hotel Restaurant Benz
Mattenhofweg 3
77723 Gengenbach
Tel - 7803/93480 ~ Fax - 7803/934840
Rooms with shower, toilet, TV (sat), hairdryer, minibar, phone, most with balcony

...Arrived in Gengenbach and found the hotel - sort of on the outskirts of town and up the hill a bit overlooking the valley -- every bit as good as we hoped. Our room was #8, one of the "Komfort doppelzimmer" with a "partial balcony." I had tried to get a "panorama doppelzimmer" but they were all taken. Turns out the room had recently been re-decorated and though they covered the "old" with new modern paper, put in halogen spotlights all over the room, new carpet, outlets galore, and put in a marble bathroom that was the envy of any 5 star hotel - they kept the old German furniture with painted flowers. They also had a TV with a separate VCR player (movies, in German, were available to borrow), a mini bar, and a "view to die for" outside our balcony.

When we checked in, we decided to eat at the very elegant hotel restaurant. The woman who checked us in took it upon herself to show us two tables for two. We chose one with the best view. That night we went down (the table had more utensils than I knew what to do with, and I've been around a bit). We had a spatula thing Susan said was for serving fish. We found a nice "reserved" sign on our table and realized it was ours for the duration. The meal was exquisite, once we (read I, actually) figured out what we ordered. Susan had a pork tenderloins meal that was large in spite of ordering (she thought) the "small" portion. I had a "Kalbsteak" which we figured out was veal steak, fixed according to "Hotel Benz Style." Well, it was special -- I was staring down at a half of a lobster head (empty) standing on end with its antenna sticking up, a couple of claw meat portions on the plate, a "lump" of stuff which I figured covered the veal (it did) that had asparagus, mushrooms and sauce, and -- ready for this -- shavings of smoked salmon! It was great, if not unusual -- I had figured out the veal, mushrooms, and the asparagus, but completely went by the lobster and smoked salmon. Needless to say, the meal was great -- and of course it had a pate course as well as a salad course, etc. Had some local beer (you knew that would be), Ketterer, something I'd have a lot of later -- turned out to be quite good (is there "bad" German beer?).

Well, after almost falling asleep at the table, we got through and I got to the room about 9:30. Susan said I fell asleep the moment I hit the sack -- slept til 5 am, woke and fitfully slept off and on til 9. Then to the breakfast! Well, enough to say it was a veritable feast -- and with champagne, yet!

Gengenbach is a wonderful little town with lots of charm and a pristine market square and old half-timbered buildings with several of the old original towers and a fantastic rathaus, and a beautiful park -- really nice, and the obligatory fantastic church. All the 'modern' stuff is outside the walls, well outside. They make lots of local wines -- and quite good (considering they are German) -- I'm not a fan of German wines, per se, but these were excellent. We ate (twice -- it was that good) at the Winzerstube (on one sign, Winzerstuble on another -- go figure). Susan had the local delicacy (?) flammen kuchen. When trying to figure that one out, we figured it was like a crepe suzette -- a pancake (kuchen is cake) with a liqueur set afire (that was my contribution from flammen). Well, it was nothing like that. It is best describerd as a pizza with bacon, onions, and sour crème on unleavened bread (like a thin crust pizza), only slightly on the sweet side. It was fabulous. You can also get it with "regular" cheese. And I had the pork knuckle, roasted they said, but I think it was boiled and then roasted slightly. This is a favorite of mine in Sachenhausen and it was great here (not crisp like in Sachenhausen, but quite good -- too much for even me (and that takes a lot).