We are home! We got home Sunday night. Sorry if my post was a bit confusing yesterday, I was trying to keep on track with my travel log. Especially since we still have a week to work through. Monday was a good, quite laundry day. It is so nice to be home. 
Monday, March 24, 2008
So, we headed out about 12:00 and went over to see the information about the Guttenburg Museum. We just popped into the area where they have the presses and they were working with another family so I inquired around for an English speaking person and asked how it all worked. A very nice Mrs. Krueger helped us get started with smocks and linseed ink and plates. All free, a non-profit and we got to play for about an hour!
There was a printer there helping us that only spoke German and he created a portrait of Guttenburg for us and several other neat souveniers. It was quite an afternoon. We came home with our goodies, rolled up in advertisement glossy paper as the prints need about 72 hours to dry…. Boy am I glad we got there on the first day!
Frank returned very tired after his first day of training and laid down for awhile, before our scheduled dinner with the training coordinator, Tina. She led us through the old town to a wonderful Italian restaurant in the old town. It was called Al Cortile. It was so good. The atmosphere was great too! A little more boisterous Italian, than quite German. Which was nice for a change. Haley and I decided that the old town was where we should head together tomorrow. We came home and got to bed early.
Monday, March 24, 2008
When we arrived in Frankfurt we had a bit of confusion about how to buy the ticket for the train, but Frank got the reluctant agent to help. We waited a while, but had a nice time talking and playing as a family and meeting others. The train ride in to Mainz is about 30 minutes. It was snowing most of the way and we rode right by the hotel where Frank and I stayed last year in Raunheim. It was fun to show Haley. We arrived at Mainz Kastel and it was just a ten minute walk up over the bridge to the hotel. It was brisk, but fun. We were checked in by about 7:45 and dashed out to find something for dinner.
Not much was open by the time Frank had done his sound check and we were all situated in our wonderful “mini suite” but more about that later. We discovered Pizza Hut was open, which Haley was all for, but when we went around the corner and found our Christmas Goose restaurant from last year, Specht we went right in. Once we told Haley that the restaurant had been in business since 1597 – so it must be good – she warmed up! Actually she really warmed up when she was told that the owner is one of only a very few chefs in the country that is certified to recreate old German classics and be called chef. She still wants to have her own restaurant, and go to culinary school, so she was very excited to be there. We had a wonderful meal. Frank had a Pork Schnitzel with a brown mushroom gravy and fried potatoes, Haley had a wonderful meatloaf in the same gravy and I had Pork chops covered in a hollandaise sauce with shrimp and potato croquettes. The meal was reasonably priced for Europe and we went back to the hotel stuffed and tired and happy.
Our room at the Hilton Mainz is right on the Rhine River. Our room has a beautiful view. The rooms that they negotiated for the conference were only for singles, so we worked with the coordinators and upgraded out of our own pocket to be able to all be in one room. We were told at home that it would be about $15.00 or so to do this. When we arrived and went into our room, we began to worry. It is second only in size to the room we stayed in with Cathi and Don at Victoria. One could make this room an apartment! So, Frank went down to confirm the price and low and behold it was only $15.00 for the upgrade. Haley was amazed at the breakfast buffet. They have everything imaginable for breakfast and many things we probably wouldn’t think about eating until dinner.
After breakfast, Haley and I headed back to the room and washed out underwear. Oh the joys of hand washing. Luckily I packed some laundry soap and there were two sinks in the bathroom, one for washing and one for rinsing and of course, the ubiquitous drying line in the bathtub. We even washed a couple of shirts and got those dried and ironed up. So that took some time! When Haley discovered that there wasn’t a pool, she was pretty disappointed. Frankly so was I! The plan for the day had been to kick back and take it easy by the pool and get rested up – now she would be too bored in the room all day – of course there is nothing to watch in English on television for her and she is almost done with Harry Potter.
Not much was open by the time Frank had done his sound check and we were all situated in our wonderful “mini suite” but more about that later. We discovered Pizza Hut was open, which Haley was all for, but when we went around the corner and found our Christmas Goose restaurant from last year, Specht we went right in. Once we told Haley that the restaurant had been in business since 1597 – so it must be good – she warmed up! Actually she really warmed up when she was told that the owner is one of only a very few chefs in the country that is certified to recreate old German classics and be called chef. She still wants to have her own restaurant, and go to culinary school, so she was very excited to be there. We had a wonderful meal. Frank had a Pork Schnitzel with a brown mushroom gravy and fried potatoes, Haley had a wonderful meatloaf in the same gravy and I had Pork chops covered in a hollandaise sauce with shrimp and potato croquettes. The meal was reasonably priced for Europe and we went back to the hotel stuffed and tired and happy.
Our room at the Hilton Mainz is right on the Rhine River. Our room has a beautiful view. The rooms that they negotiated for the conference were only for singles, so we worked with the coordinators and upgraded out of our own pocket to be able to all be in one room. We were told at home that it would be about $15.00 or so to do this. When we arrived and went into our room, we began to worry. It is second only in size to the room we stayed in with Cathi and Don at Victoria. One could make this room an apartment! So, Frank went down to confirm the price and low and behold it was only $15.00 for the upgrade. Haley was amazed at the breakfast buffet. They have everything imaginable for breakfast and many things we probably wouldn’t think about eating until dinner.After breakfast, Haley and I headed back to the room and washed out underwear. Oh the joys of hand washing. Luckily I packed some laundry soap and there were two sinks in the bathroom, one for washing and one for rinsing and of course, the ubiquitous drying line in the bathtub. We even washed a couple of shirts and got those dried and ironed up. So that took some time! When Haley discovered that there wasn’t a pool, she was pretty disappointed. Frankly so was I! The plan for the day had been to kick back and take it easy by the pool and get rested up – now she would be too bored in the room all day – of course there is nothing to watch in English on television for her and she is almost done with Harry Potter.
So, we headed out about 12:00 and went over to see the information about the Guttenburg Museum. We just popped into the area where they have the presses and they were working with another family so I inquired around for an English speaking person and asked how it all worked. A very nice Mrs. Krueger helped us get started with smocks and linseed ink and plates. All free, a non-profit and we got to play for about an hour! 
There was a printer there helping us that only spoke German and he created a portrait of Guttenburg for us and several other neat souveniers. It was quite an afternoon. We came home with our goodies, rolled up in advertisement glossy paper as the prints need about 72 hours to dry…. Boy am I glad we got there on the first day!Frank returned very tired after his first day of training and laid down for awhile, before our scheduled dinner with the training coordinator, Tina. She led us through the old town to a wonderful Italian restaurant in the old town. It was called Al Cortile. It was so good. The atmosphere was great too! A little more boisterous Italian, than quite German. Which was nice for a change. Haley and I decided that the old town was where we should head together tomorrow. We came home and got to bed early.
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