Oh ye last days of summer..

They've been threatening us with autumn for awhile now, holding poor weather and rain over our heads like a meterological sword of Damoclese. We, of course, have been desperately clinging to summer, avoided provoking the weather gods with open-toed shoes and lack of a jacket, and we have been well rewarded.

Needless to say, leaving the house at the crack of dawn for a jump on this Saturday's Great Adventure, unfurling our umbrellas and raincoats on our way to the train station, we considered giving in and staying home rather than spending the day in the rain. But a dose of optimism combined with an utter lack of stuff to do in Mainz spurred us on, and we went.

''Get out the map, get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down. We'll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town...''

That's basically how we choose where we go. Linda wanted to give Luxembourg another shot, but it's four hours to the border, another hour from Trier to Luxembourg, and the whole trip would have amounted to a total of 10 hours in a train and €22 apiece. And Linda had to be back in Frankfurt by 9:00 PM, leaving us with approximately four hours there.

So: Köln (Cologne) or Heidelberg. We picked Heidelberg, as it would save us an hour each way. In the rain.

There's not many people out and about at 8 AM on a Saturday. We were therefore surprised to find the entire teenage population of Mainz, dressed in red sweaters and scarves, drinking beer at 8 AM on a Saturday. And of course, they all got on the same train as we did. We fought our way to a seat and became immediate and unintentional friends with our seatmates. Most everyone was on their second beer; many were smoking (in a non-smokign compartment--using the floor as an ashtray, I might add) but were otherwise quite nice people. They were off on a 4-hour Odyssey to Nürnberg to watch their football (read: soccer) team get creamed by Nürnberg's. I'm glad I'm not sharing the train with them on the way back.

Train change (finally!) in Darmstadt, south to Heidelberg. Arriving, we set off on foot for the Altstadt (being a tourist in Germany is easy: just head for the old city or anything marked Cathedral, Palace, Cloister, Castle, or otherwise marked ont he large helpful map out front. If you get lost, head for the tallest spire you can see, and you'll hit either the cathedral or the marketplace). The more we walked, the better the weather got, until it was brilliantly sunny with blue skies in all directions.

,,Heidelberger Herbst'', it was called (Heidelberg Autumn); a street fair complete with artisans, food stalls, ten to fifteen live music stages, and everyone within a 200-km radius, it seemed. We wandered, strolled, and schlenderten through the town, working our way to the base of the Castle Napoleon destroyed. The castle itself charges admission but the gardens are free, so we sat up on the wall and listened to ''Heart of Gold'' drifting up from somewhere below.

View from the castle

Linda's ex boyfriend was also in H. for the day with his ping pong team, and we met him for a few hours. It's obvious he still has feelings for L., it's obvious she doesn't, and it's obvious she's pretty uncomfortable around him. And then there I was, trying to keep the conversation going, not exclude anyone, watching Linda subtly assert her personal space, watching the Ex subtly find reasons to come nearer to her.



We went on the Philosopher's walk, where Goethe and his pals apparently went to drink absinthe. The town itself is built up two sides of the Necktar river valley, with the castle on one hill overlooking the old town, an old bridge connecting the two sides, and a smaller, hilly subdivision on the opposite side under the old cathedral ruins. Apparently has the oldest university in Germany. Or so they claim.

We were sad to leave, but had to rush back to Mainz so Linda could finish packing and head off to Frankfurt, where she would catch her return bus to Prague. I had intended to go to Frankfurt with her, but that would have required buying extra bus and train tickets for me, so I said my goodbyes at the bus stop. I sent her with a decent bottle of wine from the area, in memory of our time at the Weinfest and sitting on the banks of the river in the evenings. I plan to visit her, she hopes to come visit me.

Autumn has finally arrived; as I said my goodbyes and headed back inside the first drops began to fall, and I stood awhile at the window and watched the lightning.