Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [414]
Lidl supermarket (Grosse Bleiche 41; 8am-8pm Mon-Sat)
Rewe City supermarket (Augustinerstrasse 55; 8am-10pm Mon-Sat)
Rewe City supermarket (Bonifatiusstrasse; 8am-10pm Mon-Sat, bakery also open 8am-noon Sun) Near the train station.
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Entertainment
Two free monthly mags with details on cultural events, Fritz and Der Mainzer, are available at the tourist office and in cafes and pubs. Tickets for most events are sold at the tourist office.
KuZ ( 286 860; www.kuz.de, in German; Dagobertstrasse 20b) Dance parties, live concerts, a summer beer garden with alfresco movie screenings, a world-music summer festival, kids’ theatre…the happening Kulturzentrum (cultural centre) has something for everyone. It’s housed in a neat red-brick building that began life in the 19th century as a military laundry.
Frankfurter Hof ( 220 438; www.frankfurter-hof-mainz.de, in German; Augustinerstrasse 55) This hugely popular performance venue hosts everyone from up-and-coming artists to big-name acts such as Simply Red and Carlos Santana.
Staatstheater ( 285 1222; www.staatstheater-mainz.com, in German; Gutenbergplatz 7) Mainz’ city theatre stages plays, opera and ballet. Students get significant discounts.
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Getting There & Away
From the Hauptbahnhof, S-Bahn line 8 goes to Frankfurt Airport (€3.70, several times hourly), 30km northeast of Mainz.
Details on public travel in the Mainz region are available at the Verkehrs Center Mainz ( 127 777; www.mvg-mainz.de, in German; Bahnhofplatz 6a; 7am-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-2pm Sat).
A major IC rail hub, Mainz has at least hourly regional services to Bingen (€5.70, 15 to 40 minutes) and other Romantic Rhine towns, Koblenz (€16.70 by regional train, 50 to 90 minutes), Idar-Oberstein (€10.50, one hour), Saarbrücken (€27.40, 2½ hours) and Worms (€7.60, 26 to 43 minutes).
Mainz is encircled by a ring road with connections to the A60, A63 and A66.
City-centre parking options are limited to pricey underground garages and street spots with one- or two-hour limits. On the centre’s southeast edge, there’s free parking on Am Winterhafen, just east of KuZ. You could also design your own Park & Ride by leaving your vehicle outside the centre along a tram line.
For details on cruising the Rhine, Click here.
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Getting Around
Mainz operates a joint bus and tram system with Wiesbaden (www.mvg-mainz.de, in German). Single/five tickets cost €2.30/9.25; day passes are €5.60/8.40 for individuals/groups of up to five.
Mainzer Radverleih ( 336 1225; Binger Strasse 19; 8-/24-speed bicycle per day €7.50/8.50; 8am-8pm Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm Sat mid-Mar–early Oct), on the road bridge level of the round tower atop the CityPort Parkhaus (near the Hauptbahnhof), hires out bikes and sells cycling maps.
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WORMS
06241 / pop 82,300
Worms (rhymes with ‘forms’), one of Germany’s oldest cities, has played a pivotal role at various moments in European history. In AD 413 it became capital of the legendary, if short-lived, Burgundian kingdom whose rise and fall was creatively chronicled in the 12th-century Nibelungenlied. Later hijacked by Wagner and the Nazis, the epic is featured in a local museum and the annual Nibelungen-Festspiele (www.nibelungenfestspiele.de, in German), a two-week festival held from late July to mid-August.
After the Burgundians, just about every other tribe in the area had a go at ruling Worms, including the Huns, the Alemans and finally the Franks, and it was under the Frankish leader, Charlemagne, that the city flourished in the 9th century. The most impressive reminder of Worms’ medieval heyday is its majestic, late-Romanesque Dom. A Jewish community, renowned for the erudition of its rabbis, thrived here from the 10th century until the 1930s, earning Worms the moniker ‘Little Jerusalem’.
In the Middle Ages, Worms – an important centre of commerce – hosted more than 100 sessions of the imperial parliament (Diet), including one