Slow day in Mainz

Day 49

When we visited Mainz in 2012/3 Dagmar put together a wonderful walking tour that ticked off the big name sites in town.  Today we had a return visit to the Dom of St Martin and a bit more of a wander round town. 

Mainz is a really lovely city – and I’m really surprised it doesn’t feature more heavily on tourists itineraries.  Its got everything you’d want – beautiful street-scapes, quirky fountains, grand churches, fantastic restaurants & cafes, so much history you could drown, world-class museums and great shopping.

The 1000-year-old Dom never ceases to amaze us – its HUGE, although much more austere than the baroque churches we’ve seen throughout the rest of Europe.  We checked out the small museum underneath before heading out to my favourite part of the whole cathedral – the stunningly beautiful covered cloister around a courtyard attached to the side.  The outside of the Dom is actually quite hard to photograph, and certainly a ‘whole’ cathedral photo is impossible because there are so many other buildings built up close to it.  The bronze model gives you an idea of the size of the complex.

Right round the windows a pictorial list of all the Bishops of Mainz - from 976 to  now.

My favourite part of the Mainz Dom 

The gothic colonnade around the Cloister

Dom Museum

Six of the 12 Apostles dating from 1270

Altar table from 1310

No photos in this part of the museum so I lifted this from the internet - this painting was incredible

After the Dom we headed down past the Gutenberg Museum towards the Rhine.  On the way I found one of only 2 new Mianzer Man crossing lights.  I hope they roll these guys out over the coming months/years because he’s really cool.

Gutenberg Museum - I visited here in 2013 and saw one of  the original Guttenberg Bibles printed about 1455

Then it was through the Altstadt past the oldest half-timbered house in Mainz – still standing proudly having been built in 1450.  See I told you it was a gorgeous city!

Back for a coffee & cake before some more meandering round town and a bit of shopping. I’m being very restrained.  It's Karnival time in Mainz, all the shops are decorated - these are cake toppers I saw in a bakery window - amazing.

Tomorrow we’ll check out the Landesmuseum (State Museum) and the Karnival Museum.