Trier was sort of the Roman Headquarters in Germany, and many of the Roman Emporers chose to live here rather than in Rome.
One of the very oldest sites in Trier, is the Roman "Black Gate". Actually, it was made of red sandstone, but it has blackened over time. We told the kids that this gate was built before Jesus was even born and they thought it was pretty incredible!
Here we are out front:
Originally, the Romans built four of these gates around the city, but only the North gate remains. Apparently, they built a church and monastery around and above it, but when Napolean came he had everything non-Roman about it destroyed.
And my gorgeous kiddos on the other side!
We also went inside the gate -We loved exploring inside.... since we weren't ambitious enough to head to Rome during our stay here, this was our opporunity to explore ancient Roman ruins...
You probably can't see very well- but this is a picture of the children and me inside the gate:
After thoroughly exploring the Black Gate, we headed over to the Market Square:
And then we headed to St. Peter's Cathedral, which is the oldest Church in Germany:
As I mentioned in a previous post, it is common for churches here to tout their possession of some one-of-a-kind artifact. This particular church claims to have the "Holy Robe of Christ". One of the other interesting things about this church, is that the inside of the cathedral is lined with altars. Well, that part isn't really unusual- we have seen that in many of the churches we have visited. Usually, each altar is dedicated to a Saint or Apostle or sometimes there are just several depicting the Crucifixion. This church is different because all of the altars were built by individual Bishops who decided to use their money to build a little place of remembrance for themselves in the church building...
Here we are in front of the "Dom" , which used to be almost 4 times this size!
You probably can't see very well- but this is a picture of the children and me inside the gate:
After thoroughly exploring the Black Gate, we headed over to the Market Square:
And then we headed to St. Peter's Cathedral, which is the oldest Church in Germany:
As I mentioned in a previous post, it is common for churches here to tout their possession of some one-of-a-kind artifact. This particular church claims to have the "Holy Robe of Christ". One of the other interesting things about this church, is that the inside of the cathedral is lined with altars. Well, that part isn't really unusual- we have seen that in many of the churches we have visited. Usually, each altar is dedicated to a Saint or Apostle or sometimes there are just several depicting the Crucifixion. This church is different because all of the altars were built by individual Bishops who decided to use their money to build a little place of remembrance for themselves in the church building...
Here we are in front of the "Dom" , which used to be almost 4 times this size!Our next stop was the Basilica, which was built as the Throne room for the Emporer Constantine. This is the oldest Roman Structure outside of Rome. Numerous Kings have inhabited it since then, and it has been a Lutheran Church since the mid 1800's.
The gardens just outside the Basilica:
Our next stop was the Ancient Roman Baths! As a lover of baths, I was particularly excited about this one. I must say that I do not love my bath enough to force slaves to work round the clock to keep my bath water at 120 degrees Farenheit. Constantine had quite the ego, didn't he?
We got to tour the tunnels and see the slave galleys and the pipe rooms- the kids just like the tunnels, but it was pretty fun!
Our next stop was the Roman Ampitheatre/Colliseum. Matt and Isaac, as lovers of fights, were particularly excited about this one! Okay, I'm mostly kidding, but they were excited about this one.
We marched our little crew back over to the market square and got some yummy lunch to eat! We were so hungry- we got four ice cream cones, bratwurst, fish and chips. We had french fries with mayo (European style) adn Ketchup, too (American Style!), I had a fish sandwich that was probably just mediocre but it tasted so delicious to me because I am so tired of sausage!! It was so hot that we ate our ice cream while we walked (so it wouldn't melt ) and then ate lunch in the car. The kids thought it was awesome that they got to eat their ice cream first!
And while we ate, we sputtered around Trier and finally located Karl Marx's house for a quick photo op! I suppose they aren't really proud that he was born there, but we wanted to check it out anyway!
And off we went- headed for Cochem!!
The gardens just outside the Basilica:
Our next stop was the Ancient Roman Baths! As a lover of baths, I was particularly excited about this one. I must say that I do not love my bath enough to force slaves to work round the clock to keep my bath water at 120 degrees Farenheit. Constantine had quite the ego, didn't he?
We got to tour the tunnels and see the slave galleys and the pipe rooms- the kids just like the tunnels, but it was pretty fun!
Our next stop was the Roman Ampitheatre/Colliseum. Matt and Isaac, as lovers of fights, were particularly excited about this one! Okay, I'm mostly kidding, but they were excited about this one.
We marched our little crew back over to the market square and got some yummy lunch to eat! We were so hungry- we got four ice cream cones, bratwurst, fish and chips. We had french fries with mayo (European style) adn Ketchup, too (American Style!), I had a fish sandwich that was probably just mediocre but it tasted so delicious to me because I am so tired of sausage!! It was so hot that we ate our ice cream while we walked (so it wouldn't melt ) and then ate lunch in the car. The kids thought it was awesome that they got to eat their ice cream first!
And while we ate, we sputtered around Trier and finally located Karl Marx's house for a quick photo op! I suppose they aren't really proud that he was born there, but we wanted to check it out anyway!
And off we went- headed for Cochem!!
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