Mainz

Day 5 - Mainz (September 3)

I woke up at 5:00 AM. After my normal wake up routine, I let Tina sleep, grabbed the laptop and headed up to the lounge to do the blog and to try uploading some pictures. By 7:30 AM I had managed to get the blog and add the first set of photos from Amsterdam, a real slow process. Then I returned to the room to collect Tina to go to breakfast.

We arrived in Mainz around 8:30 AM with the rain coming down in buckets. We decided to forego the walking tour and wait for the rain to let up a bit. Sure enough, by 10:30 AM it was time to go - no rain.

Crossing the gangway to shore, the four of us headed into town. We got there within two blocks of the dock and immediately found ourselves in a ‘pedestrian only’ shopping plaza that stretched for several blocks. While the girls went into the Espirit store, I went into an electronics store to look for a 16G flash drive. I found one and headed back to the plaza to meet the girls. We wandered along in this fashion, poking our heads into various shops and watching the sky turn blue as the sun came out and warmed us up.

Eventually we came out onto a large public square, the Mailands Market, which bordered the Mainz Cathedral, our next stop. We entered the cathedral and spent a half hour walking through the church. The Mainz Cathedral is over a thousand years old and its massive construction gives the city its character and has helped shape the course of the city. At the intersection of the old routes of the peoples, and through the work of St Boniface, Mainz became the ecclesiastical center north of the Alps from 767 AD on. During the rule of Wiligas, from 975 to 1011 AD, Mainz acquired the title of “Holy See”. It is a magnificent structure and worth the time we spent there.

From the cathedral we found our way to another area of the city open only to pedestrians with lots of bakeries, restaurants, jewelry stores and at the end a public market with fresh fruits, vegetable, meats, cheeses and flowers. We walked around looking at everything then decided to head back and pick up a bite to eat. We stopped at one of the small street-side bakeries and got some pizza bread to eat while we were walking.

As we were returning, the clouds filled the sky and it started to rain. But with umbrellas and raingear we were ready. Five minutes later it as gone and it was 70 degrees again. We arrived back at the ship around 1:30 PM and decided to get some lunch in the dining room. After lunch we retired to our cabins to change and relax for a while. Eventually I took a nap while Tina read. Denise and Shanda came and got Tina after a while as the sat in the lounge, watched the scenery and took photos.

At 6:30 PM we all went to the lounge for the daily briefing before heading to dinner at 7:00 PM and by 9:30 PM we were back in our rooms to watch a little TV, read and call it a night.