Trier

On Labor Day (September 6th) we packed our daypacks and headed to Trier, a city about two hours west of us on the border of Luxembourg. 

Trier, (pronounced ‘Tree-AIR’ … don’t you love my handy pronunciation guide?)  is Germany’s oldest city…  “Founded by Augustus in 16 BC, Trier was a Roman city for 400 years.  When Emperor Diocletian divided his Roman Empire into four sectors, he made Trier the capital of the west: roughly modern-day Germany, France, Spain and England.  For most of the fourth century this city of 80,000 with a four-mile wall, four great gates and 47 round towers was a favored residence of Roman emperors.  In the late 400s, when Rome fell to the barbarians, so did Trier.”   So really, Trier was around before Germany was and most of the highlights are the Roman remains.

The Porta Nigra is the only one of the four great gates that survived.  It is apparently the most impressive Roman fortification in Germany.  I’m impressed.

The walk down the Simeonstrasse to the Market square was interesting.  We stopped to see the ‘House of the Three Magi…   “This Venetian-style building was constructed in the 13th century as a keep.  Before the age of safe banking, rich  men hoarded their gold and silver inside their homes.  Paranoid, they build a fortified house like this one.  The floating door a story above the present-day entrance used to have a wooden staircase that could be pulled up when necessary.”  Very cool.

We read Rick Steves trivia as we wandered down the street and into the Market square.  It was interesting to learn the history of some of the buildings and to note what they are now.  (The light pink one on the right is an H&M… the brown building with the little turquoise roof is a McDonalds.)  Definitely a beautiful market square… beautiful views, the nice St. Peter’s Fountain, fun fruit and flower stands…and an underground clean 50 cent WC (bathroom)!  Just perfect.

From the courtyard we walked under an archway leading us to the gothic Church of St. Gangolf… the medieval townspeaople’s church and fire watchman’s post.  Above the clock in golf letters is a Bible verse in Latin which means “Stay awake and pray”.  I took the four oldest inside with me.   I explained the holy water which was used several times as we stood in the lobby and we enjoyed looking at the artwork of Chris’ life put together in mosaics with small colored rocks and glass.    It was so fun for the kids to recognize scenes of His life.  Chris took them quietly into the service for a few minutes while the boys and I hung out outside.

Next we headed to the Cathedral… the oldest Christian church in Germany. “After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in A.D. 312 his mother, Helena, allowed part of her palace in Trier to be used as the first church on this spot.  14 years later, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his reign, Constantine began the construction of two great churches: St. Peter’s in Rome and this huge cathedral in Trier – also called St. Peter’s.”

  It was definitely impressive.  We walked around the whole thing and taught the kids about Infant baptism and other things as we came to it.  We went down into the basement and up to the chapel (behind us in this picture) which occasionally showcases the supposed Holy Robe of Christ.  Then outside to walk in the cloister and sit down for some Pez candies… a must for good kids after a long quiet walk through a Cathedral.

The kids got a kick out of this door handle.

After the Cathedral we headed to the Basilica.  “This building is the largest intact Roman structure outside of Rome… and a huge expanse to span without columns.”  Once inside we learned that the entire remains of the Roman Porta Nigra gate could fit inside this building.  It was enormous.

In the picture below, the reddish building behind the pink one is the Basilica.  Luckily right by this courtyard we found a playground.  The kids played and played while Chris and I sat on the bench reading and talking.

On our way back to the Porta Nigra we stopped by a bakery to grab sandwiches for dinner which we would eat on our drive home.  All the kids got to pick what they wanted. Katie and Emily decided to do a half and half split, picking one sandwich and one of these little pepperoni cheese rolls.  The baker warmed the pepperoni roll and so Chris told them to go ahead and eat it while it was hot.  One bite and they were hooked.  They kept ooohhhing and awwwing over their bakery pick which made me just have to try it too.  After one bite I said, “Chris, we need about five more of these.”   My goodness, were they good.  I think we need to go back to Trier just for these babies alone…. oh, and some H&M shopping time.  We ate our pepperoni rolls by the fountain and then found tasty gelati with fresh fruit that we couldn’t resist… and then ate our favorite egg and cucumber sandwiches in the van on the way home.  A very tasty day.