Mainz

Things I learned about Mainz while visiting it this week:

*It’s a city of about 200,000 people, about 40 minutes outside Frankfurt, just across the Rhine. (The trip takes longer if there’s an accident on the train tracks and you have to hop a cab the rest of the way for 45 Euros).

*It has a giant red sandstone column in front of its main cathedral which the locals call “The penis of the priest.”

*The cathedral survived World War II bombing, but it was heavily damaged during Napoleon’s time – he used it as a horse stable.

*It has a church with a beautiful set of stained-glass windows completed by Marc Chagall shortly before he died. It’s a highly unusual project because Chagall was a Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust and never again wanted to set foot inside Germany, and a priest had to personally persuade him to undertake the Christian project.

*It’s one of two German cities known for large “Carnival” celebrations – the same time as Mardi Gras. The other is Cologne.

*The fountain dedicated to Carnival has a figurine at its base that I can identify with – a hung-over person washing out an empty wallet.