> Now THIS is a good story… When you drive down the mile-long hill into Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire in spring, you’ll be stunned by the mass planting of daffodils…
> “I’m the winner!” “No I’m the winner!” This sort of thing happens with monotonous regularity in Mainz. State elections on Sunday and these two went head to head in…
> A navigationally-challenged electioneering balloon in the Altstadt last week, drifting around to the whims of the breeze. Just like a real politician. (Gucki is now thinking: “You don’t need…
> Looking up at the fortifications that are the Mainz Rathaus (town hall), one could be excused for thinking that at any moment boiling oil or similar could be…
> Germany has a Mixed Member Proportional voting system, unlike the “First past the post” system in the UK and the Electoral College system in the USA for presidential elections.…
> If you wanted to go get home by bus on Tuesday evening, you were pretty much stuffed, with one of the major traffic axes being monopolised by a student…
> Bionade would have voted for you. Makes a change from politicians (of all colours) who woo you with visions of milk and honey and then act asd if you…
> We’re nothing if not Politically Correct around here. (Did I hear some muted coughing in the background…?) Did you see it on the milk at Aldi the other day…
> Seen at the Liberal Party’s election thingy last month with Guido Westerwelle, the new deputy Chancellor and incipient Foreign Minister Little bloke looks a bit cheesed off by all…
> ..and I’ll show you a loser. Defaced face in Mainz after the Federal election. Does remind me of this, though
> The SPD, Germany’s centre-left party, has its Mainz electorate headquarters right next to St Antonius. He’s the patron saint of all matter of things and people: American Indians,…
> Now, this is a tricky one. Black and white has the highest colour contrast Yellow and black has the highest hue contrast (Trivial Pursuit sides with the latter, and…
..a bridge. Right here. This is the Middle Rhine Valley, an UNESCO Heritage Site. Because: Criterion (ii): As one of the most important transport routes in Europe, the Middle Rhine…
> ..are a bummer” Almost (but not quite) captures the poetry and wit of the double-entendre*(And who said Germans have no sense of humour…) Elections coming up in 2 weeks,…
> OK, so this is definitely NQM (Not Quite Mainz) and decidely waaay off track, but it’s too good to just skim past. Jan Liefers is a German actor with…
> The SATTOTH (Subdivision At The Top Of The Hill) is coming along quite spiffingly. The big machines at rest look quite pastoral compared with what they’ve done to the…
> Local politics around here are real hoot. This is the pedestal on which Famous Son Johnannes (not me – Gutenberg) normally resides. JG’s off for some well-deserved R&R and…
> Here’s one of those classic “Only in Mainz” stories. Mainz 05, the local football team, has drifted around at the top of the 2nd Division for years and inadvertently…
> “Social engineering” has a somewhat unpleasant ring to it. A bit like “ethnic cleansing” But I like what they’re doing here in the village. This is Monday’s ground-breaking ceremony…
> I did cut it with my hatchet. In fact, I cranked up the bulldozer and bowled the whole bloody orchard….” Trees get old, yields drop off and varieties go…
> Or “Light at the end of the tunnel” Whatever. Not as ambitious as Boston’s major construction effort, but pretty hefty for Mainz, nonetheless. The A61 is the motorway that…
> Toddled off to my first political event the other evening. Not that I can actually vote over here, but whatever.. Wolfgang Bosbach, one of the Head Honchos from the…
>Depending on who you listen to.. …the new wind turbines will be the tallest man-made structure ever conceived, they’ll cast their evil shadows for kilometres across the pristine countryside and…
Mainz Daily Photo 