We somehow managed to sleep in again. Sleeping in castles must work for us! We were down for breakfast just after 8am then on the road a little after 10.

This is the castle above Bacharach where we were yesterday, we just couldn’t see it from inside the town itself.

We made it to Mainz around 11:30. This was my first European city in 2013 and the subject of my very first blog entry. Population about 225k, it’s the biggest town we’ve been in yet. It sits on the Rhine (of course!) which is behind us.

St. Martin’s Cathedral is in the main square. The sun wasn’t cooperating here but you get the idea. Construction of this began in 976. Last time I was here the front tower was getting a facelift and covered in scaffolding. That was the first part we saw and I didn’t recognize it until I saw the rest of it.

The opposite end of the square, which was filled with a huge farmer’s market. Ash was missing a kitchen; he would have loved to buy stuff and cook it. Truly the produce was gorgeous.

The other side of the church as I remember it because I had approached it then from this direction.

Selfie from that side of the church.

We made our way back to the car and on to Frankfurt, just about 40 minutes away.

We are staying at a JW Marriott downtown. We paid for a standard room but Ash used one of the free upgrades he gets every year and it paid off. We got a suite on the 25th floor.

Living room, where I’m sitting now.

Bedroom.

Bathroom above and below.

Above and below: views from the room.

The first order of business: laundry. We have been on the road for 7 days and have 10 more before we get home so we figured now was a good time to do what we had. The guy who checked us in gave us a place to go that was a 25 minute walk away.

We loaded up 2 washers…

…and found a cafe 2 blocks away while that was happening. We shared a cheesecake. This was essentially our lunch.

We went back to load the dryer and walked in a different direction while that was running. Then folded it all up and walked back to the hotel.

More than half the path to and from the hotel was along this huge outdoor mall.

That’s the selfie you get when you flip the camera.

We were back around 4:45. Rested, showered, back out again by 6pm for our walk to dinner.

As recommended by the same guy who gave us the laundry place, we made reservations at Villa Merton, a 40 minute walk away.

This place has one Michelin star but we weren’t feeling it. I have a bunch of food photos but seriously, it wasn’t interesting enough to feel like writing about it. We did get a nice photo out of it.

Could be we are just tired. We logged over 8 miles today which is the most we’ve done this trip, and most of that within a 4 hour period.

I looked through the photos again and believe it or not, this was the most interesting thing.

The first course was a consommé with a venison meatball. It had tiny prices of carrots in it and a terrific rich flavor. That along with the great bread they served – with butter, a wonderful Greek olive oil, and two kinds of salt – we figured we were in for a real treat. It just didn’t work out that way.

We have nothing planned tomorrow except to NOT get in our car. We are excited to be in a proper city again. (Frankfurt’s population is about 770k.) I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with and always love having you along.