I recently visited the Rheinhessen and Pfalz regions of Germany. The main purpose was to see family and with side trips for “motorhead” activities. It is a less touristy area of Germany but this to me is a good thing.
The large city in the area is Frankfurt but we were closer to Mainz. This is where RNA vaccines were developed and Jurgen Klopp played for and then managed a football team Mainz 05. In 9 BC, Mainz was already important enough to have a large Roman garrison and amphitheatre with 10 000 seats.

The Hockenheim racetrack is 2 hours away from Mainz and was the site of our “surprise” Porsche experience. This is something not to be missed by Porschephiles. Collector’s items were everywhere and Porsche GT3 models were travelling at high speed all around. Lunch was served overlooking the main track with butter shaped like a 911. Finally, a run around the track in a 911 with an instructor guaranteed a full Porsche immersion.

The “motorhead” experiences were separated by a visit to the medical spa town of Bad Kreuznach in the Nahetal region. After a round of golf in the Nahetal GC, a truly eye opening visit to the spa town showed us bridge houses and ingenious salt extraction devices. The patients sat in front of these and breathed in saline mist under medical supervision. I suppose this was a nebulizer on a massive scale. A nearby cave with a natural source of radon, a radioactive noble gas, was used to treat rheumatism. Finally, Karl Marx was married in the local church and the nucleus of the EU was started by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer in the local spa hotel. A visit to a local car museum organized by my motorhead nephew capped the day. A Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead, a Mercedes S class convertible and a Citroen SM were all in one place in an industrial park. Amazing.

Our second “motorhead” experience was to drive the Nurburgring. This is a challenging 20.8 km track that winds its way up and down in the Eifel mountains. It is a challenge to car manufacturers to have the fastest lap time set on this track for “bragging rights”. We were just there to drive the track in a rented Mini Cooper S and stay in one piece. It did not help that it was the 13th of Aug and it rained but it was still an experience of a lifetime.

One cannot be in the Rheinhessen and Pfalz without mentioning the vineyards. With the vineyards come wonderful Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay wines. With the wines comes fine dining in little known villages in the area. We visited Knipser winery in Bissersheim and had lunch in the courtyard of the local restaurant Halbstuck. Apparently, Deidesheim, a village down the road has multiple Michelin starred restaurants of some renown- we will keep these for another trip. On our final day, lunch at one of the free picnic tables in the vineyards with family was a super way to round off our visit.
