That's a Wrap: Days 75, 76 and 77 - Wrapping things up in Mainz
A couple of nice slow days in Mainz getting things wrapped up. A good sleep in on Saturday, a leisurely breakfast and then on the bikes for the last time to get packing supplies and clean the bikes.
We've seen big box Home Depot like stores and coin-op car washes in almost every German town / city, so our plan was to search these out this morning. In every other town the two have been right beside each other and Mainz was no different. A quick Google search and a Bauhaus (think Home Depot) with lots of auto places around it was 3 km north of us.
A quick ride out and within 5 minutes we had zip ties, bubble wrap, packing tape and foam tubing insulation in hand. Less than 15 euro's for the lot.
Next stop, a car wash about 500 m away. Two open bays when we pull in. We only used one! Three euros and about 15 minutes later 3 months of road grime and grease is gone!
That was Saturday's work.
Sunday we played ... leisurely breakfast, then the Gutenberg Museum. Yes this is the hometown of Johannes Gutenburg, he of Bible fame, but more importantly, the tools and process he invented for making the Bibles ... the moveable type printing press. You cannot overstate the impact this invention had on the spread of knowledge and education. It has been credited with ushering in the entire Renaissance period that caused Europe to leap ahead of the rest of the world in the second half of the last millennium.
We spent a couple of hours there and it is well worth a visit, notwithstanding their staff, Hilda Von Grumpyberg and her sidekick Dieter Fuhnsucker. "No Pictures .... Step that way" ... rolled eyes of exasperation with the tourists paying your wages ... Water off a ducks back to us. The museum is otherwise great.
After that we kicked around the old town some more and then landed at Museum Fur Antike Schiffahrt museum. Much friendlier ... this place is devoted to the roman boats found in the Rhine at Mainz in the early 2000's. They have the remains on disply, as well as replica's of the boats, newly built, and depictions of Roman Germany and Mainz.
Monday was bike packing (the cardboard box kind!), journal writing and cake eating. Tomorrow we fly!
Success at Bahaus ... zip ties, bubble wrap, packing tape and some cool exhaust pipes for my bike!
Mainz has a very nice low key old town. Pretty quiet this time of year. Lots of squares tucked here and there and most with some relatively new, and whimsically interesting sculptures ... like this guy
Another Rohloff couple! One bike looks very well used .. the one in the back looked brand new. These are Rohloff number six and seven that we've seen. They seem to ride in pairs!
This is not from the Dom ... when K saw this from a distance she exclaimed ... "He's got three balls"closer inspection showed he was anatomically correct
bikes wrapped and boxed ... thanks to the Radhaus bike shop for the boxes... Frankfurt Airport charges 35 euros per box ... we got these for free and will spend the money on a taxi ou to the airport ... 75 euro's and way less hassle!
3 years ago