# Blue Stained-glass

- Link: https://thewrongkindofready.com/blue/
- Published: 2026-09-20T20:33:51-07:00
- Author: Caleb

This is post 14 of 21 in the series _“Rediscovery in the Rhineland”_

We came back to Germany with children this time.

The trip was different. We rode cable cars over the Rhine, wandered through castle
markets, chased pigeons, found Roman temples beneath shopping malls, and spent entire
afternoons in places chosen mostly because they were close and good for kids. Corbin
asked to go home almost every day.

The Rhine was still there. The castles were still there. But the people walking 
beside me had changed, and so had I. The journey became less about seeing everything
and more about noticing what happened between the things we had come to see.

  Show all posts in this series

 1.  [One Night along the Rhine](https://thewrongkindofready.com/one-night-along-the-rhine/)
 2.  [The Ball Pit](https://thewrongkindofready.com/the-ball-pit/)
 3.  [The Castle Market](https://thewrongkindofready.com/the-castle-market/)
 4.  [Twin Mothers beneath the Mall](https://thewrongkindofready.com/twin-mothers-beneath-the-mall/)
 5.  [Five Seconds](https://thewrongkindofready.com/five-seconds/)
 6.  [Wait until I Finish Sleeping](https://thewrongkindofready.com/wait-until-i-finish-sleeping/)
 7.  [Chasing Pigeons](https://thewrongkindofready.com/chasing-pigeons/)
 8.  [Zoo Animals](https://thewrongkindofready.com/zoo-animals/)
 9.  [Where’s the Grapes](https://thewrongkindofready.com/wheres-the-grapes/)
 10. [The Photograph](https://thewrongkindofready.com/the-photograph/)
 11. [Where the Rhine and Moselle Met](https://thewrongkindofready.com/where-the-rhine-and-moselle-met/)
 12. [König Calib](https://thewrongkindofready.com/konig-calib/)
 13. [Mainz Will Be Kinder](https://thewrongkindofready.com/mainz-will-be-kinder/)
 14. Blue Stained-glass
 15. [Track 7B](https://thewrongkindofready.com/track-7b/)
 16. A Little Undignified Scheduled for November 10, 2026
 17. The Stones Scheduled for November 18, 2026
 18. A Factory behind Glass Scheduled for November 21, 2026
 19. The Blue-and-white House Scheduled for December 17, 2026
 20. The Furthest Sandy Shore Scheduled for December 18, 2026
 21. Toy Room in the Castle Scheduled for December 22, 2026

A family friend once told me about a church in Mainz with blue stained-glass windows
so strange they frightened her son.

I’d been looking for them ever since we’d landed.

~

Mainz cathedral looked like several buildings pressed into one. Romanesque walls
rose beside Gothic ribs and later Baroque additions. Stonework changed as we moved
around it.

Inside, the kids got loud almost immediately.

I had expected a quick visit. A few photos, then on to the next thing.

Instead, Dani and the kids disappeared into the cathedral.

I followed, then lost them.

I checked the pews.

Nothing.

I walked down one aisle, then another. My footsteps echoing off the stone floor 
a half-beat behind me.

I looked behind columns and into side chapels, checking each opening for a familiar
face.

Nothing.

My phone had no signal.

Then I saw it.

A window unlike the others.

From across the cathedral, it looked almost completely blue, with a single vertical
band of color running through it.

I walked closer.

It looked strangely modern. Almost too simple.

Maybe this was the window our friend had told us about.

Still. I needed to find my family.

I checked the pews again.

No wife.

I looked down the side aisles, then circled the perimeter.

Still no kids.

Five minutes passed.

The cathedral was grand, but my interest in old churches had limits. Usually, those
limits were measured by the number of camera angles I could find.

Still no family.

I headed for the exit.

Instead of outside though, the door opened onto a courtyard.

I stopped.

Stone paths crossed a small garden.

Sunlight caught the grass.

Ancient headstones and monuments covered the walls.

I stood there for a moment.

Then I turned around.

The kids were still somewhere inside.

I went back through the cathedral and found another door.

This time it led to the street.

My phone came back to life.

Messages.

Tracking.

I followed the signal toward the gift shop.

Inside, I found my family

The kids were looking at souvenirs while Dani stood beside a display of books and
postcards.

She smiled when she saw me.

I didn’t.

“Where were you? I was looking for you.”

She laughed.

“I was trying to give you a moment of peace.”

I pointed toward the cathedral.

“Wish I’d known. At least, I found the blue window.”

She laughed again.

“What blue window?”

“The one with the line through it.”

I scrolled through my camera.

In the photo, it wasn’t blue after all.

The gift store clerk leaned over the counter then.

“If you want blue stained-glass, Saint Stephen’s is a half-kilometer.”

She pointed.

“That way.”

~

The next evening, I slipped out after the kids had fallen asleep.

The church wasn’t far.

I followed quiet cobbled streets through the old city until I reached its doors.

It sat at the top of a hill.

Music drifted from inside.

I pulled on the handle.

Locked.

A notice was taped beside the entrance, but my phone refused to translate its handwritten

script.

Through the crack between the doors, I caught a glimpse of blue light spilling across
the stone floor.

I tried the door one last time

“Locked.”

Then I backed away.

From across the plaza, the last sunlight caught the cathedral in warm pink stone.

Cyclists crossed empty squares.

Statues emerged from the lengthening shadows.

The sky turned orange. The city turned red.

I headed back to the hotel.

### Like this:

Like Loading…