Mainz, Germany: Last Night in Mainz

The 2nd day in Mainz was official start of the tour. However, today will be spent touring outside of Mainz. We had a full day of easy touring on this day, which will be posted later.

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We passed this church, which I believe is St. Peter's, on the way out of Mainz in the morning. We didn't quite make it there yesterday because we were rushing to get to our Orientation Meeting.

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We got back to Mainz around 4:30 pm and had the rest of the day to ourselves.

Some of the sights in Mainz on the way to the hotel. There’s something about the beautiful architecture that just makes me so happy.

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This is the Carnival Fountain in Mainz. The monument is supposed to symbolize the foolish season. After three years of construction, it was unveiled on January 14, 1967 under great interest of the Mainz population.

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Since there is no free dinner at the hotel today, the Tour Manager had given recommendations to places in the Old Town. We knew ahead of time that we were not going to go with those choices.

So we went and walked to the Old Town.

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Gutenberg monument and the Golden Arches in the back. On hindsight, why didn't we even consider going there? Who knows if they have something different in the menu that wasn't in the American menu?

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Behind the cathedral.

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Peeking through the window at tempatation.

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I later learned that one of these is the oldest house here in Mainz.

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The Augustinian Church, 18th century church, known for surviving WWII.

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Another angle.

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We peeked but there was a service so we left. Pity that we didn't get to see the inside up close.

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One of the recommended restaurants.

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We ended up in the very crowded Weinhaus Michel. A group of 5 ladies from the same tour couldn't be accommodated.

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Dining here was like a hands-on cultural immersion for me. The packed restaurant, the almost no English conversations, the being neglected by the busy servers in a super busy place at dinner time - it was heaven for me. I was not even hungry. I don't think my two companions were hungry either. We just wanted something to munch, so we ordered accordingly.

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Afterwards, we decided to go back to Marktplatz to see if something is going on in there.

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Indeed something was definitely going on. Workers had been busy hanging lights and getting the place ready for Christmas Market. This was Nov. 13th.

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As we were walking, we found a department store/grocery store. My friend wanted to do more shopping for the wafers that she found really yummy so we did.

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On the walk back, workers were putting up a gigantic tree in front of the Opera House (I think). Pity that we were leaving the next day when Mainz would be decked out for Christmas.

The following day, we left Mainz, but not before having the best Belgian waffle I had ever tasted.

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