Trier, Germany’s oldest city, is at the head of the Mosel Valley, near the border of Luxembourg. Trier was inhabited by Celts for 1300 years before Rome even existed. But even though there are very old buildings and structures here, the old city has a young feel. Much of it has been restored and refurbished, including Germany’s oldest Christian church.
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We are staying in a central shopping/market area in the old city but we've noticed that by 8 pm pretty much everything is closed. Darkness falls here around 9:30 pm so the early closures seem strange. The good thing about that is we can take pictures without all the crowds getting in the way of the scenery. The streets are deserted in the mornings, too, until about 10 am. Then this place really comes alive – filled with street musicians and craft peddlers, fruit and flower vendors, sidewalk and plaza cafes, wine bars, mimes, and tourists like us.
When you think of Germany, drinking beer probably comes to mind first. An interesting tidbit we learned today is that Germans choose which beer to drink with their meal depending on what food they are eating – similar to what experts recommend about wine. For instance, Bitburger, which is brewed in this area, is recommended to accompany hot and spicy foods. Tom, however, continues to choose his beer in one of three ways – Coors, Cheap or Free. He went out early this morning to get us some snacks and drinks. He came back with a bottle of orange juice, a large bottle of Diet Coke, and a six pack of German beer and announced, “Beer is cheap here!” – around 30 cents a beer at Trier's version of a Walgreens/CVS. We saved the beer for later and headed out for a morning walkabout and breakfast. The fresh fruit at Market Square (Hauptmarkt) was tempting, but we decided to splurge (calorie-wise) on a delicious cinnamon roll at one of Trier's many small bakeries.
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Our trek took us through the old city to Porta Nigra, the only gate left of a four-mile-long massive wall built by the Romans to protect the town.
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Then we headed over to the Mosel River and walked along it for about a mile. We saw several passenger boats (sort of like miniature cruise ships) parked at docks and cruising down the river. A festival was being set up along the bank of the river. And we saw our first flock of German swans paddling around in the middle of the river.
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This is one of my favorite pictures because the subject is so unusual and fascinating.
Walking along the river, we spotted this round building in the distance. As we approached we took turns guessing what it might be. As we drew closer, we figured out that it was an old crane, operated by a huge wheel inside the structure, that loaded and unloaded cargo onto the boats on the river. The building and wheel were in great condition, even though the crane obviously hasn't been used in years.
Jet-lag was catching up to us so we headed back to our hotel for a much-needed nap.
We met up with our Rick Steves tour guide, Tara, and the rest of our group at 4:30. After a short meeting during which everyone introduced themselves, we toured the enormous Basilica, the only Protestant church in town, which was built by the Romans and first used as a throne room.
Tom (an engineer who is always fascinated with how things are built) pointed out to me that the Basilica is an engineering marvel as the huge structure was built not only without modern machinery, but also without columns to support the massive roof. To give you an idea of how big the basilica actually is, Porta Nigra can fit inside the Basilica.
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When the tour was over we had our first group dinner in the basement of Zum Domstein restaurant. We had a wonderful day exploring Trier and meeting our group members...and we are anxious to see more. YOLO!!