What to do in Mainz in a day

I have been living in Mainz for most of my life now and it has become like my hometown. However, I will always find hidden places that I didn't know much about. As somebody asked what to do during a 5 hours layover in Mainz, originally I have written an article called "5 hours in Mainz". Later I thought it will be too superficial and hectic to see too much of Mainz in 5 hours, so I have directed it at people who spend at least a whole day in Mainz.

 Mainz, the capital city of Rhineland Palatinate is only located half an hour by train from Frankfurt Airport. However, unlike Frankfurt, Mainz is a city geographically small enough to put your arms around. You can gain good memories by visiting for the day, although to really enjoy the city you need to prepare off the internet or stay longer. I would recommend at least one night stay in Mainz. Hotels are expensive but you can look on AirBnB or other websites. There is a nice hostel in Mainz too. A day ticket for Mainz is paramount if you take at least 3 trips. If you have more time, you can use the same ticket to see Wiesbaden, the capital city of Hesse. Wiesbaden is located at the foot of the Taunus Mountain range and used to be a famous spa city for German and American nobilities .

Antique excavations near Fort Malakoff and Lothar Passage mall:
Mainz dates back to more than 2000 years and there are many excavations not yet discovered. Two antique Roman excavations were found by accident as the city started to build shopping malls. The Roman Theatre ruines are just opposite Fort Malakoff at the Bahnhof Süd(train station south).The ruines were so vast and gigantic that they cancelled the whole construction of the mall. The second one was at Lothar Passage shopping malls. The Roman Isis temple ruines were found by accident. Unlike Südbahnhof they went on with the shopping mall from where you can enter a shop with Roman books, wines and other artefacts. Just walk down the steps going down to the Isis temple ruines

Malakoff, Roman Theatre, Rhine walk, Fischtorplatz, Dom, Augustinerstr
From Malakoff shopping mall, you are ready to start your walk past the beautiful small parks, old houses and medieval fortress Reduit while enjoying the other site of the river. There is a Rewe shop in the Malakoff mall to buy your beer and food. Have a beer on the steps by the Rhineside between Fort Malakoff and Hyatt Hotel. This way you can save your money for a pub.

Continue your walk and have a short break at Holzturm(wood tower) and continue walking until you reach Fischtorplatz. The Dom(Cathedral) will be your point of orientation on the left-hand side. Walk past the large Cathedral square(Liebfrauenplatz) towards Höfchen(small court), the center of the city. Here you can find any type of cafe you would enjoy.The real old town Augustiner Str with medieval half-timbered houses and cafes starts after the Höfchen(small court) to the left side.

Spend some time walking the Augustiner Str, the real Mainz old town where you can view many medieval half-timbered houses and the Agustiner church and priest seminary. You will find many places to have a drink but my favourite is the Domgickel, Klingelbeutel. and Weinhaus Blum, located a bit off Augustiner Str. The Altstadt Cafe has nice food and is not extremely expensive. At the end of Augustiner str you can view the Baroque church St Ignaz, their oven-shaped catacombes and more typical Mainz wine holes. Turn left direction Holzturm and you will be back at the Malakoff area where you can enjoy beer gardens in the evening. Takes at least 2 hours and more.

Make sure you have a day ticket for the bus to travel back and forth. This is the website that can help you find your way:
http://www.rmv.de

Dom, Ludwigstr, Mainz opera, Schillerplatz, Gaustr, St Stephan, Kupferberg
Starting from the Dom, you can also walk Ludwigstr towards Schillerplatz where you can walk into Gaustr. and walk up the hill to St Stephan church. The Mainz Balkon on Ludwigstr opposite Mainz opera is a new grill pub restaurant overlooking  most important sights of Mainz.  From Schillerplatz you can walk up the Kupferbergterasse or join a guided tour at the Kupferberg Sektkellerei( sparkling wine manufacturer). From here you can easily walk to St Stephan church.

This church is famous for its Chagall windows which Marc Chagall donated to the archbishopry of Mainz for excellent cooperation with the Jewish community. On a sunny day, the whole church turns blue when the sun shines through these windows. There is also a synagoge in Mainz if you have the time to view it.My favourite breakfast cafe is 'Dicke Lilli Gutes Kind' in the Gaustr. .Takes around 2-3 hours or more

A short summary you can hopefully enjoy within a couple of hours:
1.Fort Malakoff, steps for picnic, stroll along the Rhine side, inner city incl Dom(cathedral), architecture, other cafes, old town Augustiner Str . At least two hours including relaxing breaks.
2.Dom, Ludwigstr, Schillerplatz and St Stephan church. Cafe 'Dicke Lilli Gutes Kind' in the Gaustr., Kupferberterasse and sektkellerei

If you have more time or would like to focus on the Rhineside only, you can start your walk in the Neustadt area, see a less touristy area where mostly locals chill out in the grassy areas. You can start at the "Kaisertor" at the end of the Kaiserstraße which is part of the former fortress built by Napoleon. Here you can see nice grassy areas, flowers, picnic tables which are beautiful but far less refined than the area between fischtorplatz and Malakoff Shopping mall. Walk past the new town or Neustadt where you can still see some of the old houses, past the old town with view on the cathedral(Dom), past Malakoff passage area straight through to the Stadtpark(City park), a beautiful park with a large enough rose garden with marvelous views on the Rhine from high up. Apparently the Neustadt area has been bombed a lot more than the area near Malakoff Shopping Mall and Hyatt Hotel.

You can still see a lot in 6 hours but you have to rush and this is not pleasant at all.There is the famous hustling and bustling Mainz farmer's market on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday


Mainz official website:
www.mainz.de

What to do in Mainz in a day

Somebody asked me what to do when they only have 5 hours lay-over in Mainz, the city which is now dear to my heart because I have lived here longer than in any other place. Originally the title of this blog entry was "5 hours in Mainz".

Mainz, the capital city of Rhineland Palatinate is only located half an hour by train from Frankfurt Airport. However, unlike Frankfurt, Mainz is a city geographically small enough to put your arms around. You can gain good memories by visiting for the day, although to really enjoy the city you need to prepare off the internet or stay longer. I would recommend at least one night stay in Mainz. Hotels are expensive but you can look on AirBnB or other websites. There is a nice hostel in Mainz too. A day ticket for Mainz is paramount if you take at least 3 trips. If you have more time, you can use the same ticket to see Wiesbaden, the capital city of Hesse. Wiesbaden is located at the foot of the Taunus Mountain range and used to be a famous spa city for German and American nobilities .

Antique excavations near Fort Malakoff and Lothar Passage mall:
Mainz dates back to more than 2000 years and there are many excavations not yet discovered. Two antique Roman excavations were found by accident as the city started to build shopping malls. The Roman Theatre ruines are just opposite Fort Malakoff at the Bahnhof Süd(train station south).The ruines were so vast and gigantic that they cancelled the whole construction of the mall. The second one was at Lothar Passage shopping malls. The Roman Isis temple ruines were found by accident. Unlike Südbahnhof they went on with the shopping mall from where you can enter a shop with Roman books, wines and other artefacts. Just walk down the steps going down to the Isis temple ruines

Malakoff, Roman Theatre, Rhine walk, Fischtorplatz, Dom, Augustinerstr
From Malakoff shopping mall, you are ready to start your walk past the beautiful small parks, old houses and medieval fortress Reduit while enjoying the other site of the river. There is a Rewe shop in the Malakoff mall to buy your beer and food. Have a beer on the steps by the Rhineside between Fort Malakoff and Hyatt Hotel. This way you can save your money for a pub.

Continue your walk and have a short break at Holzturm(wood tower) and continue walking until you reach Fischtorplatz. The Dom(Cathedral) will be your point of orientation on the left-hand side. Walk past the large Cathedral square(Liebfrauenplatz) towards Höfchen(small court), the center of the city. Here you can find any type of cafe you would enjoy.The real old town Augustiner Str with medieval half-timbered houses and cafes starts after the Höfchen(small court) to the left side.

Spend some time walking the Augustiner Str, the real Mainz old town where you can view many medieval half-timbered houses and the Agustiner church and priest seminary. You will find many places to have a drink but my favourite is the Domgickel, Klingelbeutel. and Weinhaus Blum, located a bit off Augustiner Str. The Altstadt Cafe has nice food and is not extremely expensive. At the end of Augustiner str you can view the Baroque church St Ignaz, their oven-shaped catacombes and more typical Mainz wine holes. Turn left direction Holzturm and you will be back at the Malakoff area where you can enjoy beer gardens in the evening. Takes at least 2 hours and more.

Make sure you have a day ticket for the bus to travel back and forth. This is the website that can help you find your way:
http://www.rmv.de

Dom, Ludwigstr, Mainz opera, Schillerplatz, Gaustr, St Stephan, Kupferberg
Starting from the Dom, you can also walk Ludwigstr towards Schillerplatz where you can walk into Gaustr. and walk up the hill to St Stephan church. The Mainz Balkon on Ludwigstr opposite Mainz opera is a new grill pub restaurant overlooking  most important sights of Mainz.  From Schillerplatz you can walk up the Kupferbergterasse or join a guided tour at the Kupferberg Sektkellerei( sparkling wine manufacturer). From here you can easily walk to St Stephan church.

This church is famous for its Chagall windows which Marc Chagall donated to the archbishopry of Mainz for excellent cooperation with the Jewish community. On a sunny day, the whole church turns blue when the sun shines through these windows. There is also a synagoge in Mainz if you have the time to view it.My favourite breakfast cafe is 'Dicke Lilli Gutes Kind' in the Gaustr. .Takes around 2-3 hours or more

A short summary you can hopefully enjoy within a couple of hours:
1.Fort Malakoff, steps for picnic, stroll along the Rhine side, inner city incl Dom(cathedral), architecture, other cafes, old town Augustiner Str . At least two hours including relaxing breaks.
2.Dom, Ludwigstr, Schillerplatz and St Stephan church. Cafe 'Dicke Lilli Gutes Kind' in the Gaustr., Kupferberterasse and sektkellerei

If you have more time or would like to focus on the Rhineside only, you can start your walk at Frauenlobplatz in the Neustadt area and walk past the old town with view on the cathedral(Dom), past Malakoff passage area straight through to the Stadtpark(City park), a beautiful park with a large enough rose garden with marvelous views on the Rhine from high up

You can still see a lot in 6 hours but you have to rush and this is not pleasant at all.There is the famous hustling and bustling Mainz farmer's market on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday


Mainz official website:
www.mainz.de

Hosting a guest while the water supply was shut down

My draining pipe gave up and as I opened it, it was fully jammed. I had cleaned most of it and the water flow was better but not perfect. Apparently there was more dirt in the back pipe behind the wall. I shut down the tap and improvised an emergency dish-washing station in the bathroom. We could still use the tap in the kitchen but I thought it was better to shut down the water supply as it was very likely that the drainage would be clogged up again.

Mateusz arrived in the afternoon dead-tired and late after sightseeing Idar Oberstein. Conversations with him were so diverse and well thought-out so that you would never think you were talking to a teenager. We watched a lot of his interesting photos. He has traveled a lot and traveling seems to be habitual in his family. His father has worked in the US, one brother is very nomadic and lives in Greece at present, the other in the U.S, one brother and one sister in the UK. He was simply lucky to be able to stay with his family or their friends on travels. Following his three brothers, he is now a very enthusiastic member of Couchsurfing, full of resources.

Mainz tour and CS meeting
Mateusz had many stories to tell about his observation on travels and laughed about an unfortunate incident regarding train ticket validation. The weather was unusually bad for a European summer, full of thunderstorms. Between two rainstorms we had a quick look at the Roman theatre excavations. It cleared up quickly and we enjoyed sitting on the Rhine riverside. The bus ran on the half hour, so we rather used the time to walk through the city of Mainz to the Nero's. This was the pub where the weekly Mainz CS-meeting took place. On our way to Nero's, I could show him the half-timbered houses in the Augustiner Straße(Mainz old town) until it ended at the courtyard behind the Mainz Dom(cathedral). This is called Leichhof or the courtyard of the dead, from where we could see the famous West Tower of the Dom. From here we walked down the main shopping street Ludwigstraße, Carnival fountain through the pebbled pedestrian area straight to Mainz central station. Mateusz had a good sense of orientation and didn't need to be babysitted all the time.

Idstein and Taunus area
The next day we had a lovely day eating brunch at my friend Marianne's place in Taunusstein in the middle of the Taunus mountain range. I brought a pot of home-grown basil to prepare a delicious tomato-mozarella-basil plate and Marianne baked a delicious fresh pear cake. The thunderstorm has severely hit their pear and plum trees, fruit falling off and she had to make around 30 pots of jam. The conversations were stimulating and the food excellent, time passed by very quickly. Marianne offered to show us Idstein before she headed to an appointment with one of her students.

Mateusz and me continued our visit to Idstein which was in fact spontaneous and unplanned. One of Idstein's landmarks was the Hextenturm or Witch Tower. Its history had nothing to do with witches but the ordinary watchtower looked like those towers in one of Grimm's fairy tales. We climbed up the watch tower called Hexenturm or witch tower as all of a sudden Idstein was struck by a heavy hurricane-like thunderstorm. We felt safe and protected in the tower and watched the storm from a window-like opening. Afterwards people told us that umbrellas, coffee cups and cakes were just flying around the place. Normally we only see this type of storm in Australia or Asia, in Europe it must be more spectacular than a 3D movie. Marianne rang me up to make sure whether we were safe because her car was hit by a heavy hailstorm and the creeks were flooding into the streets, very dangerous for driving.

We came home hungry and fortunately I have cooked a good Spaghetti Bolognaise the day before. Mateusz coped very well with my emergency dish-washing station in the bathroom. He is exceptionally gentleman-like for that age, carrying bags for ladies was simply natural for him. In the evening we took another walk through Mainz, I showed him more ornaments and historical buildings in Mainz. Afterwards we enjoyed a glass of wine in the traditional wine tavern "the Kanzel". I really enjoyed Mateusz's visit because he was curious, interested, a good conversationalist and very empathic. He did not only talk about his own culture but also about the Greek and Canadian one. His stories and photos really felt like traveling without leaving the comfort of your own home. Needless to say that house rules were totally unnecessary for him