Categories: germany, postcards
Date: 17 July 2008 21:37:28
The Lödgerin and I made another journey by train the next day. She was on her way to the Allgäu and my destination was Nürnberg. We waited for the train at Trier. There was an announcement to the effect that the train was delayed on its incoming journey from “foreign parts”. This made me smile as it was as if the railway was absolving itself of any responsibility and blaming the shoddy timekeeping of its neighbours. And rightly so, as Trier is more or less the first station inside Germany at that point. We were slightly concerned we might miss our connections but the train rolled in and off we set on our journey alongside the Mosel where vines covered every inch of the steep sides of the valley.
We changed trains at Koblenz, the city at the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhein where the valley was wider. We looked out for the Lorelei cliffs where the legendary maiden of Heinrich Heine's poem, combed her long blond hair, distracting the sailors from negotiating the narrow straits between the rocks causing them to be dashed to death as their ships were wrecked. At Bingen - where the famous mediaeval nun, Hildegard, lived and had her religious visions and wrote her plainsong chants, the valley flattened out into a plain and the rail route diverged from the river. This stretch of the journey was really quite stunning and I would love to do it again. Some stops later at Mainz, the Lödgerin hopped off the train and I continued alone.
The train trundled from Mainz to the next station a couple of kilometres down the line. I was gazing out of the window to my left and then happened to look out of the window to my right. My mouth nearly dropped open. Right next to the platform were the Roman ruins of an amphitheatre. The station had been built right on top of the ruins about 150 years ago. Somehow, no-one had noticed that the largest Roman stadium north of the Alps was there! It could apparently accommodate an audience of 10,000 and had a stage of 42 metres and an audience area of 116 metres. The station was named “Mainz - Süd” but since 2006, it has been known as Mainz - Römisches Theater. The theatre was big - but not as big as the Opel factory past which we trundled. It was huge - it must have been 2 to 3 kilometres long. We crossed the Rhein again and then met up with the Main as we came into Frankfurt Flughafen station.
I alighted here - nothing Roman about this place - it was all shiny marble floors and stainless steel. At the appointed moment, my train rolled onto the platform and off I went on the next leg of my journey. We passed over the Main again which does a massive U-bend and caught an intriguing glimpse of Würzburg which was all modern buildings on the outskirts which partially hid the view of old steeples and towers in the centre. Not long afterwards I arrived in Nürnberg, where I was greeted by my colleague, C, who needs no introduction as you met her in my postcards from that city last September.