Every night before retiring, I see a book sitting next to my bed. A book I use frequently to dream about my next adventure: the Lonely Planet Guide to Germany. The cover shows a little village with a dominant church on a river. After some map gazing I discovered the cover pic was taken just an hour or so south of us on the Rhine.

The sun made a rare appearance this weekend and despite the frosty conditions, Padma and I drove to Bacharach to check it out.

It was too cold to walk in the village so right away we started hiking up to Burg Stahleck, a 12th century castle with a panoramic view of the Romantic Rhine. We rewarded ourselves with a hot chocolate and then got cold again so we hiked up along the other hillside to the Postenturm (Post Tower), which is one of 16 towers along the old wall surrounding the city. The climb up the stairs through the vineyard warmed us up and rewarded us with the view of St Peter’s Church with its Rhine backdrop which I see every night before I sleep.