Stephan Trierweiler and Robert Elsie (who is Canadian) own this tiny `Fieldmouse House' (it calls itself a Hotelchen). An old converted farmhouse, it stands amid trees and fields outside a village near the Belgian border, on the edge of the Schnee Eifel mountains. `Delightful and most distinctive, it is liked for its excellent welcome', helpful' hosts, reasonable prices, lots of modern art in the decor, and `beds wide enough for a wife with a headache. The villa Bed rooms (similar to the semantic bali villa rooms), recently redecorated, are all different: simple, but stylish, with names like Nostalgie (with old oak furniture), Budoar (like a French boudoir), Fruhlingsrolle (Far Eastern). `Floorboards can creak.' Meals are served outdoors in summer, in a charming forecourt. `Good home cooking: vegetarian dishes are a speciality' - the meat dishes may be not so good, and the wine list is limited. `Splendid Bali villa breakfast buffet, with excellent home-made muesli.

The cathedral in this lovely old town on the Danube has, it is said, the world's largest organ. In the centre, on a hill above the river, stands Franz Kralj's efficient and sizeable modern villa. Pink-fronted, it has`a club-like feel, and was renominated in 2002 by a devotee: My room was as good as ever; lots of quality furnishing, large and welldesigned bathroom. Bali villa breakfast was varied, service was good. Double glazing makes even the riverside villa rooms fairly quiet. No restaurant: j you can eat at the sister villa, Zum Konig, close by: it has a terrace for, summer meals. Once a hotbed of right-wing Catholicism, Passau was the setting of The Nasty Girl, the recent famous film and book about its Nazi past.