Frankfurt/Mainz

Frankfurt/Mainz

As I had hoped would happen, we have begun receiving helpful feedback on our plans. Thanks to KLS we have made plans for a day trip while on our 7.5 hour layover on Monday 3 Aug. in Frankfurt. Frankfurt International Airport has two train stations [Regional and Long-Distance] in its terminals. Both go to Wiesbaden and Mainz to the west. Mainz is about 25-45 minutes away and is served by the S-Bahn line S8 (Rhine-Main S-Bahn). Mainz has several train stations. The biggest and the only one in which interCity trains do stop is Mainz Hauptbahnhof; it is located on the western edge of the city centre and works as a general hub for local traffic. Another noteworthy station is Mainz Römisches Theater, south of the centre, but it is only served by regional and commuter trains.

Much of this information and much more can be found on the various “wiki” sites on the internet.

Mainz is the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland - Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire. Up until the twentieth century, Mainz was usually referred to in English as Mayence. After the last ice age, sand dunes were deposited in the Rhine valley at what was to become the western edge of the city. The Mainz Sand Dunes area is now a nature reserve with a unique landscape and rare steppe vegetation for this area.

Mainz is synonymous with the German wine industry and is the center for wine trade. It is also the seat of the state's wine minister. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only state to one. Mainz is the home of the famous Blue Nun, one of the first brand name wines. Mainz has been a wine growing region since Roman times. The Haus des Deutschen Weines (English: House of the German Wine), is located next to the theater. It is the seat of the German Wine Academy, the German Wine Institute (DWI) and the German Wine Fund (DWF). The Mainzer Weinmarkt (wine market) is one of the great wine fairs in Germany which he will miss by days. It runs during the last weekend in August and the first weekend in September. In keeping with the “spirits” of Mainz, Johann-Joseph Krug, founder of France's famous Krug champagne house in 1843, was born in Mainz in 1800 and Adolphus Busch, the co-founder of Anheuser-Busch was born here in 1839.

Johannes Gutenberg, credited with the invention of the modern printing press with movable type, was born here and died here. The Gutenberg Museum displays a recreation of his original printing press. And legend has it that Mainz is the supposed birthplace of Pope Joan (John Anglicus), the woman who, disguised as a man, was elected pope, and served for two years during the Middle Ages.

Mainz is also the home of the Museum für Antike Schifffahrt (Museum of Ancient Navigation), where the remains of five 5th century Roman warships [discovered during the expansion of the Hilton Hotel] have been restored.

The Church of St. Stephan, St. Stephan zu Mainz, was originally built in 990 at the order of Archbishop Willigis. The church was founded on top of the highest hill in the town, most likely on behalf of Theophanu, the widow of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor. Willigis intended the church to be a site of prayer for the Empire. The Chagall choir windows in St. Stephan are unique in Germany. Between 1978 and his death in 1985, Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall created nine stained-glass windows of scriptural figures in luminous blue. The figures depict scenes from the Old Testament, demonstrating to the commonalities across Christian and Jewish traditions. Chagall intended his work to be a contribution to Jewish-German reconciliation, made all the more poignant by the fact that Chagall himself fled France under Nazi occupation. He chose St. Stephan due to his friendship with Monsignor Klaus Mayer, who was then the presiding priest of St. Stephan. Chagall's work has been continued since his death by his pupil Charles Marq and by others. Despite the immense damage caused by both WWII and the powder explosion to St. Stephan, the 13th century altar mensa (or table) and the huge Tabernacle dating from about 1500 have both survived. Archbishop Willigis was buried in the church in 1011. His resting place is no longer known, but it is believed he is buried in the collegiate area. Archbishop Willigis also initiated the building of Mainz Cathedral [Mainzer Dom, St. Martin’s Cathedral] one of Germany’s oldest Romanesque cathedrals. There is a museum [Dom- und Diozesamuseum] in the cloister.

There are two Rococo churches, St. Augustin [the Augustinerkirche] and St. Peter [ the Petruskirche].

Mainz has two culinary specialties, both types of cheese. Spundekäse is local cream cheese whipped with cream into a soft paste, served with chopped raw onion and pretzels — the taste is mild and it goes great with beer. Handkäse is a sour milk cheese with a pungent aroma, most often served mit Musik, or marinated in vinegar and oil, then sprinkled with caraway seeds, resulting in a bizarre, firm, gelatinous mass that most people find to be a bit of an acquired taste — and the "music" refers to the flatulence it tends to cause!

There is also a Saturday market, which is supposedly worth a visit.