Retired Nomads Part 4: Mainz, Germany - Walking Tour & Gutenberg Museum

Friday, July 11

We started our day with a walking tour of Mainz and a tour of the Gutenberg Museum.

Mainz is quite picturesque, and we toured the Old Town and stopped at Mainz Cathedral. This soaring landmark is more than 1,000 years old. There were hundreds of years of religious works on display, as well as the tombs of powerful prince-archbishops of a bygone era. We needed more time here, but we had a time slot for the Johannes Gutenberg Museum the guide was trying to make.

champagne cork stuck on the statue in the fountain

cartoon mascots of the German public broadcaster ZDF in the traffic lights

Mainz Cathedral

cheese truck & other food trucks

cheese truck

now THAT'S a port-a-potty

Mainz Cathedral & Market Square

stinky cheese

cute pasta packaging

Mainz Cathedral

The Mainz Cathedral is currently displaying the world's largest Bible page to commemorate Johannes Gutenberg's 625th birthday and his invention of the printing press. The page, measuring 16.4 by 23.6 feet, displays the opening passage of the Gospel of John.

department store

plaque on the store that was the childhood home of Gutenberg

restoring the ruins

The Gutenberg Museum is dedicated to the inventor of movable type and book printing.

We had a demonstration in a replica of Gutenberg’s workshop. My dad was a printer, and I learned how to set type and printed a few things as well. Different press but same principles. The guide explained that while he didn’t invent the printing press, he was more like Henry Ford in that he didn’t invent the car but revolutionized mass production.

The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42, was the earliest major book printed in Europe using mass-produced metal movable type. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed books in the West.

The most impressive display was of the two famous Gutenberg Bibles (“B42”) and fragments of the “B36”, presented in the square treasure chamber. Both the complete two-volume Shuckburgh copy (1452-55), as well as a volume of the Laubach copy (1452-55) can be compared in the vault.

Out of 180 copies that were originally printed, 49 survive in at least substantial portion, 21 of them in entirety.

photos of Gutenberg

We had a bit of free time and used it to check out the department store for a suitcase to replace Gregs’ broken one. He found one that worked, and we took it back to the ship and had lunch before going out to explore on our own for the afternoon.

We made our way to St. Stephen’s Church to see the stunning Marc Chagall stained-glass windows. We wandered back to the Marktplatz, and stopped for a snack. Yum!