One of the first surprising things I learned upon moving here was that Frankfurt, the tallest city in Germany with the busiest airport, isn’t the capital of its state (Hesse). That’s Wiesbaden, which is only about 24 miles away and about a third as small. And across the Rhine River from Wiesbaden is Mainz, the capital of its own state (Rhineland-Palatinate). That means we have two German state capitals within about a 40-minute drive, neither of which is Frankfurt!

Anyway, Mainz is a really pretty town with a Rhine River-front park, the Gutenberg Bible Museum and St. Stephen’s church, with its modern stained glass windows by artist Marc Chagall.

At the museum, the kids loved seeing an actual Gutenberg printing press in action, and they each got a printed scroll on the spot to take home as a souvenir. We spent about 20 minutes in a room full of the letter ‘Q’ in a hundred different fonts, picking out our favorites and taking trick pictures. And we were all amazed at getting a full 5 minutes alone with one of the few remaining first-run Gutenberg Bibles.

For me, a highlight was the Chagall stained glass windows – the modernity of the windows’ design along with the Impressionistic-like blues, set in a church built in 1335, was mesmerizing. Chagall was from Russia and was Jewish, and one of his reasons for taking this project on late in his life (he died at age 97 shortly after finishing the last window) was to elevate the idea of international understanding and Jewish-Christian relationships. Very cool.

We also happened to be in town for market day, which is just the best as it means there’s a possibility for lunch. I ate my fried fish sandwich too quickly to take a picture, but I loved the ‘hot dog’ that Rowan got – it was 3 inches around and seemed ridiculous, until I spotted a sweet 70-something woman eating one just like it nearby. And also, this chicken was just strutting around on the counter of one of the vendors – no idea if it was a pet, an employee, or ‘on deck’?

20 Days, 20 German Towns: Bad Nauheim – Rüdesheim – Königstein – Travemünde – Cologne – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Bad Soden – Mainz