Is it the eggs themselves, we wonder, or the butter they are fried in? How can Continentals make fried eggs such a treat when in the US and Britain they're just greasy sludge?

After the extra mile that never gets creited we caught our conection to FRA. As greedy as ever, SQ is still jamming window seats into row 60 where there's no room for them so the seat is missing an arm. But we dodged row 60 and had an uneventful SQ flight. IFE with 80 bad movies and 108 bad TV showsbut 1 good speaking-book.

It's breakfast in our favourite German retreat, the Hammer family Hotel in Mainz. And if that's full there's the Konigshof, Tulip Central Hotel Eden and the Hotel Schottenhof
Oh, that extra mile? That's the dash across Changi airport from E to F to make our connection.

And some of the many reasons we love this part of Mainz: it's a $3 train ride from Frankfurt airport, no cab necessary; reasonable prices including the magnificent breakfast; book on hotel.de without a creditcard guarantee; and you don't need a car because within a few metres walk you can find
(10m) the Tapas bar on one side, Portuguese restaurant the other;
(30m) the Biertunnel with wonderful Bavarian beer from the Andechs monastery;
(40m) the mainline railway station;
(50m) the call-shop where you can call internationally at silly prices;
(60m) the bus to Hahn Airport and those $5 Ryanair flights to London or Europe
(200m) the English second-hand bookstore in the Zanggasse;
(300m) Semmermeyer's deli and sausage shop
(400m) the Gutenberg museum with the first printed books;
(500m) the Stefansdom cathedral with stained-glass windows by Chagall;
and (600m) the Rhine river with cruises to the Lorelei-mermaid-rocks and enchanting gothic castles.

Unlike the tourist-trap of Wiesbaden across the river, Mainz is a real thriving city.