Flying down the Rhine.
The Jewish cemetery in Worms has graves from 1058, making it the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe other than the Jewish sections of Roman catacombs. That’s the Worms cathedral in the background.
The Nibelung Tower is relatively modern, built in 1900, but it’s still picturesque.
Schnitzel with Bombay sauce at Zum Propeller, the Worms airport restaurant.
June 29 — Aachen-Merzbrück, Germany to Worms, Germany
A good day for me, a bad night for Germany
I flew down the Rhine to Worms, famous for the Diet of Worms and the trial of Martin Luther. I usually walk or take public transportation to travel to and from airports; in Worms I rented a bicycle for a few euros. I managed to find my way.
Worms has a lot of religious sites: a famous cathedral, a large monument to the reformation, a nearly thousand-year-old Jewish cemetery that survived World War II almost wholly intact. It’s an interesting city to explore.
In the evening, I walked to a beer garden by the river to watch Germany play Paraguay in the World Cup. Germany trailed 1-0 at halftime, and I was tired enough I decided to walk back to my hotel. Germany lost in a shootout, and I got some sleep.
For food, I took hints from my environment. Germany has a very large Turkish population, so I ate Turkish food for lunch (from a bakery) and dinner. At the airport, I noted the Ganesh icon and the host’s background and ordered the Bombay sauce on my schnitzel. These food decisions worked out very well.