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

Hiking: Sports, nature and tourism

If you hike a beautiful area with a lot of historic cultural sites along with beautiful outlooks on nature, it is hard to maintain the athletic aspects only. Sports physicians define hiking as walking through nature with different type of tracks and at a minimum speed of 5-6 km. It can range from an easy paved road to paved forest trails, rougher track area, different types of soil up to slippery extremely steep serpentines.In most cases the distance ranges between 10 and 30 km per day.

However, there will always be the touristic side of the hike. This means that we need to count sightseeing  ancient castles and other historic cultural sites, different photo stops which shouldn't be missed or just enjoying the scenery. These non-sports activities add  some extra time to the planned hike. We always have to go for compromises because if we want to enjoy nature and culture to the fullest,  the minimum cardiovascular workout cannot be maintained throughout the whole hike. A stretch of app 20 km can easily take around 6-7 hours including all breaks.

This is another part of the Rheinsteig between Braubach and Filsen, alongside the Rhine including steep ascends and descends, partly slippery, partly in forested areas and the other stretch in the hot sunny part along the Rhine

Wispertal: A piece of heaven at the doorstep

The car ride between Mainz and Lorch, where the hike starts, is already a trip on its own. It goes through winding roads along the Rhine and through beauitful hills and architecture

I have been to Wispertal a few times to buy fresh rainbow trouts. This time it was the first time that I explored the place by hiking. If you consider hiking as a good sport to boost your  cardiovascular system, you have to keep a certain pace from beginning to end. I had difficulties to make the right decision: either I had to stop and take some time to zoom the right focus and take the picture from the right angle, or I had to keep my pace from beginning till end

The trail started at the beautiful UNESCO heritage site Lorch with its beautiful buildings, churches and scenery. The hike goes through the forest, many slate trees and shrubs, the remaining wild berries and several outlooks far beyond the Rhine to the other side, the Hunsrück mountain range.

The trail was broad enough for the relatively large group and we also had the opportunities for fruitful conversations with some very interesting people. We have also been very lucky that it hadn't rained for some time and had no problems with a slippery ground. Most of the trail was soft soil and hardly any rocks on a well-formed track.

There were some ascends and descends, the one up to the ancient castle ruine Sauerburg was one of them. From the description the trail was around 18,5 km with some fairly rough stretches and a difference in altitude of about 700 m. The last stretch was along the famous Rheinsteig trail back to Lorch, a gradually descending track. The view on the Rhine, its castles, mountain range and wineries on the other side was divine, which more than often distracts a good hiker from his purpose.

Rhineside hiking tracks are sunnier and warmer for most of the time, making the stamina a lot lesser after a good hike in forested areas. Even the road was a lot smoother and slowly descending, it was the hardest part because of the heat. From a lookout point near Kaub, we could see the small castle Pfalzgrafenstein built on the island Reichenau in the middle of the Rhine. This was formerly a venue built for custom purposes and nowadays open as a museum

Going on such a hike is challenging enough for your stamina and we can all combine it with beautiful scenery, ancient castles and churches along with great social interaction. Absolutely recommendable for visitors to Germany too!

Touring the vineyards in a tractor-pulled trailer with free-flowing wine

My Australian friend Monica has organised a typical drinking tour to the Dörrschuck winery in Lörzweiler near Bingen. It has a beautiful location at the mouth of the Rhine Gorge. For EUR 15,- it gets you a beautiful tour, four types of free-flowing wines, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks.

It is not the type of wine tasting where you can taste many different types of wine before buying them.  Although Andreas Dörrschuck had excellent expertise, he didn't present much about wine-manufacturing unless you ask him explicit questions. Rather is it a mixture between a drinking orgy, a fun event with friends, family or colleagues and a tour through a beautiful vineyards with breathtaking views of the Rhine,

Andreas Dörrschuck, the owner of the winery, drove the tractor pulling a 14 seater trailer. The trailor was covered with a canvas roof in case of rain and too much sun. It was raining on that day, first it was covered but later Andreas opened it to allow us a better view.

As soon as we arrived, Andreas introduced some beautiful wines for us to taste. Then we embarked on the trailer. It was arranged in a way only a meticulous German business can do. In the middle of the trailer, there was a long plank with holes to put in the glasses and bottles. It also served as a table where you could put your plate with food. The wines and food was kept cold in a cooler box.

Food such as pretzels and homemade Spundekäs, a typical Mainz wine companion snack made of  cream cheese, chopped onions and paprika powder, was available in abundance. The main idea was to help ourselves to all the good food and fine. Water and grape juice was also provided but the majority of people preferred the wine

It was a great group with some great conversations and jokes. A good diversity of nationalities only added spice to the event. Two visitors came directly from Australia. After the tour, Andreas still had a little surprise for us. A lovely semi-dry red wine was waiting for us to be tasted. Andreas' expertise of winegrowing also made the tour unforgettable

Such a tour easily tempts you to drink excessively due to the self-service and the happy atmosphere. One of our friends, an experienced drinker and avid traveller collapsed all of a sudden. Thank God a few of our friends brought him home by bus and taxi, so nobody needed to worry about people not getting home