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
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
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