Will be there in June for 2 nights. <BR>I have read on Fodor's that it isn't the best place to pick up a Rhine cruise....any other suggestions? <BR><BR>I have searched for info on Mainz but there isn't a lot of detailed information out there.<BR><BR>We are staying at the Hilton Mainz on the Rhine with points so I don't need hotel advice.<BR><BR>Could we daytrip to Hiedelburg (forgive spelling please!)? <BR><BR>My husband doesn't want to overload on old cities and castles. I am keeping our castle trips limited to the King Ludwig ones while we are in the Munich area.

The reason why it is not a good place to pick up a Rhine cruise, at least for a day cruise, is that the if one is during the cruise to see the castles, there aren't many of them until you go downstream past Bacharach. You can cut down the travel time by taking a train then do the cruise.<BR><BR>Regarding castle trips limited to King Ludwig, if you mean Neuschwanstein, then it is not particularly an old castle. The construction stopped with Ludwig's death in 1886. That's only 117 years ago. Heidelberg is about 1.5 hrs by a train from Mainz. Less than one hour if you catch an EC train.

Neuschwanstein isn't very old, but it and Linderhof are fabulous. And of course Hohenschwangau is older.

I realize that King Ludwig's castles aren't old....I am more interested in the looks and I am lucky I am even dragging my husband to those! Not really his cup of tea. So to compromise--no other castles....and he has been visiting Germany several times a year in the Ratingen area and basically feels like --you have seen one old town and one old castle you have seen them all. NOT necessarily my opinion and I realize they all have their unique characteristics BUT his mind is made up!! (for better or worse) so I am not going to force the issue. <BR><BR>I was hoping to find other interesting things to see/do. Historical Museums would be good as long as they have english captions available so that we know what we are seeing/doing. Not really into art museums either. <BR><BR>Most of the info I find out Mainz says that is on the Rhine River, close to Frankfurt and you can get to Koblenz etc....but doesn't really talk about what to do in the actual town itself.<BR><BR>

Maybe this website will be of some help (info on wine tours, city tours, etc., in English):<BR><BR>http://www.mainz.de/english/index.htm

Hi Sharon,<BR><BR>Unfortunately you are heading into a part of Germany that offers the Rhine as a major tourist attraction and along the Rhine is the Castle thing.<BR><BR>You can hop a train from Mainz to Rudesheim and do the torture museum, if you are into that type of thing. We were there last fall and I thought the museum was fascinating.<BR><BR>

The city of Mainz as a whole feels very modern compared to other smaller towns downstreams. We visited the Gutenberg museum and the Mainz Cathedral, and walked around the town and decided if we were to spend more time on the Rhine, we would rather spend time in other towns with traditional buildings such as Ruedesheim or St. Goar.