Romantik Schloßhotel Kurfürstlisches Amtshaus Dauner Burg

The Kurfürstlisches Amtshaus, a secret castle-hotels in the Eifel region of Germany

Schloss Kurfürstlisches Amtshaus in Daun, GermanyChrista Probst is likely to greet American arrivals with an amazed, "How ever did you find us?"

The region

The Eifel region east of the Rhine and southwest of Bonn, with its rolling farmland and strings of tiny, round lakes filling ancient volcanic craters, is a fairly well-kept secret outside of Germany's weekend motorcyclists and avid countryside trekkers and bikers.

The closest that foreigners tend to explore is the castle-lined Mosel River valley to the south. Their loss. This rural idyll is one of the last corners of classic Germany largely unspoiled by industry.

The castle

There's been a Burg in the center of Daun since the Celtic era. It's been destroyed and rebuilt several times in the past 2,700 years, but the current, 1712 incarnation—creamy yellow walls with doorways and windows picked out in dark red; a gabled roof of mossy slate tiles peppered with tiny dormer windows—has been welcoming guests for 25 years.

The rooms

The interiors are for the most part modernized, and the rooms are spacious and classy, with Oriental rugs scattered over parquet floors and richly colored tapestry upholstering the easy chairs and headboards.  Bathrooms are sleek and sizeable.

Some rooms, like no. 124, are marvelously crisscrossed by wood beams, which cut down on the usable space, perhaps, but the effect is terribly atmospheric.

Rooms on the second floor (third floor to Americans) tend to be smaller, with simpler white lacquer modular furnishings and pink duvets.

The restaurant (and another in town)

If the tasty but rather pricey portions at the hotel's noted restaurant are too rich for your pocketbook, jog down the drive and turn right onto the town's main drag, past the Museum of Vulcanism, to the end of the block and the publike Rengener Stübchen, a cozy bierstube and restaurant serving simple dishes and grilled meats for €4 to €15.30.