Lots of Locks on the Main River: Mainz

Yesterday took us to Mainz for the day.  Finally we could walk a city on our own so we headed right to St Stephan’s Church with its beautiful windows by Marc Chagall and a Gothic cloister.  The windows were mostly shades of blue giving a sense of serenity beyond the norm you find in a church. Later we visited the Gutenberg Museum and the cathedral.  Although I’ve been to Mainz many times as it is just across the river from Wiesbaden, I never tire of its charm and friendly atmosphere. However, it was stinking hot with the heat index hovering around 100 degrees.

Fortunately at night it finally rained cooling off our scorching earth, however, not cool enough to counter the ships’s broken A/C system.  Lots of complaining and sweating pursued, but sometime in the night the A/C finally came back on and we managed to get some sleep.

While on the Main from Marksburg Castle in Braubach to Miltenberg there were at least nine lock systems.   During the night we would slide in and out of these locks, each time waiting for the enclosure to fill with water, then be released to the higher level of river.   It is so strange to all of a sudden have a wall of grotty concrete just a couple inches from our windows blocking out the sun and any views.  Such an interesting process.

Early morning view from our room

St Stephan's Church

views along the way