23 June - Mainz, Germany

We stopped at Mainz this morning and after breakfast we did a walking tour of the city and visited the Gutenberg Museum, which was opened especially for us. Most German museums are normally closed on Mondays. We saw a demonstration of the method of printing that was invented and used by Gutenberg and the person who “helped” with the demonstration kept the printed result, which was a page from one of the first bibles. It was interesting to learn that Gutenberg only printed in black and when his copies were sold to people they added their own embellishments, so each Gutenberg bible is unique. We saw a couple of the original Gutenberg bibles of which there are very few left in the world.

We then visited the Mainz cathedral which is 1,000 years old – a magnificent structure with many beautiful features. We were fortunate to hear the organ playing.

We walked around for a while and stopped at an internet cafe to receive and send some emails – very cheap, only 80 Euro cents for 20 minutes. We made our way back to the boat which left at lunchtime for the Main River, which will allow us into the Danube River. There are a number of locks through which we will pass. We had a relaxing afternoon in our cabin and had dinner with Peach and Peaches (Jim and Bonnie), and met a new couple from Canada, Shirley and Al. We had an enjoyable evening of eating, drinking and conversation while watching the scenery go by.