Mainz

 Today while the Winklers chose to do a full day excursion, we stayed on board with Curt and Mary for a more leisurely morning and an afternoon excursion to Mainz.  I gotta say sleeping until 8:15 was rejuvenating.  I understand the concept of sucking every morsel off the bone of traveling but we are just now falling into a manageable sleep cycle.  Meaning, this morning of breakfast, coffee, shower, reading and scrolling was a very welcome change. 

   

Until today much of our scenery has been industrial.  Today, we are surrounded by greenery and small towns.   I’ve already lost count of the number of locks we have passed through but there have been a lot.  By the end of our journey we will have passed through 14 of them.   

As for Mainz today we were pleasantly surprised by St. Peter’s Catholic Church.   It was not a reason to tour the city but a nice surprise. It was nicely bright and beautiful.  But the prize of Mainz is the Gutenberg Museum.  Only 49 of the approximately 180 printed Gutenberg Bibles still exist including those in the museum.  The other city highlight was the Mainz Cathedral.   As we continued our tour of the city these little golden/brass sidewalk blocks were pointed out to us.  On each tiny plaque is the name of a person was taken from Mainz during the Holocaust.  It states their name, where they were sent and where they died.  Our tour guides said as information becomes available more are installed and that some were installed as recently as last week.   

St. Peter Church

Gutenberg Museum

Mainz Cathedral