One of my favourite train journeys within Germany is the railroad between Cologne and Mainz, for which you must take the IC, not the faster but duller ICE. It's directly next to the Rhine, sometimes at places where you can't go either by car or on foot, and ridiculously romantic with all the castles, cliffs and vineyards. These days it's also noticable that the Rhine is at an all time low, but there you go.

Mainz, which has not one but two museums devoted to the Romans (featuring among other things the tombstone of Domitian's food taster - worst jov ever y/y?), as well as a Magna Mater/Isis temple, none of which I could visit this time around, is a city devoted to red sandstone. Which looks exceedingly pretty even under grey skies. Proof awaits below the cut.

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