Day 4: Trier

Another day trip city suggestion from our friends was to visit the city of Trier.  Trier is considered the oldest city in Germany.  Dating back to Roman times and has many well preserved buildings from that time.  At least that is what Wikipedia says...if you didn't click the link.  This time around, we packed lunch ahead of time.  I highly suggest this for anyone prone to get hangry.

 After a slight detour due to navigational difficulties (something I don't recommend when you know your day is full of walking already)...we found our way to the Porta Nigra or "The Black Gate".  As I type that, sounds like something out of 'Lord of the Rings'.  

 We had incredible luck with our weather on this trip.  Trier was slightly overcast and there was a chance for rain.  Which fell conveniently while we were visiting the Cathedral of Trier.  There are cathedrals all over Europe and beautiful churches in the countryside as well, so you can get them mixed up from time to time.  But, this one was of particular interest to us because it was built on the site of St. Helen's Palace at the time of Rome's Conversion.  It is also believed to house the holy tunic worn by Jesus on the day of his crucifixion. 

 It's courtyard also had these lovely corridors that made William feel like he was at Hogwarts.  Which was good, because it lifted a bit of the guilt I felt from visiting the Gloucester Cathedral without him...where scenes from the movie were actually filmed.

St. Catherine of Siena

 The next historic site we visited was the Basilica of Constantine. For those keeping track, our kids have gone on a long walk in the wrong direction and now have visited three historic sites that don't hold a whole lot of interest.  Unless you count the corridors that reminded them of Hogwarts Castle.  Our time of patience is growing short...

 That said, it was incredible to see this construction from nearly 2000 years ago.  It was damaged during World War 2 and the renovations have only recently been finished.  However, John was not impressed.

 We walked through a lovely garden, one of several we walked through on our trip.  I'm thinking we are close to done...but, Eric has a plan to go visit the amphitheater...several of us disagree under our breath, but we head out for the mile or so walk...uphill...to visit an ancient arena.  Because, why not?

 The thing is, it turned out to be the absolute best place to visit with kids.  A large open area for them to run around in.  We even could go under the arena where they would have held animals and prisoners waiting to fight. 

 This is a picture of me telling John for the 10th time to only use the stairs to climb the steep inclines on either side of the arena.  I was not in the mood to deal with twisted ankles.  Especially with about a mile walk left to the train station (There was a bus, but it only came at random times...sorry John) Note Will's smile.  He loved all of the history and read as many of the written explanations as possible.  We really need to get him to York one of these days...

 I told the kids that now when we go to Rome we can just check out the Colliseum from the outside because there is no way they are going to let them run all over it recreating various scenes from imagination.  They respect that logic.

 And then we were off back to the train station.  We realized that it was a slight tactical mistake to always catch the rush hour trains at the end of the days.  We also realized it was probably a mistake to catch the rush hour train on a Friday of a long weekend.  Pretty difficult to find a seat, but we managed eventually and made it home just in time for the rain to hit.

After getting less than a welcoming response at a couple of restaurants, we found friendly faces at a Doner kiosk that also served up pizza and hot tea.  It was another successful day on our trip and we all went to bed looking forward to what the next day would bring.  Which was a trip to the area around Stuttgart.

Auf Wiedersehen!