A stopover in Frankfurt was a chance to reconnect with Gina Moss Shepro, a talented news producer and former colleague from WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach. Her finest production is her family, including two adorable boys, Jaron and Andrew. Lucky kids to be growing up in Europe!
They now live in Luxembourg, where husband Bill is based as a financial executive, but they spent more than a year of their corporate relocation in the charming city of Mainz, just outside of Frankfurt. Below is the Hyatt hotel, built into the walls of an old fort.
Gina was an excellent guide to the many sights of Mainz, beginning at the train station where the ruins of a Roman theater have been excavated. The Mainz cathedral was massive and dark, more impressive from a distance than it was inside. The Chagall windows in another church truly inspired with their vision of Jewish-Christian harmony in a land that has seen so much religious persecution.It was market day, and we passed stalls filled with flowers and produce on our way to the Guttenberg museum. The famed inventor of the printing press lived and worked in Mainz, although it is arguable that his Bibles were printed elsewhere. Still, it was cool to see some of the rare originals, as well as a fasctinating exhibit showing that the Chinese probably invented printing centuries earlier. Old European printing presses were works of art and not mere machines. Guttenberg is still revered in his home town, although the hippies gathered at the foot of his statue didn’t look too impressed.
After a walk along the riverfront, Gina and Bill took me to one of their favorite Mainz restaurants with a deligthful terrace that was like a miniature trip to Italy. Many Germans prefer Italian food, which is readily available and authentic due to the large number of Italian immigrants who have opened restaurants. The waiters didn’t even mind when Andrew started decorating himself and much of our table and the floor with his pasta. Kids are precious here because the German birthrate is alarmingly low. Sightseeing with toddlers forces you to slow down and appreciate different things, a fun contrast to the “power sightseeing” that takes over when you travel with a teenager.Unlike Frankfurt, which was bombed into rubble during WWII and has only a reconstructed old square, Mainz has a pedestrian quarter with an old village look and feel. The day went by much too quickly and I can’t thank Gina and her family enough!