Mainz!

Mainz is another city very close to Johannisberg. One of the teachers here offered to show me around today and we had a wonderful time. First we headed to the Gutenberg museum. Yes, Gutenberg the inventor of the printing press ("movable type printing")! You've probably heard of the ever famous Gutenberg bible. Well, I actually got to see it in person. Exciting, yes? And I would love to post pictures here, except I got yelled at for taking pictures on the first floor and was unable to get any of the bible. Here, however, are some of the forbidden pictures I snapped:





We also saw a demonstration of how the press worked. They had a replica set up and a woman explained the process, then had a volunteer come up and do the press. She laid down the plates with text and rolled the ink over them, explaining that the ink rollers were made of dog skin because it is not porous. Rather unsettling (I doubled checked with the woman I was with who confirmed that, yes, she did in fact say dog skin). Gutenberg got the idea from watching wine presses that they used to make wine. Here's the pressing action:


Finally, here's a picture of an actual printing press that got me in trouble with one of the museum employees (I didn't use the flash!):

I promise I'm done with the Gutenberg pictures now. I only have one non-Gutenberg picture, though, as the city was just full of people everywhere today and, well, I hate looking like a tourist. I did grab one picture of the outdoor market that was going on today. Apparently they have this farmers market every Saturday. It was fantastic. There were beautiful flowers and appealing fruits and vegetables all for sale. Frau P bought me a large bag of Zwetschgen for just 2 euros from a woman there. They're pretty much small plums and very sweet. Here's the market:


You'll have to imagine an entire city center filled with similar stalls, all of which are covered in the same brilliant red umbrellas.

After that we went to a fantastic cafe that was known for its cakes. I had a rich chocolate cake with a layer of apricot along with a latte macchiato. It was packed inside with no empty tables in sight, but Frau P just asked a woman sitting alone if we could share her table and she said it was fine. Apparently it's common to just sit down at a table with strangers if they have chair free at that table. Both the coffee and the cake were delicious. We saw two different Catholic churches in the city that were both incredibly beautiful on the inside. As for the any other noteworthy things I saw today, I saw a sign in the parking garage that announced the area was a "Frauenparkplatz" only. So, only women could park there. Odd.

In closing, I took a picture of some police cars in Wiesbaden the other day:

Really, green?