3 Best Shopping in Mainz, The Pfalz and Rhine Terrace

The Gutenberg-Shop, in the building of the local newspaper, Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, offers splendid souvenirs and gifts, including pages from the Bible, books, posters, pens, and stationery. The friendly staff will also arrange to ship your purchases outside the country. There's a similar selection at the shop in the Gutenberg Museum.

Antiques and perhaps a few hidden treasures await the patient shopper at Krempelmarkt. The flea market is on the banks of the Rhine (Rheinufer) between the Hilton hotel and Kaiserstrasse. At the Theodor Heuss Bridge is the children's flea market, where the youngest sellers offer clothes, toys, and books.

This rather nondescript city-center shopping mall offers a standard selection of German chain stores, cafés, and kiosks, but if you're a keen chef then go upstairs to kitchen store Fissler to pick up excellent-quality cooking utensils or a traditional German clay cooking pot (Römertopf). The Römerpassage also houses the remains of a Roman temple (AD 1) discovered in 1999 during the construction of the mall. The temple, which is dedicated to the goddess Isis and Magna Mater, is in the basement and can be visited during mall opening times (donation requested).