December 26, 2006 - Christmas on the Rhine, Day 4am (Mainz)

A Gutenberg Press at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, where we started our day.
It was basically the only thing open on the 'second day of Christmas,' which is a national holiday in Germany.
Well, a few bars were open, too. It is Germany after all...

The 'eisel' behind the press includes several hundred letters.
They are the same letters over and over, but just with different widths so they could perfectly justify the pages.

Just outside the museum is the renaissance cathedral of Mainz.

We walked from the museum to a cool older part of the city.
Notice how the dormers are crooked. Well, that's where the servants lived. The excuse: servants don't need to stand up in their rooms...

Generally cool avenue.

The tudor look is everywhere.

These houses are from the 1400s.

The church again.

In the area of some of the Christmas markets, a town from eastern Germany sent this cool spinning tower.

Snazzy.


Later - cruising the castle district of the Rhine