Before my trip to Germany this past July, the one town I very much wanted to visit was Heidelberg (home to a romantic ruined castle and famed for its Student Prince association). But while my German friend did promise that we would go there when I visited her, she seemed far more enthusiastic about my also going with her to Mainz -- and, in fact, determined for me that the last couple days and nights of my German vacation would be spent in the Rhineland-Palatinate's state capital.
Looking back, I think it made for a very nice holiday that visits to those two places effectively acted as the bookends of my holidays. For not only did Heidelberg live up to its high reputation but Mainz turned out to be a charming surprise of a town for this visitor to Germany -- as the following photo-essay hopefully can help show:-
Undeterred by my getting churched out a few days earlier in Speyer, almost the first attraction
my German friend insisted we checked out in Mainz
was the church of St Stephen's up on a hill
To be fair though, the church's Chagall stained glasschoir windows really are something to behold
Also, the walk to and from St Stephen's churchback into the town center allowed me to
come across beautiful streets like this one
Coming across charming public artworks like this onestrengthed further my sense that Mainz is
one of those cities that rewards the leisure walker
Turn a corner within the Alt Stadt (Old Town) andyou are likely to come across a sight like the above
The ornamental Renaissance market fountainin Mainz's market square dates back to 1526
Just a stone's throw away is a stand-alone pillar/columnand a row of picturesque market houses whose lower floors
now house commercial establishments including cafes
...and right across that row of market houses is -- yep, you guessed it! -- another major religious establishment
in the form of St Martin's Cathedral (aka the Mainzer Dom)
To be continued (but of course!)... :)
4 comments:
Mainz looks like a delightful place--particularly the buildings on either side of the curving street. The pastel colors on some of them are a nice touch and the fine detail of some of the windows keep the flat fronts from becoming boring.
It sounds as if your friend in Germany did a great job in pointing you in the right direction.
Hi ewaffle --
I definitely would recommend a visit to Mainz. The funny thing is that when we visited, they were having a "Mainz welcomes the world" promotion -- but because it was in German, there weren't too many tourists from outside Germany about! ;O
The whole place looks very attractive but I simply love the statue/fountain of the girls under umbrellas!
Hi A. --
Have to say that Mainz appears to have more than its fair share of very nice public/street art. :)
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