Cologne (Passing Through)

The Rhine Cycle Path, Day Two:

We got up in good time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of fruit stolen from last night’s buffet, coffee and croissants and a last turn round the deck before disembarking and cycling to Amsterdam for our afternoon train to Mainz. We arrived nice and early too but it was at this point that things started to unravel, travel-wise: our Frankfurt train was now only going as far as Cologne, apparently, and we were advised that there’d be no bike space on our connecting train so we carried our laden bikes up a load of steps (the lift was broken) only to be told that train was cancelled five minutes before it was due to depart and we had to go back to the original plan with our fingers crossed (there was loads of room, of course.) After that everything got increasingly slow and we finally arrived at our destination a good couple of hours late and absolutely exhausted. We kept telling other bemused passengers how the German Rail Service was almost a byword for efficiency in our country – ‘maybe thirty years ago’ being the general reply!  Luckily our hotel was right by the Station and even though Mainz appeared to be closing down for the evening  we found a local place that would make us a pizza provided we could eat it and be gone in half an hour – it turned out that was no problem at all…!