As we walked toward the city of Mainz we could view St. Martin's Cathedral located near the historical center and pedestrianized market square of the city. This 1000 year-old Roman Catholic cathedral is the site of the episcopal see of the Bishop of Mainz. Mainz Cathedral is predominantly Romanesque in style, but later exterior additions over many centuries have resulted in the appearance of various architectural influences seen today.
A piece of contemporary art that says... (whatever you wish!)
The buildings in the square are very attractive with some influence of the baroque style.
Our guide spent much of the time explaining and showing how the Guttenberg bible was printed.
She chose Al from our group as her helper.
Here are sections of flowers in the city.
Again, St. Martin's Cathedral taken at a closer view.
At this point, Sylvia & I along with 8 others of our group left the guided tour and walked about 10 blocks away from the area to St. Stephen Church.
Below, entry to St. Stephen Church in Mainz. The choir windows, created by Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall in St. Stephan are unique in Germany. Between 1978 and his death in 1985, Chagall, at the age of 91 in 1978 created nine stained-glass windows of scriptural figures in luminous blue. The figures depict scenes from the Old Testament, demonstrating the commonalities across Christian and Jewish traditions. Chagall intended his work to be a contribution to Jewish-German reconciliation, made all the more poignant by the fact that Chagall himself fled France under Nazi occupation. He chose St. Stephan due to his friendship with Monsignor Klaus Mayer, who was then the presiding priest of St. Stephan.
Chagall windows
Organ pipes
Rose window
Interesting looking fountain on street
We returned to the ship by the 11:45 a.m. "all aboard" time to sail toward Mannheim.
Back on board, we passed this field of grapes.
And, then after lunch when we could see the city of Heidelberg in the distance and just before the 1:00 p.m. our ship made a "technical" stop at Nierstein. At 1:30 p.m. we boarded a coach for the short ride to oldest university town of Germany, Heidelberg, for a guided tour that included the Great Vat and the romantic Castle with free time for downtown shopping.
The gate at the entrance to the Heidelberg castle.
close up of figures on the gate.
Castle ruins...
Below, statues in wall of ruins
From the castle ground, the views below of the city and the Neckar River.
A beautiful stone structure on the grounds in use today.
Interior courtyard of castle showing some of the restored areas.
Note the beautiful details of the baroque style of the buildings of Old Town.
And the imagined beauty of what "once was".
Deep in the bowels of Heidelberg Castle is the world's largest wine barrel (below). It holds over 220,000 litres (58,574 gallons).
Other views of the city & the Neckar River
The castle looking from the marketplace (below).
One of the old streets in the Marketplace.
And then there was shopping. We shopped for gelato! It was delicious, but not as good as some we had in Florence, Italy. [That's Walt (red jacket) & Cathy (blue coat) walking in the Marketplace].
Our guided tour ended in the Marketplace and after some shopping time we boarded the coach again for a transfer to the ship. Meanwhile, the ship had sailed to Mannheim and was docked there waiting for us. We rejoined the ship at approximately 6:30 p.m. At 6:45 p.m. with all onboard, the ship sails for Strasbourg, France.
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