>Here’s our good friend Johannes Gutenberg keeping an eye on the Mainz State Theatre – the Staatstheater.(It used to be called the City Theatre – Stadttheater – but obviously got…
>Some lyrically describe the Augustinerstrasse as Mainz’s 5th Avenue or Champs Elysee. Well, yes…. It’s an excellent place, but it’s somewhat short on width to compare favourably with those two.…
>It’s too dangerous up there – I’m staying down here where it’s safe…
>I’m hijacking this post for a good cause. I hope for your understanding. (This is the 50th Parallel, by the way. Runs bang through the Gutenberg Square in front of…
>Be careful what you photograph around here. This looks like an innocent kitchen studio, but – if the truth be known – it’s really a secret military installation. Why else…
>Mainz has a real train station. Trains come in at one end and go out the other. Not like Frankfurt or Wiesbaden. There, trains come in, stop and somehow get…
>I like the easter egg/hot cross bit of the occasion, but it’s the hokey decorations – here in the Kaufhof window display – that get me. This bloke looks positively…
>Given Mainz’s moderately violent history – Romans in punch-ups with the Germanic tribes, French and Prussians at each others throats for years, the Brits pulverising large bits of the city…
>This is “Elsa” – the high rise apartment complex in the Elsa-Brändström-Strasse in Mainz-Gonsenheim. 3 blocks, 23 stories, 610 apartments, around 1500 inhabitants. Featured in a popular docu-soap a couple…
>The Augustinerstrasse IS the Old Town for many people. It used to be the commercial heart of the city up until the 17th century It runs from the Leichhof (originally…
>……the street signs in Mainz really are red and blue. Nothing to do with a Napoleonic decree, though. (Well, it was April Fools Day yesterday…) And the urban legend that…
>The French influence in Germany dates back to the occupation of the city by the French Revolutionary army in 1792.And in 1793, the Jacobins of Mainz – together with democrats…
>I know that this is way off track and encroaching unashamedly on Lachezar‘s territory, but there’s a restaurant/sports bar type place called MKOP in Albany, north of Auckland.Stands for My…
>Normally on the Rhine, you’d see wall-to-wall barges and lighters at this point. (This is from the North railway bridge, linking Mainz with those rascals across the river.) But it’s…
>This is the Theodor Heuss bridge, named after the first President – from 1949 to 1959 of the Federal Republic of Germany. And that’s Wiesbaden over there. Wiesbaden’s the capital…
>That’s what the blackboard says. And someone’s written underneath “That’s a real shame” This used to be a Home Depot-type superstore on a greenfield site. Except that there were 2…
>Asparagus is one of the finer things in life. Bought fresh from your local farmer, steamed and enjoyed with butter, new potatoes and fresh chervil or parsley from the garden.…
>The Brand Centre in Mainz has a long history of commercial significance. The original Kaufhaus – a massive 2-storied warehouse – was built here in the 14th century to take…
>Just keep going, mate…. I can swim.
>Most of the gastronomy at the Rheinland-Pfalz Ausstellung wouldn’t actually knock the socks off your average gourmet. There’s Ditsch’s for brezels, of course, and the standard currywurst and french fries.…
>The Kapuzinerstrasse and the Rheinstrasse are linked by the Hänleingaesschen, the Scharfensteinergaesschen and the Färchergaesschen. Old names (or spellings) no longer in use, but they give us an idea of…
>Mainz hosts the annual State Fair – the Rheinland-Pfalz Ausstellung. It’s a bit like the Easter Show of my youth in Auckland. Without the sheepdog trials. And candy floss. (Cotton…
>From the bottom of the circular stairwell in the Theatre underground carpark. It’s not a good idea to hang around here for too long, though – you’ll bankrupt yourself. Parking…
>We buy our veggies from Lorenz and Hildegard Schuster. They live in our village and you’ll find them on the market in Mainz on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. They only…
>Winter came back with a vengeance over the weekend – snow in the hills, we flatlanders (200m ASL) are forecast to get thumped this afternoon. So I let this morning’s…
>210 years isn’t that old. If you’re a glacier, that is. These days, though, it’s a pretty good innings if you’re in business. Johann Anton Lutz opened his goldsmith’s shop…
>The €10 haircut salon has become quite a phenomenon in Germany. Mainz now has one, too. Production line, no appointments. no frills, just the basic “wash and cut”, blow-drying costs…
>Slumbering under these mounds is the 2007 asparagus vintage. Not the green stuff (although you can get that here these days, too) that most of the world knows. This is…
>KUZ put on its finest floodlighting for us last night Or maybe it was for Bernard Allison Probably. Or for the twin rattlesnake heads on his hat.What an excellent gig.…
>In the forests of the nightWhat immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry” Wm. Blake Well, Philipp Harth (1887-1968, son of a local stone mason, huge talent, works…
>Just down the road from the Lampenfabrik and up the road from the elegant Marina, you’ll find the Kulturzentrum. Translation required?Didn’t think so. It’s in a fine old brick building…
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