Mainz is our last name in German

Casa Grande, AZ


From Luxembourg we took a 20 minute bus ride to the town of Trier, Germany.  Once again, we had a wonderful local guide.  Here's the Porta Nigra known as the black gate.  It was built around 200 AD.

You find magnificent buildings like this right in the modern downtown area.

These buildings were very intricate.  

Our guide showed us where everyone was meeting for our lunch and gave us some time to shop in Trier.





I guess I must have been gabbing too much at lunch at Zum Domstein because I didn't seem to get any photos.  Maybe it was because I was so excited that I bought the last two boxes of the special chocolates in the store while we were shopping.  Every day on the bus, Jorn hands out something local that we can try. Jorn, told us to go into the department store and go to the grocery in the basement if we wanted to buy some Trumpf chocolates. Why, you ask, are they so special.  Besides these being the best chocolates I've ever tasted, the insides are alcoholic.  I plan to use these two boxes for happy hour at the Montana Circling of the Wagons in Quartzsite next week.  One problem, there's so many coming, I probably won't have enough.  

After lunch we boarded the bus for Mainz where we will stay for two days at Hilton Hotel Mainz.  

Once again Grand Circle had a great buffet meal with many selections.  Of course, I eat twice as much I should when it's a buffet.  

The following morning a local guide joined our program director for a walking tour of Mainz and a visit to the Gutenberg Museum.  

Not only did we see the printing press but we actually had someone from our group assist in the pressing a page!

The museum supplied folding chairs so everyone could see inside the enclosed room.







After the museum, we visited a another church.  After touring Europe one might get tired of seeing so many, but once inside they are all so different and with a local guide you don't miss all the stories.  

The bus was leaving the hotel in the early afternoon so those who wanted to take a one hour small boat ride from St. Goar to Boppard could go to that town.  Only a small boat could go through that section of low water.

Bill and I stopped in a small quaint clean restaurant for a bowl of soup.  It was 41 degrees, so it sounded perfect.  It was packed but we found a very small table.  The waitress was perfect.  We both asked for soup and she said she didn't have any.  "No problem, I'll find you something better."  We told her we weren't very hungry and would share a dish.  Bill wanted a beer, and she said she knew the perfect one for him.  She arrived later with a huge skillet of food and scooped out two plates full.  I'm not sure with the language barrier what it was, but it was delicious.  It had melted cheese, pasta, ham, onions and I have no idea what else in it. We said we weren't hungry but we ate that whole plateful and it didn't dent what was in the skillet.  She came by and told us "eat, eat, eat".  We both had another plate of it.  By now we are really getting full.  She came by again and said "eat some more".  Before we could say "no," she had dished another plate for both of us.  She said every "local" can eat the whole portion without sharing.  She was so much fun, Bill said he'd adopt her and take her to the states.  When he reached in his wallet for his credit card, she said she'd be waiting for the adoption papers.  She wasn't a spring chicken.  

We had so much fun, we forgot all about taking the trip to Boppard.  Nothing can take away the experience of interacting with people in a different country.  In time we'll forget some of the places we saw, but not this experience.

Turtle Safely........