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I took a train into Frankfurt this morning, a 30-45 minute ride from Mainz, depending on whether or not you’re on a high-speed train (I was). I had plans to do several museums but decided after the first one I was done with museums for awhile. I wanted to see more of the city, and with so little in English I was missing a lot anyway.

Here’s what I did do:

1. Got lost on my way to the first stop. I knew I wouldn’t have GPS so had made notes last night about how to get where I was going. I realized as the area was getting dicey I had missed something and changed course. I ended up in this cool neighborhood with fun shops and eateries, very non-touristy. Although enjoyable, I still had no idea where I was. With no Starbucks in sight (their free Wi-Fi comes in very handy) I caved when I found a T-Mobile hotspot and paid the €5 for 24-hour unlimited access. That made the rest of the day go much smoother. Dan will be with me the rest of the trip and his company phone has full access here so it won’t be an issue anymore.
2. Naturmuseum Senckenberg – museuum of natural science. If you’ve seen one…you know. But two things stood out:

• Children’s gleeful squeals in the presence of dinosaurs sound the same in any language
• There was an exhibit detailing the development of the human embryo, including a diagram of sperm delivery and a graphic photo of baby delivery, the mother spread-eagled and smiling with just the head of the baby out. Any 5 year old passing by would never  have to ask where babies come from. I had always heard Europe was less stuffy about sex in general but the American in me was still jarred by the public display. Still, it was oddly refreshing.

3. Just walked around the rest of the day. My approach reminded me of how I used to explore San Francisco when I first moved to California: let’s turn here and see what happens! Frankfurt is the banking capital in Germany, downtown was a wide mix of skyscrapers, residential and shopping areas, with lots of old stuff mixed in.

This is a nice park downtown amidst the skyscrapers.

 

My second quaint town square!

 

I discovered a huge shopping district that was fun. The people are very diverse, this city has a very nice international feel to it. 600 year old St. Bartholomew’s cathedral was soo gothic. A trip up to the observation deck on the 55th floor of Main Tower was cool. It was outside and though gloomy, I still got some cool shots. The first one below shows the train station, the second the shopping district mentioned above. It’s everything you see in the picture where there aren’t cars.

 

 

OH – how could I forget: the area just outside the train station is seedy, red light stuff. On the way back, I get stopped by this couple who want to “show me something.” He was my age or a little older, she was 40ish, very blond, very coiffed. When I said “no thanks” they got on either side of me, each looped an arm through mine, turned me around and said “no, we really want you to see this” and tried to walk me into their venue. I yanked my arms away and said NO, turned around and just kept walking in my original direction and they were very disappointed! It wasn’t scary, just weird :)

General tidbits from today:

• Waiters will not bring your check until you ask for it. Took me longer than it should have to figure that out.
• I’ve been on 5 trains now and have only been asked for a ticket once. Dan says it’s pretty much the honor system but a heavy fine if you get caught without one.
• It costs €1 to use the restrooms in the train stations. They are immaculate.
• For Marianne: yes, the paper denominations are different sizes

I love the trains and the train stations!

Today I just walked around the city about 7 hours, and stopped in a few museums. Oddly, Mainz is like Sacramento in this way: not the most exciting place to visit, but very livable. We started here only because of Dan’s conference (which he is at again today and tomorrow). That said, it is very charming, lots of it very old. The cathedral here is over 1000 years old. The areas I was in were pretty, clean, with a wide variety of shops and restaurants. Very pedestrian and bike friendly.

This is the back of the cathedral as you approach the Square from a busy street.

This is the front of the cathedral getting a facelift. If you were 1000 years old you would need some work, too!

This was first of many town squares I would see in Europe – cute shopping and entertainment areas closed off to vehicles.

I checked out 3 museums. I generally subscribe to the “a little goes a long way” school of museum looking and tend to do drive-bys more than anything. And in this case, it’s easy to go very fast when so little of it was in English! So 3 museums in about 3 hours is about right. (When I was in NYC with Jon, who shares my museum philosophy, we cruised through all 7 floors of MOMA in about 90 minutes!)

1. Museum of Ancient Ships.  A last minute addition on the advice of TripAdvisor, and was the most interesting of the three. Ruins of ships from the Roman Empire were found in the Rhine when they were building the Hilton (where we are staying). The remains were recovered, replicas were built, and the museum was focused on all that and the history of the shipping  trade at the time.
2. Guttenberg Museum – as in printing press. Mainz was his home. Mostly this was about the history of print, along with some local history which I appreciated the most.
3. Landesmuseum – typical mix of Dutch old masters, ancient stuff, modern stuff, blah blah blah. Crocker is better :)

Today’s general observations:

• Bicycle lanes are on the sidewalks, not the streets. Bicyclists follow pedestrian rules, not vehicle rules.
• And speaking of pedestrian rules: people don’t jaywalk or cross if the signal is red even when there’s no traffic in sight and would be perfectly safe. It’s bizarre.
• Lots of smokers here. Actually I noticed that right as I left the train station yesterday. Today just confirmed it wasn’t a fluke. On the other hand, I’ve seen very little if any obesity, certainly nothing like we have in the US. I guess everyone has their vices.
• Sirens of emergency vehicles: I have only heard a few times, but each time I do I’m halfway expecting to see Matt Damon as Jason Bourne around the corner. This is a distinctly un-American sound that prior to today I had only heard in movies.
• Single family dwellings: haven’t seen one yet. Could just be that I stayed mostly in the central area of Mainz, but I did walk a healthy radius today. Reminds me of Manhattan, without the skyscrapers.

Today is just about getting here and adjusting to time change and culture. I managed to navigate the Brussels airport and 3 train stations since I had to transfer twice to get here. Now I am just hanging in the hotel while devices recharge before I go explore a little.

The train ride from Cologne (or Koln here) was spectacular: along the Rhein River, with little villages every so often nestled between the river bank and hills, with a castle  perched above. Like a Cinderella town come to life. I saw a bunch of those along the  2 hour ride. These photos were actually taken from the train on the way back, between Mainz and Koblenz.

And all of you were right: So Glad I packed light! Dragging big luggage through train stations and cobble streets would be, well, such a drag.

I was a little panicked here and there about technology and language. My phone had died just as I was boarding the plane in Chicago, and because I’d read most of the trip, my tablet was about out of power, too. I had an adapter, but couldn’t find a plug anywhere. In Cologne, I finally ran across a Starbucks with a plug and free Wi-Fi so I was able to get an email to Dan from my tablet to let him know my final train connection was 45 minutes late. Thankfully that announcement was in English as well as German!

I was to meet him at the Mainz in Hilton and his last text to me about that was: “there’s only one Hilton, it’s easy to find, just head straight out from the train station about a mile, then turn right when the street ends. Or just use your GPS.”

By the time I got to Mainz, I had no power, no way to map anything, and the couple of people I asked where the Hilton was had such strong accents I couldn’t really understand them. So I just started walking in the general direction I thought I should based on his text. I came across an internet cafe and, long story short, eventually figured out I was headed in the right direction. Thank God for helpful Brits who take pity on stupid Americans :)  It was embarrassing to admit I didn’t even have an address, especially when he said “which one?” to my “do you know where the Hilton is?” question!

I’d never been so relieved to see something as I was that big H on the building when I finally saw it. Dan of course had remembered to leave a key for me at reception so it was smooth from that point on.

10:30pm local time.
Took a great walk along the Rhine River before dinner at an Italian place. It was great, especially the warm chocolate souffle for dessert! This was the view I had, this great walkway along the river, lined with trees. Notice in the  second picture there’s a swing set, part of a playground right by the river.

Dan is  still at his conference. I just saw him for a minute when I arrived and won’t really see him again until Friday when his vacation starts. But there was something slick and romantic about meeting in a foreign country I had never been to before. It’s an adventure!

Things that surprised me today:

• The customs guy never looked at me and didn’t ask any questions, just stamped my passport and waved me on. I admit to being a little disappointed. So anti-climatic for my first customs check!
• I saw two nuclear power plants on a 4-hour train trip – one in Belgium, one in Germany
• The Cinderella villages. My friend Greg tried to prepare me for this – he called them Christmas villages – but they still took my breath away. Now I know why they call that section of the river The Romantic Rhine.
• You don’t tip in restaurants here
• How disorienting it is when nothing is in English (I know, duh huh?)
• That I managed to navigate two train transfers anyway. Somehow it was reminiscent of NYC subways

The view of the Rhine from our hotel window at the the Mainz Hilton.