Köln

We had a casual start to our day. Off at 7.30 to buy provisions for our train day. Then finalised our packing and chilled out until our leaving time of 10am. Catching tram and train was easy to get back to Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof where Trisha had a coffee and we chilled out in a cafe until our train was due to leave at 11.30.

We knew we had 2.5 hours to Mainz and then an hour wait until the scenic train, but time marched on and we had a couple of nervous moments wondering if we should have got off at Frankfurt and transferred to another train. But a helpful guy allayed our fears and just said our train was running 40 mins late. Then we wondered if we would make our connection, but he said if we didn’t we could just stay on our current train which would take us through to Koln.

When we got off the train it turned out that the scenic train was also delayed.

The scenic train was well worth the extra money and time. I had reserved seats in the panoramic carriage which I thought might be at the rear of the train. But Trisha saw it at the front. It was a really long train and we got on the first third, but had to make our way through a few carriages carrying bags and banging people’s shins. Trisha didn’t want to go back through those carriages to find a toilet later as she was worried about those shins she had attacked.

Then an older man was in my seat so I had to ask him to move, and Trisha and I had seats which backed onto each other. I asked the lady facing me if she would mind swapping and it was lovely that she did and we had the perfect seats and view.

It really was some amazing scenery we went through and I would highly recommend it.

Got to our hotel around 6pm. It is very close to the train station and an ok room but not like our last one and no fridge. We dumped our bags and went for a walk. Gee this place is pumping. Lots of people, river is amazing, we walked over the bridge to the other side, sooo many locks on this bridge. There is also a really long area beside the river with stone benches all the way along for people to sit on and enjoy the river and the views of the other side. Our hotel is very close to the river and entertainment section.

While on the other side we booked a bike tour for tomorrow online so hopefully that will go ahead. We also have been hearing that there are issues with trains from Paris to Milan because of rock fall, and I have now received an email canceling our train, so we are going to have to find a flight which is a bit of a pain.

Had a shared pizza for dinner and of course a gelato.

We are both feeling rather tired tonight which is funny as we haven’t walked a huge amount, but the last few days have been quite busy.

Really hot today, it was 29 degrees, and was 27 at 7pm.
14,375 steps…Les mer