mainz!

Hello to all of our loyal followers!  I promised in my last blog post from "back home" in Georgia that my next post would be a good one.  And here I am to deliver!  

So the big news?  If you're friends with Rich and I on Facebook, you already know that my mom is here visiting us in Germany!  She decided to fly back with me for a visit to have a little getaway, and we're not having any kind of shortage on fun or cool things to see!

Mom's no stranger to flying or adventure, but I was so excited to be beside her as she made her very first trans-oceanic flight and her first trip to another country and continent!  And believe me...she was beyond excited as we prepared to travel!  For the record, I hereby place my bet that she will never again ask me to pinch her so she'd know she wasn't dreaming.  (Hey Mom, how's that bruise?!)

Mom checkin' out our ride to Europe!

A girl and her mama, waiting to leave the gate in Atlanta.

Exiting the plane in Frankfurt.  That excitement?  Not staged.

Now, I was expecting to be picked up at the airport by the same taxi service that took me to the airport when I left.  HOWEVER, I was so happyyyyyyy to find that the person picking us up was Rich!!  And he was in OUR CAR!!!  Yippeeeeeee!  Our car made it to Germany!

Side note:  I couldn't be more pleased to share that our jet lag hasn't been bad at all. Just as I had finally become acclimated to the time here in Germany, I went back to Georgia, then back again.  I was expecting the readjustment to be torture, but it only took a couple of days thankfully.  Mom handled it like a champ!

On her first night here, we took her into downtown Wiesbaden for a quick show-and-tell as it was cold and we were tired. We showed her the Warmer Damm Park, then ventured over to the Marktkirche.  The best moment for me, hands down, was when she heard the church bells start to ring.  She gasped quietly, then stood there and stared.  I admit I teared up a little.  Sharing this amazing place with the person who brought me into this world?  Absolutely priceless.

When Saturday morning rolled around, the three of us loaded up and headed toward Mainz.  But, we made a stop literally two minutes from our house at the Sudfriedhof, or South Cemetery of Wiesbaden to visit the grave of Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, commonly known as the Red Baron.  Yes, that Red Baron.  Two minutes from our house.  

And the grounds were beautiful.

German burial plots are very different from what we're used to.  I'm not sure if these plots consist of caskets on top of each other, or perhaps they hold cremated remains?

I got a little too much sunlight in this shot, but I chose not to edit it.  The light pretty much speaks for itself.

She.  Was.  Freezing.  (My toes were numb.) 

It took us a little while to find the Red Baron's grave, but after some searching around we were successful. 

The Red Baron is buried in the family plot with his mother, sister, and two brothers.

Next, we drove just a few miles south and across the Rhine River into Mainz (pronounced 'mines', like coal 'mines').  While Wiesbaden is a spa city, Mainz is more of an industrial, blue collar city in the area.  And there is some serious history there, too.

Mainz has been around since 13 B.C. when the Romans settled a military camp there. Um, yeah.  The Romans.  It was in Mainz in 1450 that Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with movable type.  Mainz is also at the center of the Rheinhessen wine region. 

After literally a few minutes in the car, we were there and looking for free parking, and we indeed found a parking garage with a sign that advertised "frei" parking.  We later found out that this does not mean free of charge...it means that there are free, or available, parking spaces.  Twelve euros later, lesson learned!

First, we visited the Gutenberg Museum.  No photography was allowed inside, but the highlights of the exhibited items were three very rare original copies of Gutenberg's 42-line Bible (kept safe in a walk-in vault where anyone stepping inside will be watched closely by Museum employees).  There were many other books on display, as well, including some that were handwritten and illustrated before the invention of the printing press.  We also saw several different examples of printing equipment, some of the machines the size of a car!  Very cool place to visit if you're ever in the area.

Just outside the gift shop exit, we feasted our eyes on St. Martin's Cathedral, or the Mainzer Dom.  The first stone was laid in the year 975.  

Look closely and you can see the face of Jesus in the center of the top cross.  Also, the hand inside the Iron Cross?  I can't find anything on this, but I'm going to keep trying to get to the bottom of this one...

Here I was thinking this was a pretty cool-looking cathedral, when Rich suggests we go inside.  Inside?  Okie dokie!  

And so, we did.  

And so, we were in awe.

We arrived just at the tail end of an organ concert.  Ever have chills go down your spine and your mouth hangs open uncontrollably?  Yep.  (If you'd like a little taste of what the organ sounded like, make sure your volume is up and visit the Dom's website...the music plays automatically.)  Imagine hearing this in a basilica surrounded by beautiful statues and stained glass.  

Here are some of the photos I took...there are a LOT!

Very first view inside.  This is one of the side hallways that flank the sanctuary.

After Rich read about Albert of Mainz, I'm pretty convinced that the Cathedral's skeletons are real.

Looks real, right?

The cross suspended over the pulpit.

The sanctuary, after the concert was over of course.

After we managed to pick our chins up off the floor, we made our way outside and saw some more pretty.

Statue of Saint Boniface.

We continued through a market where people were selling fresh flowers, eggs, vegetables, and bread.  Then Rich stopped us and asked if we knew where we were. Well, we were on a street in Mainz...right?  He pointed to the ground--we were standing on the 50 degrees north latitude line in the middle of the Gutenbergplatz!  How cool!

Statue in the Gutenbergplatz of its namesake.

Next, Rich led us further and because I've learned not to question his plans, I trusted that he had something he wanted us to see.  

Some photos of this part of our walk...

Then Rich brought us to our next point of interest.  Holy moly.  Another church?!  This one was the Augustinerkirche, built between 1768 and 1776.  This was one of the only churches in the area to escape World War II undamaged.  

The inside of this place looked more like a palace than a church.  The ornate details were so bright and literally shiny!

But I have to take a minute to tell yall a little something about me before I explain the next photo.  I've had glasses since I was in high school.  Not many people have ever seen me wear them, though I'm supposed to wear them all the time.  I don't wear contacts, but I really only have trouble with reading, computer screens, and seeing small objects.  The point is that I do not like to wear glasses when I shoot with my camera, so oftentimes I don't see details of what I've captured through the lens until I load the memory card into Lightroom.  So, it's like my own little private party seeing the fun things I didn't see originally.

The reason I tell you all of this is because when I looked at this next photo on my computer the day after our trip, I just about fell out of my chair laughing before calling Mom and Rich over to look too!  This statue is NOT meant to be funny, as I believe it's supposed to be Mary with the baby Jesus.  But yall.............oh man, I'll just let you see for yourself.  Oh Lord, please forgive me.

Yall, poor baby Jesus looks like Newman from Seinfeld.  Newman with a perm.

Do you agree?  No?  I'm still laughing now.  I'm sorry...

On our way back to the car, we stopped by the edge of the Rhine and watched the birds for a few minutes.  I could have stayed right here for hours...

Oh, but the fun weekend didn't end here!  The next morning, we got up and went for a drive.  But I'll save that for the next post as it's late and I've got to get to sleep.  Rich has a long weekend so we've got big plans to go somewhere none of us has ever been!  Eeeeeeek!!!