I arrived in Andernach Saturday July 24th 2021, about one week after the flood catastrophe that devastated the Eifel and part of the Belgian Ardennes the same day. Andernach and the immediate neighbourhood were spared from the catastrophe. I arrived very late, hours later than initially announced, but the neighbours (one of the five permanent inhabited dwellings in Bismarckhof, the sixth dwelling being Andrea's Ferienhaus) were very kind and helpful facilitating my check-in.
Adrea’s guesthouse is top quality and excellent value for money. The sitting-room and kitch-en on the first floor (= entrance level of the accommodation) is very cosy and has a balcony with sitting facility for three. Very well-equipped kitchen, except for the lacking toaster. But there are two different gears for boiling eggs without the use of a cooking pan… The sleep-ing room (for two) and bathroom are on the top floor. There is an aircon upstairs (the com-pressor is on the balcony downstairs), but I didn’t use it as it was perfectly feasible to sleep with open windows: the town is quiet after midnight.
Due to the recent catastrophe many sights of the Vulkaneifel were inaccessible due to ex-tensive road damage and devastation of towns and buildings. Laacher See and Abtei Sankt-Maria-Laach were readily accessible, as was Infozentrum Vulkanpark in Plaidt and several locations at the outskirts of the area hit by the devastating floods of mid-July. Geysir Ander-nach was rendered inaccessible for the rest of the summer a few weeks earlier after a mer-chant vessel collided with the disembarkation platform on Namedy Peninsula, a few km downstream from Andernach. In normal times, Andernach is wonderfully situated to explore not only the Vulkaneifel, but also River Rhine between Koblenz and Bonn, even between Koblenz and Bingen, and the tributaries Moseltal as far as Trier, and Ahrtal in the middle of Vulkaneifel and heavily impacted by the floods.
Altstadt Andernach begins just across the street and is small enough not to need a car or public transport to visit it. All necessary daily shops are readily on hand, a Rewe-supermarket is less than 500 m. away. Neuwied is the bigger town on the other (right) Rhine bank where you will find alternative shops that lack in Andernach without necessity to go as far as Koblenz.
So, Andrea’s Bismarckhof Ferienhaus in Andernach is a recommended place for who wants to visit the whole region: well situated, well kept, good neighbours, good