Hotel Café am Stift

Just outside the abbey Stiftung, near the small stream Am Stift, there's a hotel/bar/pizza/schnitzel place in an old brick utility building, a very old Fachwerk farmhouse which is a lunch restaurant/breakfast room/ hotel reception and a modern building across the road that has 8 rooms. Together they make up the hotel garni. The rooms are basic but clean and well maintained (albeit a bit dated); good beds, ample closet space, adequate bathroom with good shower and a little place to sit outside (although it lacks chairs or a table .....). A desperate potted plant really finished the room off...we put that outside. Breakfast is included and it is very good; fresh eggs snatched from the chickens that scrounge around the garden, strong coffee, yoghurt, fruit,fresh bread a lots and lots of stuff to put on it ( six kinds of marmelade, seven kinds of cold cuts, cheeses, the lot). The restaurant is...well... big schnitzels drowned in creamy sauces or pan pizza's that looked if they came out of a box; you have to like it. But staff is great; really friendly, welcoming and helpful. And prices are laughable, especially if you are used to Dutch prices; a schnitzel and a large beer will set you back a mere 9 euro. Fischbeck (the village it is in, about 3 miles from Hessisch Oldendorf but maybe part of the same council) has not much to offer but the Stiftung, but it's a quiet and relaxed place ( no ball games!). Hameln is a 15 minute drive.