WEDNESDAY: ROMAN RUINS IN TRIER

Sunny blue skies again today--and it's warm!

After some discussion last night we decided that we'll leave Trier a day early.  Although this is a nice little town, there's not as much to see as we thought.

First order of the day--to take care of changing our train tickets.  Our original plan was to leave Friday morning, take the train to Luxembourg, where we would change trains for Brussels and then on to Antwerp, Belgium.  Our new plan:  Leave Thursday morning, stay one night in Luxembourg City.  We've never been to Luxembourg, and this seems like the perfect opportunity for a quick visit to this tiny country and it's capitol, Luxembourg City.

We walked the several blocks to the station, and it was easy to change our tickets.  As we didn't choose the breakfast option at this hotel (20E each--yikes!) we took time to have a small breakfast at a little cafe at the station before starting our "tour" of Roman Ruins.

Our first stop was the Amphitheater, located a ways out of the main area of Trier.  We decided we'd take a taxi from the station, and we were glad we did--it would have been a loooong walk!

The Amphitheater was built in the 2nd century, and was later incorporated into the city wall, parts of which are still visible.  The arena is estimated to have held 18-20 thousand spectators, and was home to bloody games and executions, according to the city guide.


Entrance to the amphitheater:
(The color is "off" on this photo--wrong setting on my camera again!)

We walked up several sets of stone steps to get a good overview.  It's actually oval in shape, not round as it appears in this photo:

Pretty vineyards across the way:

We walked down into the arena, David took a cool panoramic photo:

We were able to go down into the cellar area--it was pretty wet down there!  They have wooden walk ways, and the entire area is shored up.  It was pretty interesting:

 We asked the gentleman at the ticket booth about the other sites in town, and decided that we'd like to see the Forum Baths next, as the other sites are not open to the public other than a viewing platform.  After consulting our map we decided to walk back into town--it was a bit of a hike, but it's a nice day for a walk!

The Forum Baths, from the street.

Right at the entrance to the museum/ticket office we saw this HUGE marble foot.  The information plaque said it was part of an ancient statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine.  The marble statur was 40 foot tall, and the remains and fragments of this statue (other than this foot) are housed in the Capitoline Museum  in Rome.  This foot is about 5 feet tall by almost 7 feet long.

We paid our small 3E admission fee, and started exploring the underground portion of the baths.  There were several narrow passageways and rooms.  It was kind of creepy!

There is extensive renovation of the above ground portion of the original entrance hall to the baths, but we could get an idea of the design:

After leaving the baths we decided to walk into central Trier and find a spot for lunch.  We took a nice looking path through a pretty park, and came across a pond with a fountain.

These two geese were busy with quite a gaggle of babies.  (Pat E: as our resident bird expert--do you have any idea what these are?)

We noticed a pretty building across the park, so though we should check it out.

It's the Electoral Palace, built in the early 1600's.  It's not open to visit, as it now houses the district gonverment.  The pretty park with statues is open year round:

A small portion of the old city wall:

We saw a small outdoor cafe, and thought we should sit for a few minutes and enjoy a cold beverage.  The view was lovely:

After relaxing and cooling off for a few minutes (it was sunny and very warm!) we continued our walk back into Trier.  By now we were very hungry, so we picked one of the first restaurants we came to and settled in for lunch.  After looking at the menu, David chose a flamkuchen, a German style "pizza--it has a thin cracker like crust, and is always topped with a cream sauce and various toppings.  David was VERY adventurous--he chose the Trier Special.  It was topped with liverwurst, blood sausage and sauerkraut! Yes, I ate a piece.   Hmmmmm--let's just say it wasn't the best thing we've tasted on this trip……..

I was much more conservative in my choice--a green salad topped with grilled turkey breast strips.  I did share with David!

There's a pretty square near the restaurant with a nice fountain:

We made our way to the main square of Trier, and it started raining.  Perfect opportunity to "duck and cover"--and suffer through a coffee and dessert!  We ordered apple strudel, and it came with a yummy vanilla sauce, ice cream AND whipped cream--wow!  The vanilla sauce and the ice cream were really delicious, the strudel was just so-so.  We finished it all, though!

The rain didn't last long, and soon we were on our way back to the hotel.  We relaxed for a couple of hours and spent some time packing and getting organized for our early train trip tomorrow.

About 7 pm we decided it was time for a bite to eat, and we walked over to the first restaurant we tried in Trier.  We ordered the same dish--kind of boring, but it's pretty hard to beat perfection!  We enjoyed a smoked pork steak with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut and, of course, a glass of red wine.

It was a fairly early night for us--we're on the move tomorrow.

Luxembourg, here we come!