Mainz; Wednesday, 27 July, 2011

Given that the train was already 5 minutes late by the time it reached Heidelberg things weren’t looking too good for the myth of the efficient German trains. Halfway through the journey the train suddenly came to a juddering halt and the train manager apologised that due to a “defekt" we would be waiting a couple of minutes.

We did move off after a couple of minutes, but by then we had lost quite a bit of time, and we eventually pulled into Mainz a quarter of an hour late.

The hotel was located right next to the station so after a quick check-in I was back out and on a bus into the city centre.

I had a bit of a wander around the city centre and then went to have a look around the Cathedral. Unfortunately, I’d arrived just after the museums had closed, but I was still able to wander around the Cathedral itself. Considering it’s over 1,000 years old it’s in pretty good nick.

I left the cathedral and was just in time to catch the last “Guttenberg Express” land train of the evening for a tour around the city centre taking in the main sights.

After the tour I had a bit more of a wander around, grabbing a bite to eat on the way before I heard the ominous sound of thunder rumbling in the distance.

I managed to get back to the hotel with about 10 minutes to spare before the skies absolutely opened with lightning darting across the sky in all directions, and from my hotel window the view of lots of people getting awfully wet.

The storm raged for the best part of two hours, by which point I decided I might as well just head to bed for the night.