Germany Notes

by Jack Hoeschler

April 1988 - Germany

We landed in Frankfurt on March 31 at 10:30 am local (3:30 am CST) after a very pleasant trip from MSP on first class tickets. This upgrade was the result of various free flight coupons we had earned by flying NWA so much. (It is a pity we didn't do the around-the-world trip on NWA since we ended up splitting that trip between so many airlines. None of them gave us enough mileage to make a free trip.) The rigors of transcontinental flight are eased by first class treatment and seats – to say nothing of being separated from the herd of charter travelers.

We got a nice Opal Kadett and left for Mainz and Wiesbaden as our first stops on a drive down the Rhine to Cologne. We hit two sites in Mainz – the Dom and the Guttenberg Museum. The Dom is a two ended (i.e., both East and West chancel) affair (with the West chancel now de-emphasized since the imperial retinue, for whom it was intended, doesn’t stop by as often as in days of old) that has been restored after certain war damage, but not notably so. It is interesting to see how some of the restorations in Germany are quite pedestrian while some (such as Würzburg) are really quite inspired and very tasteful. Mainz is just OK.

We spent more time in the large Guttenberg Museum across the square. This is more than just a collection of Guttenberg artifacts to commemorate the fact that Guttenberg was from Mainz. It is also a history of printing and a repository and exhibition space for modern printing arts. Thus, it would be of special interest to Emily Buchwald and anyone else interested in art book or fine book publishing. Guttenberg’s press and a re-creation of his work room is there, along with several original bibles. Unfortunately, the notes and explanation are all in German so some of the technical commentary was lost on us, but the subject matter was otherwise quite understandable.

The trip to Wiesbaden was aborted due to a traffic tie up, so we headed down the Rhine toward Cologne. In Mainz we noticed that the river was well above its banks, and as we headed out and through the Rhine wine growing region between Wiesbaden and Rüdesheim we became more aware of the consequences throughout the day. At first, we did not notice anything because we directed our attention to the vineyard slopes that descended gently to the river over a two-to-three-mile border. We drove up to various schlosses along the slopes through neat and yet unbudded vineyards. It is always impressive to me to see how small are some world famous vineyards such as Johannisberg, the home of the famous Riesling. This castle is really a delightful 18th century chateau which has been owned by the famous Prince Metternich and his family since 1816. It is a wonderful reward for his peacemaking efforts and a wonderful peaceful spot today, kept in excellent shape and affording a delightful view of the Rhine Valley spread out broadly below.

April 4, 1988 - Trier

We left Villa Hugel, our hotel located on a small hill overlooking the old walls and Roman Baths and walked into Trier. The city claims to be older than Rome although this is more of a medieval public relations claim (that is made boldly on the side of one of the period houses in the old city) than strict truth. Nevertheless, it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest cities north of the Alps. Clearly it was heavily bombed during the last war, but they have done a nice job of rebuilding the commercial fronts in a way that echoes the old style and stays within the scale of the old facades and remaining streetscapes. There was a lot of activity downtown at 10 am and we paused to change money (which only brought us 1.61 marks to the dollar). After a brief visit to the old Porta Nigra, the blackish stone gate built in Roman times somewhat like a 4.