Mainz

I have arrived, and I am relearning the European keyboard. Took me a while to find the @ sign and the z an y are in the wrong places.

The flight over was okay. There are parts I don´t remember so I assume I was asleep. I watched Hangover III and the Interns. The Interns was actually funny in parts. Sometimes the Hangover humor isn´t funny to me. I´m more like asking why than laughing.

Right now its almost four, and I am struggling to stay awake. My body thinks it´s 8 in the morning, and I haven't had any sleep.

A few observations from today:

People are rarely indifferent at airports. They are either really happy to see each other, or they are really sad to be parting. I saw two people reunited, and they were so happy. It´s like their happiness and love was visible.

The other thing is that I sometimes long for that person I am waiting for (whoever he is). This is true when I travel, when I want a traveling partner. But the truth is that I often hear couples constantly picking at each other over stupid things, which adds stress to the trip. Why do they do that?  Makes me glad to be "alone!"

Anyway, my plane landed around 8:30. Was able to check in so took a minute to get organized and then hit the streets.

My hotel is along the River Rhine so the first thing I did was walk along the riverbank. Oh, and the weather is SO nice! It was showing low 60s for this area when, I left and it´s not disappointing. There are a bunch of sculptures throughout. And it´s Saturday so folks are out and about. There is a park area and the leaves are very pretty!

Which brings me to my next stop, Marktplatz, which is a big open market in  a courtyard surrounding the Dom (Cathedral of St. Martin). It´s so crowded with people drinking wine, eating cheese, buying fruits and vegetables and flowers and fresh eggs. It´s so teeming with life, and people are there with their friends having a good time!

I spent time in the Dom. When I was there, I was trying to figure out what the top churches I´ve seen are. I guess it depends on what I am focusing on. I love the Church of our Lady in Brugge because I felt so connected to it. I love St. Colman´s in Cobn because it´s so peaceful. The Dom is nice, not in the top, but nice. I did like the ceilings.

Then I went into in search of Schillerplatz, which was so unremarkable that I glossed over it after I saw signs leading up to St. Stephen´s. This church is popular because it has some blue stained-glass windows that were designed by an artist who was born in Russia. Something cool happened when I was there. All of these churches have really cool organs and when I was at St. Stephen´s someone was playing it. It sounded so amazing. This church also had cool ceilings, which is pretty much like all of them but leads to great acoustics.

On the way back I went to Schillerplatz, which I basically could have missed but the weather had people out. Then I just started randomly walking where my feet led me.

I also went to the Gutenberg Museum. It was cool. I wanted to see the three bibles that were printed around 1455. They were pretty cool. It was cool seeing the old printing presses. We have come along way! Imagine books written by hand. And then these old printing presses. Now we have copy machines that anyone can operate it. Back then it was a skill and an art. Besides seeing the bibles, our book that was recently published inspired me to go see the history of the press.

So I may need to go for another walk. I´m fine when I walking, but once I sit, I feel woozy.

If I go back out, I may try to find another museum, which I think is down the street. Just not sure how far. Otherwise, I was able to see all I wanted to see in Mainz. My goal was to hit at least one museum.

Editing and spellcheck when I return!