We Discover a Real Genius

Our time in Mainz has been an absolute delight. It has proven to be the perfect way to recover from the long journey and to prepare for the more demanding schedule once the cycling starts this weekend. After a comparatively late start we walked back to the centre of the old town looking for a place to have breakfast. We settled for a lovely restaurant right near the Dom. Outside the crews were busy assembling a huge stage and overhead tent for some sort of upcoming activity. We later discovered it is some sort of liturgical function to ordain a new bishop (archbishop, cardinal, pope, etc) and that all the media would be there for the event. I couldn't see that happening in Australia. We also noticed that the city was also preparing for another exciting event. All over the town they had raised huge flags with giant bicycle symbols on them. It was obvious that somehow word had got out about the arrival of the famous Ghostriders cycling team and that the town had pulled out all the stops to make us welcome.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped by at the Gutenburg Museum. Johannes Gutenburg was the most famous son of Mainz and his invention of the movable type printing press in 1459 is recognised as the most important invention of the second millennium. It was his device that began the information revolution, the renaissance, the reformation and the "Age of Enlightenment". I thought we should learn a little more about him. Two hours later we were both so glad that we had taken the time, especially when our great ages qualified both of us for the extra low admission price of only 3 Euros each !

The story of Gutenburg really is amazing. When he came up with his idea for the printing press he needed a financial backer and borrowed a considerable sum from his brother-in-law. He then not only had to invent the process of printing, but even had to perfect the formula for the ink. Over a period of three years his business was able to produce around 180 copies of the bible. The typesetting and printing process allowed them to print about 200 copies of the same page a day. The pages were set aside to dry while work started on the next page.

Previously it had taken an expert copier around 3 years to hand copy a complete bible, so Gutenburg's process was a huge improvement. The problem was that he was not such a great businessman. The funds were mismanaged and after the first 180 bibles were printed, old Gutenburg was in trouble. He was taken to court and made bankrupt. The press was closed down and the production of bibles ceased. Although he had worked out a working method to mass produce books, it took many years before the presses started printing again.

Of the original 180 bibles, only 49 are now accounted for and two of them are now in the Gutenburg Museum. These are stored in a massive vault on the second floor, along with several other priceless examples of early books. The value of these artefacts would be in the order of a 100,000,000 Euros or more, so the security is quite impressive. I learnt this when I lent over the glass case to examine them in more detail. A few seconds later a guard ordered me to "stop touching the glass". I felt suitably humiliated and apologised profusely. "I am just a stupid old Australian who does not know any better", I explained. We soon became friends and the guard then spent quite some time with us answering our questions. It was clearly evident that he felt it was a huge privilege for him to be able to be so close to these special books every day of his life.

After our time at the museum we returned to our hotel for a short break. One thing that I find interesting about Europe is the ear splitting volume of their emergency vehicles. Unlike in Australia where you can hardly hear them, the vehicles here have sirens that could be clearly heard in the neighbouring countries.

It was while we were in our room that I could hear a rising cacophony of sirens coming our way. I looked out the window to see a convoy of fire trucks, police vehicles and ambulances speeding past our hotel. They were certainly on a serious mission to get somewhere fast. The sirens faded into the distance, but a couple of minutes later I could hear more coming. The strange thing is that these were coming from the opposite direction. By the time the volume rose to true eardrum bursting levels I was surprised to see it was the same vehicles flying past in the opposite direction. They had obviously been going the wrong way. The faces on the drivers were as red as their fire engines. I just hoped that the fire was only a small one. I was even able to watch the spectacle of further emergency vehicles trying to U turn right outside our room. It brought back memories of those wonderful keystone cops.

Later in the day we met Paul and Claire Cowen and went back to the town centre to have a drink with them. We noticed a rather dishevelled guy staggering around the square with his backback undone and a glazed look on his face. Hang on, the face looked familiar. It turned out to be Douglas. He had just arrived in Mainz after his harrowing journey from Australia.

When we pointed out that his zipper was completely undone (his backpack, not his fly) he left his bag with us and retraced his wandering steps to make sure that he had not dropped anything. Fortunately all was OK, although he really did look like he needed a rest (maybe about 4 days would be sufficient). We welcomed him to Mainz and noted that we now had about 13 riders safely in the city.

A couple of hours later I received an SMS from Bob Andrews (rider 14). Apparently he had just collapsed into the city also. His message read simply "I am in a lather and am heading to the shower". He had apparently forgotten the normal sequence of events and had soaped himself up before getting in the shower. The next 5 weeks will be interesting !

Maggie and I had decided to have a simple picnic dinner in our room so went to the supermarket for supplies and then carried them back to the room. I could not wait to enjoy the fresh baguettes and fruit we had bought. The only problem was that David and Carol had stolen our butter. It was in their fridge and they were nowhere to be seen. I had to go out in search of another supermarket to buy some butter. I managed to find such a place, just a few short kilometres from our hotel and then staggered back into the room. By now I really was ready for our feast.

We unpacked our goodies and pulled open the drawer to get the cutlery out. I discovered that the butter was not the only thing that David and Carol had taken - all of our knives, forks, spoons and plates were also in their room as well. I rang David and tried to explain that we were starving, but due to a hearing aid malfunction, he couldn't hear a word I was saying to him.

After a very late dinner and a coffee by the river we finally collapsed into bed around 10.30 pm. It really had been a great day.Read more