That's a Wrap: Days 75, 76 and 77 - Wrapping things up in Mainz - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017 - CycleBlaze

October 21, 2017

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!
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Mike AylingThats a njce clean bike!
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4 years ago
Sparkling!
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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
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... and this one ...
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...but you'll get wet trying to get in close to capture the detail!
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Part of the square in front of the Cathedral (Dom). We had breakfast at the place with the umbrellas
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One side of the Dom. Sunday mass was underway so we came back later
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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!
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The Dom tends to dominate the skyline in the old town
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Pretty quiet for a Sunday .. touring in October has it's advantages
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A very quiet and peaceful courtyard at the Cathedral
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The gate keeper at the cathedral ... actually a statue of St Bonafice
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At the Roman boat museum ... based on what they dug up out of the Rhine, this is what they think a new model would look like!
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... a little artistic (and archeological) license to get that new boat from this
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a decent amount of the hull was recovered
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and its pretty well preserved for being almost 2000 years old!
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even some of the iron nails are intact
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Mass is over, welcome back to the Dom!
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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
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One of our fav's ... a new sculpture from the early 2000's of Johannes Gutenberg - struggling with the lever on his press
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... another view of what K calls ... the drippy guy ...
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... and a close up of the strain ...
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one last look at the Old town skyline before sunset
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Monday ... packing up the bikes in the underground garage at the Novotel Mainz. Impeccably clean, quiet and warm.
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Bubble wrap and foam tubing being put to work
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One bike wrapped and ready to load
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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!
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Our last afternoon cake session ... at the Dom Café ... excellent cakes and coffee!
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