Once a year we have a trip away with friends exploring different parts of Europe and normally this involves a railway journey as part of the itinerary. We have visited Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Belgium and Spain to name just a few of the places we have been over the past ten years. The weekends are relaxed affairs with plenty of chat and banter with stops along the way for coffee, cake, local food tasting and of course the odd beer and maybe a cheeky cocktail or two. Our weekend to Erfurt started with a morning flight with Flybe from Birmingham to Berlin Tegel, a bus connection into the centre of the German capital and then an Intercity service from the impressive Hauptbahnhof (main station) for the two and a half hour trip to Erfurt. Even though the train was delayed a little the journey passed quickly with some bottles of wine, a cheese selection and other snacks too as we headed south. Erfurt, the capital of the Thuringer Region of Germany, itself was well worth the journey and with our hotel just steps from the main station and an included local travel ticket we could also explore by tram or bus as well as on foot. The city centre is easily walkable and has some great historic buildings, stunning churches, a dominating cathedral and the longest bridge in Europe with housing built on it. There are plenty of retail opportunities and a large range of restaurants, cafes and bars to provide refreshment. It really did tick all the boxes. We also took in a side trip on the Saturday to Gothe (pronounced Gota) from where we caught a tram about 45 minutes out into the countryside to visit a show cave called the Crystal Cave near Friedrichroda (Marienglashöhle tram stop). The tour was conducted in German and fortunately we had a couple of fluent German speakers with us who could fill in the gaps. The caves were interesting and were previously mined for gypsum and the crystal which was actually a most unusual shape/form (photos will not do it justice). We enjoyed some nice food on the trip including some German staples such as currywurst and black forest cake as well as Thuringer specialities including some rather tasty Rinderroulade (thinly sliced beef wrapped around sour pickles) but there was also plenty of schnitzel, dumplings and red cabbage on offer too. The Germans like their beer and cocktails and a few were trialled in a bar close to the hotel - the black beer was much better than the banana beer however! With the rest of the group headed back to the UK on the Sunday afternoon we however headed three hours south by ICE train to Nuremburg, somewhere we have been before, but somewhere we really like to visit.