Wednesday 18 June 2014 Frankfurt – Mainz - Bochum

Sunny Warm 25C

We were up early and on the train for Mainz at 8.40 to meet More of our friends (the Annikas). It was just a ½ hour trip, so we dropped our luggage into a locker at the stsion on arrival and set off with the girls for a 1/2 day tour of Mainz.

First stop was for coffee (still searching for the elusive cappucino with fresh milk) at a modern coffee shop where Annika's (don't ask) brother works. All good, still searching, then off to see the Mainz Dom. On the way we stopped in at St Peters church which was very ornate inside with gold statues and fresco's on the ceiling. Then onto the Dom which was large and dark inside, quite different to St Peters. Had some fun throwing coins into the crypt, but were unable to wake Johannes Fransiscus Carolus of Ostend who was the local Archbishop when he died circa 1500AD,

We moved on to St Stephens Church which was very pretty (and blue) inside with 3 large Marc Chagall stained glass windows, there was a service going on so we heard the organ playing. In contrast to the Dom, it was bright and colourful with its blue stained windows and blue light.

Gutenberg was born here in Mainz and a statue of him along with the Gutenberg printing press and Museum were in Gutenberg Plaza, We wandered into a room full ofold printing presses where anyone (if they have the time) can compose and print from plates in a similar fashion to how original printing would have been performed.

We walked down to the Rhine and could see the bridge that we crossed when coming in from Frankfurt. Beside the river stands a baroque building which is a museum of roman remains, we also passed the Landesmuseum (with Gold Horse on top) and walked though some of the older parts of the town. This was one city that was not destroyed in 1944 and still has its original buildings.

The train left for Bochum at 1.20 so we fare-welled our friends and departed for Bochum. The train took us through Koblenz along the side of the Rhine and it was a particularly pretty trip passing the vineyards, Rhine castles and barges. There had been a major storm in the Bochum area just a couple of weeks ago and works were still taking place on the train lines.

Eventually we arrived and Christof met us and took us to pick up our car rental. The Mercedes we ordered turned out to be a Ford Focus – not quite what we had expected. We checked into our hotel and then it was out to dinner at Christof's parents’ house. They had prepared a very traditional Polish meal which was delicious although I think they may have been expecting us to be absolutely starving (which we weren't). Christof did well to eat about 8 potato dumplings - unfortunately, we could only help him out with a couple each.....

Jet lag started to bite about 10 p.m. and we said goodbye and Christof drove us back to our hotel - on the way demonstrating the capabilities of his brother's Audi and the lack of speed limits on the Autobahn.

Having survived that, we decided to leave the blog until tomorrow and hit the lights and the pillow.