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Bargain Travel Europe guide to Europe on a budget vacation destinations, cheap travel and secret spots missed by travel tours.

DONT TREAD ON ME, MY SON
Mainz – Cathedral and Culture Center in the heart of the Rhineland

Mainz is usually not found on the top of the list of holiday travel destinations in Germany, though any trip to the middle Rhine Valley for wine tasting festivals or castle exploring (See BURG REICHENSTEIN), Mainz might be your starting point. This Rhineland capital city and industrial center was high on the target list of allied bombers, but like many German cities in WWII of the buildings to survive, the Cathedrals were often spared because bomber pilots could use them as navigation points – Fly to the big pointy building in the center of town, turn left and drop away! – But not all were so lucky. If one is pursuing genealogy research in the middle Rhine region, Mainz is where they keep many of the records. (See also WANDERING ANCESTORS) Except if your family was Catholic. Go to the city’s Hall of Records with floor to ceiling stacks of leather bound books of births, deaths and property exchange through centuries and the staff will undertake to find what you seek. But if your ancestors were Catholic, they will ruefully point to the domed Christus Catholic Church outside the window and sadly inform you in halting English that their church's record room took a direct bomb hit.

Mainz offers a variety of cultural activities as a major regional capital. It is home to the Gutenberg University and is where Johannes Gutenberg printed his famous bible. (See also Gutenbergs Bible and a Little Gut Wein) Augustinerstrasse offers beautiful half-wood architecture and restaurants. Check out the curious Museum of Roman Ships (See Mainz Museums) and the magnificent Mainz Cathedral, perhaps unique among the many great churches of Europe as it dates to the 900’s and is an extraordinary example of Romanesque architecture in red stone, which predates the later flying buttresses and filigree of the Gothic style. Walk the colonnaded cloister courtyard and watch you step unless your Nikes tread on centuries worn bas relief effigies of long forgotten bishops and lords.

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