Saturday Morning in Erfurt
The sun finally came out the morning we left Erfurt, which has been a frustratingly consistent pattern in other cities as well! But we were able to squeeze in a quick trip to the cathedral and Christmas market before leaving at about 11:30am.
The train ride to Mainz was beautiful - we had views of snowy winter landscapes almost the entire way. And it was direct with no changes, so it was pretty nice overall.
A Break in Mainz
From Erfurt I had planned to go straight to Trier, which is in far western Germany near the border with Luxembourg. But there turned out to be virtually no hotels available in Trier on Saturday night (surprisingly), and it would be a pretty long train ride anyway, so I decided to stop for one night somewhere in between.
I checked what cities were along the train line, and Mainz was on the (rather short) list. Just over a month ago, David and I had a really nice two-night stay in Mainz, thanks to a beautiful hotel (Hyatt Regency) and really delicious restaurant (Augustinerkeller). The beautiful hotel is discounted on Saturdays (because it's a business hotel), and it happened to be Saturday, so that decided it!
Because I had been to Mainz so recently, and had even photographed the Christmas market during another previous visit, there wasn't much I needed to do there, so we had a full evening and morning just to relax in our comfy hotel room. It was magnificent. We never even saw the cathedral! I feel so naughty.
Awesome bathtub, surpassed only by the Jacuzzi tub in Rome - but the bathroom as a whole was almost as big as our entire hotel room in Rome!
Soon after arriving from Erfurt (about three hours on the train), we headed to the Augustinerkeller for an early dinner to try to beat the crowds. We only barely did - a huge group of rowdy people came in about a half-hour after us, and it was a challenge getting the waitress' attention after that! But it was fantastic in all other respects.
Trier
And now we are in Trier for the first of two nights. This evening Sarah relaxed in the hotel while I cased out the Christmas market, which was completely mobbed. Most of the Christmas markets have been crowded, but this was really something else! On our way in, our taxi driver had mentioned that stores are open today, which is a very special occasion since shops are always closed on Sundays in Germany. So that may explain a large part of the crowds and hopefully things will be much calmer tomorrow.
