Mainz, Germany - 29 November 2019

Tower from Old City Wall

Mainz is located at the confluence of the Rhine and Main Rivers, across the river from Weisbaden and itself is part of the Frankfort Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region.  First founded by the Romans in the 1^st century BC, it served as a military fortress of the Roman Empire before becoming, in the 8^th century AD, an important city of the Holy Roman Empire as the seat of the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz.  Although grapes may have been growing here before the arrival of the Romans, it was the Romans that significantly advanced the wine making in this region.  Most of the Roman fortifications were located across the river, and during the Christian era, a bridge was built to connect both sides of the river.  Over the ensuing years, political and religious wars saw Mainz change hands between the French and the Germans several times.   During WWII, it was heavily damaged with about 80% of the city’s center destroyed. 

It is also the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg (sometime around 1394), who invented the moveable-type print press (patterned after a wine press) and in the early 1450s printed his first books, including the Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible, or just the B42).  To do this, it was necessary to create uniformly sized metal molds for letters.  Somewhere between 158 and 180 copies of the Bible were printed, but only 49 remain today. 

Today started with a walking tour of the old center of Mainz.  We began with a tour of the Gutenberg Museum where our guide described the procedures that Gutenberg used when developing his printing press.  She showed how the individual keys were created.  She then demonstrated how the printing press operated, and with the help of Bill, printed off a page of the Bible using the same print keys and machine that Gutenberg used to print his copies of the Bible.  As a thank you to Bill for helping her, we now have a souvenir of our visit – the printed page that our guide had made.  We then toured the room where three copies of the Gutenberg Bible were stored.

Gutenberg Press

Helper Bill

Color-coded Street Signs

As we were walking, our local guide told us an easy way to get back to the Rhine River and our boat if we became lost.  The street signs that appear on the buildings at each street’s intersection with another street are colored coded.  The Red streets run perpendicular to the River while the Blue ones run parallel.  To reach the river, just follow a street with a red sign.  She told us that this was down to help sailors keep from falling into the river in a drunken stupor.  Perhaps after a few glasses of gluewien ,we may need this information!

Following the museum, we visited St. Martin’s Cathedral with its six towers.  It is the second most important cathedral in Germany after the Cathedral of Cologne.  First built in 975 AD, it has been rebuilt and restored over the ensuing years, with its present form a combination of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque styles of the 13^th and 14^th centuries – the Romanesque section of the church (the nave in the back of the church) is the oldest part of the church and dates back to the late 900s. 

Construction of the first cathedral on this site was begun in 975.  In 1009 it was due to be consecrated.  In a celebration of this consecration, the church was adorned with torches around its roof so the people in the nearby countryside could see it.  Unfortunately, the torches caught the roof on fire, and the cathedral was destroyed on the day it was to be consecrated.

St. Martin's Cathedral

Tombstone on one of Cathedral's Pillars

Inside the Cathedral

The pillars inside the church are adorned with the tombstones of the many archbishops and bishops that were buried in the church.  However, after 1928, bishops have been buried in the crypt below the floor of the church.  Above the pillars that separate the sanctuary into three sections are painted murals.

After visiting the church, we were turned loose to enjoy the Christmas Market in the square by the church.  Most Christmas Markets open at 11 AM so there was enough time to walk around, shop, and enjoy a mug of gluewien or sample their pastries or brats before returning to the ship for lunch.

Christmas Market

St. Martin's Cathedral and Christmas Market

Christmas Market

Christmas Market

This evening we left the ship for a fun evening of food and dancing in Rudesheim, a wine city located about an hour’s drive up the Rhine.  We had about an hour before dinner so we walked around their Christmas Markets, gaily decorated and brightly lit.  The city has a cable car that takes you from the marketplace where we were up to the top of a hill where there is the Niederwalddenkmal monument built to commemorate the founding of the German Empire in 1871 and the unification of Germany.  Construction was stated in 1871 when Kaiser Wilhelm I laid the first stone and was completed in 1883.  It is a statue of a 34’ tall Germania figure, holding the recovered crown of the emperor in her right hand and the Imperial Sword in her left.  On the right side of the statue is the peace statue and on the left is the war statue.  As it was dark and the cable car was closing about 10 minutes after we reached the top, we were unable to visit the statue, but we were able to see it from our boat as we cruised the scenic, castle-laden section of the Rhine the next morning.

Rudesheim Christmas Market

Christmas Wine Tree

Rudesheim from the Cable Car

Church on the other side of the Rhine River

Our Restaurant in Rudesheim

Chicken Dance -- the universal dance!

We had an enjoyable (and filling) dinner of wiener schnitzel followed by singing and dancing with the duo of performers in the restaurant.  Then it was back to the ship for some much needed rest before beginning to cruise the scenic portion of the Rhine with its many castles and the famous Lorelei rock.