Lively "Roman" TrierWe officially kicked off our Rick Steves tour in Trier where we met our tour group and made the all-important decision of picking tour buddies. While we enjoyed Trier's history as a Roman city (particularly the stone Roman "wine boats" placed throughout the city), the real highlight was a lively downtown square where flower markets popped up every morning, cakes appeared in the afternoon, and a cappella troupe sang the Beach Boys in the evening.
Our favorite thing: Tile mosaics featuring famous Roman "sports stars" like charioteers |
Meeting Our Tour GroupMeeting 20 strangers we were going to spend the next 14 days with could have been a stressful experience. Lucky for us, we ran into two members of our new tour family on the train ride from Bacharach to Trier. Paul and Shirley, who became Rick and Jody's tour buddies, wheeled their suitcases to the hotel with us under the guidance of Justin's expert navigation. They became good hiking and dinner friends, and even invited us to stay with them if we're ever in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. We had a similarly positive experience in meeting Judy and Wayne, who sat down across the table from Elyse and Justin at our first tour group meeting. They immediately said, "Thank goodness this group isn't going to be all old people!" We really liked getting to know them better, while in Murren. The lack of in-room WiFi led to everyone hanging out in a common area where we had plenty of time to talk on rainy afternoons and in the evening. As the tour neared its end, Kevin and Jessica joked that they'd heard every tour group has at least one person who is always late and at least one person who is really annoying. Kevin then added that he couldn't think of anyone annoying in our group. "I guess it must be me," he laughed. It definitely was not. I guess we must have gotten lucky with our tour group, or maybe it's that strictly enforced "no grouches" policy on Rick Steves tours.
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It's Hip to be SquareThe happening place in Trier was the Hauptmarkt with its booths filled with seasonal flowers and a varied selection of foods to tempt the palate. We skirted the square munching on fresh pretzels and sun-ripened strawberries. There was something for everyone, from the toy store sporting a Viking Lego man to the shop selling traditional German dirndl skirts and leather lederhosen. Before our trip, we had not realized that traditional German attire is still worn at local festivals and beer gardens as well as being acceptable in lieu of evening wear (as we noted at the Salzburg Folk Festival).
The square blends the past with the present. The north end is defined by the Roman city gate, Porta Nigra, while the opposite end of the square is occupied by the whimsical grasshopper fountain. Between are a mixture of diverse shops and local restaurants. Two of our favorite establishments were the Coffee Fellows cafe, which occupied the lower level of a former banking "keep" complete with original doorway on the second floor, and the Einhorn Pharmacy sporting its golden unicorn head for local patrons. |
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When in Trier, Do As the Romans DoTrier dates back to Roman times and was actually slated to become the western capital of the Roman Empire under the Emperor Constantine. In fact, it nearly became another on a long list of cities known as "Constantinople." Our tour guide Donald was a history aficionado and particularly enjoyed taking our tour group around the old Roman parts of the city, including a massive imperial throne room nearly the length of a football field, a beautiful "double cathedral" that housed Christian relics including the Robe of Christ, a 100 foot tall sandstone Roman gate called the Porta Nigra, and massive Roman baths with underground catacombs where wood would have been burnt to heat the baths. Many of these sites were saved from destruction by later Christian figures: the imperial throne room is still used as a church and the Porta Nigra played host to a hermit monk named Simeon in the 1020s. We enjoyed the interior and peaceful courtyard of the cathedrals, as well as a large number of tile mosaics from the baths that were housed in a nearby museum. Ancient tools used to cut and lay the tile helped us understand the intense amount of work it took to create the mosaics, which were used to memorialize political figures and charioteers (the "sports starts" of their day).
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Potatoes, Potahtoes
Coming from a German background, we were pretty sure we'd like German cuisine and we weren't wrong. Dishes like quiche and pork schnitzel (thin cuts of lightly breaded pork) were staples at most restaurants. Elyse loved all of the creative things that were done with potatoes, particular bread crumb coated "potato fingers," potato dumplings and potato pancakes. And Jill loved Germany's colorful salads, which were nearly always topped with shredded carrots, red cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and cole slaw. Trier gave us a chance to try these delicacies, as well as regional wines and beers.
The Case of the Missing CakesIt was our second full day in Germany and we were walking through the streets of Trier, enjoying the lively market square and the Roman artifacts sprinkled throughout the city. We still hadn't fully adjusted to our jet lag and stopped into Zum Domstein for dinner at around 5:00 pm, a time considered inappropriately early for dinner by most Europeans. As we walked through the restaurant, we drooled over a refrigerated case filled with airy cheesecakes, flaky apple strudel and ganache-topped chocolate layer cakes. We all looked at one another and said, "We have to stop back here for dessert." After a fine dinner, we walked to Porta Nigra on the other end of town to burn off some calories and take some photos. A few hours later, we headed back to Zum Domstein for dessert and were handed an English menu featuring a only a few options of something called "parfait." Where, we wondered, were the delicious cakes we had seen only a few hours before? Our kind waitress patiently explained that Germans don't believe in the kind of late-evening heavy desserts Americans so often eat. Instead, they eat their sweets during a mid-afternoon "cake time" that typically runs from about 2:00 to 4:00 pm. She was nice enough to go into the back and find us some leftover cake from earlier in the day. We had a traditional and delicious "American-style" dessert. The next night, we were treated to a more German dessert of fruit with a side of "parfait," slices of a frozen custard with nuts or berries mixed in. We learned our lesson and, for the remainder of the tour, strove to live like temporary locals... by eating cake at 3:00 every day.
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