R to the P

I have to come round to mentioning another weekend of travelling. This time, it was around Rheinland-Pfalz by train on the first weekend of coming back to Germany.

The plan was to go to Worms (again), and meet Rob and Leo, who was still there. We thought we’d go to Mainz, Koblenz, Trier, Saarbrücken (which is in another Land), back to Mainz, and then Worms.

It needed an early start, which I have trouble doing sometimes… but we somehow managed to get up in time and get the train to Mainz. The weather outside was really nice, and snow was still around. This was a good time to take some photos from the train as it went along the Rhein… it was also something to do to get away from this woman-thing sitting opposite. It’s not nice to describe… something like a pig that went through a drastically failed dental surgery. But she had lots of people to talk (and spit) to on the phone, and was eager to tell them she was on a train to Koblenz! Luckily for us, we were heading that way, too.

So, we arrived at Koblenz, where we met Laura (Emma was to meet us at the Deutsches Eck), and made our way to the Deutches Eck. The Deutsches Eck is a monument platform thing that is on the Mosel and Rhein junction, both of which were full of broken ice and slush. There was this huge statue of a King of Germany on a horse, with some random guy by the side. And there are flags of all the Bundesländen and also the German flag at the tip.

There were these benches, which were too cold to sit on. However, they were suitable to pose as YMCA letters… and the German guy who took the photo seemed to have no clue what we were doing! And it was also the ideal situation to crack open the first beers of the day!

We made our way back to the station, not without a detour into a hotel for the toilets, and we were Trier-bound. We didn’t stay there long, it was just light enough to take photos of the square and the Porta Nigra… which happens to be the best preserved Roman gate on the West part of the Empire. It’s a nice place and not too big, but pity that the bakeries don’t have enough Brezel!

Next was Saarbrücken, which is in Saarland. It has a nice Mexican restaurant.

So anyway, on the trains, we came up with something to pass the time, we came up with this game, when someone picks a topic, and each one takes it in turns to name something of that topic. Whoever repeated or couldn't think of anything was out. For example, grapes of wine, makes of cars, counties of the UK (ceremonial and administrative) and so on... we also had to come up with songs or films with colours in the titles. It was good, and it passed the time, too... even though I wasn't too good at it!

Then we went back to Mainz, but we went via Kaiserslautern and Bad Kreuznach, along the way we said bye to Laura and Emma. And at Mainz, we had enough time to go to a bar for a swift one! Luckily, there was a cocktail bar across the unmarked crossroads, and they were making cocktails for a fiver! Which was appealing. But the waiter did take a while to make them. During the process, he stopped, took orders from other people, and carried on… so he was making about half a dozen cocktails at a time. Wouldn’t it be easier to go one at a time, like normal people?

But we eventually got ours, but time was tight… so we ended up basically chugging them down… they were nice, but I’m not used to spirits anymore, so it proved more challenging! For five Euros, I couldn’t complain! At least we got back to Worms alright!