Rhine Gorge and Mainz

 Our cruise is along the Rhine River which is 764 miles along and is one of the busiest rivers in Europe. It starts in the Swiss Alps and empties into the North Sea and passes through six countries…

We are doing the section from Cologne in Germany to Strasbourg in France.

As we cruised down the river we passed a lot of traffic…

Today we passed through the section of the river called the Rhine Gorge which is a UNESCO Heritage River and located in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It is quite narrow with high cliffs on both sides…

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As there are many bends in the river there are black navigation signs to let the captains know what’s around the bend…

Lots of little villages…

This section of the river has lots of castles with most of them being partially destroyed over the centuries with various wars. It was interesting to hear that throughout the ages one side of the river belonged to the French and the other side belonged to Germany.

And again many vineyards…

And old towers that were used as toll booths where people using the river had to pay to continue on…

Our stop today was at the city of Mainz which is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It has a population of about 223,000 inhabitants and is Germany’s 35th largest city.

As usual our ship docked close to town where we are met by a guide and walk along the river to town. We have been blessed with wonderful fall weather and always a pleasant walk…

It is a mix of old and new architecture with all new buildings having to display a piece of modern art which I enjoy seeing…

Also very modern buildings that have an old facade…

Here is the facade of the same building to blend old and new…

Some scenes from a very busy Old Town…

Lots of good food…

Mainz Cathedral or St. Martin's Cathedral is located near the historical centre and is a 1000-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral.

Here is our guide explaining the history of the church, the interior is rather dark…

Another church, St. Stephen’s is special because of the stain glass windows by Marc Chagall… 

Chagall was a Jew who escaped to the United States and became a well renowned artist. He started the project while he was in his 90s and viewed it as a way to reconcile his feelings toward the German people.

He used a lot of blues in his works….

Mainz is also the home of Johannes Gutenberg who is credited with inventing the printing press in 1448. It has been called one of the most important inventions in the history of humankind…one of the first books he printed was the Gutenberg bible.

His statue stands outside the church…

There is so much ancient history here but a more recent event has turned the city of Mainz into a very rich one. Before Covid it was a city drowning in debt but as a result of the early vaccines being developed by Bio Tech/ Pfizer in Mainz they have received billions in taxes from the profits of the company. An interesting fact! 

As with most of our days we enjoy the walking tours offered by the cruise and then set out to explore on our own and it often leads to us sitting and watching the people go by…

On our stroll back to the boat we came across two musicians playing the alphorn, a very traditional musical instrument…

The end of another nice day on the Rhine…