I did a quick stop in Mainz, west of Germany, nearby Frankfurt, also called “Frankfurt am Main” to not mix with Frankfurt an der oder which is on the east border of the country.
A little history!
Mainz is located on the famous Rhine river at its confluence with the Main river. It’s also the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate state and well known for its wine production. In English, it’s named Mentz and Mayence in French.
Mainz has an old history, it was founded by the Romans in the 1st century before Christ, and was a military fortress on the border of the Roman Empire.
Johannes Gutenberg who has invented the movable-type printing press was living in Mainz. In the 1450s he manufactured his first books in the city, including the Gutenberg Bible.
The influence of the Mainz ecclesiastics as archchancellors of the Holy Roman Empire and organizers of the elections of the German kings in the Middle Ages was enormous. The Jewish tradition of “Magenza” also lasted from the Middle Ages until the 20th century. Poetry and prayers bear witness to the fame of the city’s scholars. Mainz’s Jüdischer Friedhof (Jewish Cemetery) contains Europe’s oldest gravestone.
The citizens of Mainz, including the polymath Georg Forster, became famous for the development of German democracy. In 1792, following the model of the French revolutionaries, committed men founded a Jacobin Club. The Elector had already fled from the city before the revolutionary army which was thus able to take Mainz almost without a fight. The Rhenish-German National Convention met in the “Deutschhaus” (German House) and is regarded as the first German parliament.
During the World War II Mainz was heavily damaged, including most of the historic buildings.
I couldn’t visit so much during my short stay but I went for an evening walk. Streets were quite empty for a Saturday evening. I just had my GoPro camera and here are the few shots I did.
Atrium Hotel Mainz!
I was looking for a quiet but nice hotel in the suburb of the city, easy to access as I was coming from the motorway and with a safe parking.
I found on the web the Atrium 4-star hotel which looked fine and had a lot of good reviews. On top of that, they have a Spa with a swimming pool.
Booking.com
The hotel has different buildings. In the main building are located the reception, the restaurant, the Spa and the rooms. But something like 200 meters away they have another building called “Atrium, Die Residenz” where they have small apartments and it’s what we booked.
The place was extremely quiet and there was a free private parking. The apartment itself was very spacious, clean and calm. It was made of a large room with a double-size bed, a sofa, a desk and a private balcony with a view of the empty fields.
There is everything you need, air conditioning, a fridge, a kettle with tea and coffee facilities, a Nespresso coffee machine with 4 free capsules, a microwave oven, a free bottle of water, a TV with a Blue-ray player, a tablet with an internet connection, free Wi-Fi, a safe and an ironing table with a steam iron
The bathroom is also spacious, with toilet, amenities, a hairdryer, a scale (who needs a scale?), a bathtub with shower, and even a radio if you are planning to stay a long time 🙂
We slept very well and we didn’t listen to any noise from outside or from other rooms.
The breakfast is located in the main building, so in the morning you will have to walk 200 meters what I found good to wake me up.
The buffet has a large choice of food, you could stay all the morning to eat. I can’t describe all what you can get but there are a lot of quality and bioproducts. Just look at the video below and you will understand what I mean.
There are a couple of restaurants around the hotel in a walking distance but you don’t need to go out for your lunch and dinner. The restaurant at the hotel was just perfect for us. If you want some snacks during the day they have a small quiet terrace called the Summer Garden. For the lunch or dinner in this Summer Garden, they recommended us to book a table in advance as it seemed to be popular.
The Spa which is also in the main building is excellent if you want to relax and it’s free of charge. They propose different types of massages and treatments (not free). There are free clean towels available at the Spa, some lockers and it’s mixed. There are different saunas, a cold bath but what interested me what the swimming-pool and it felt good after a long driving day.
We really enjoyed our short time at this place and next time we will try to stay longer to first visit the city and maybe to try one or more of their massages.
