Trier, Germany

Porta Nigra

We finally made a trip to "little Rome" (what we call it anyway), Trier, Germany.  I must say that I would never have even known there was such a great treasure in this town from the main road.  In fact as we were traveling through the town I was certain that we had made a wrong turn.  It is all mostly modern buildings then BAM! there is this huge Roman gate made of stone.  Otherwise known as the Porta Nigra "Black Gate".  It was a spectacular view from out of nowhere. Again this picture doesn't do it justice.  It absolutely took my breath away (and the 19* temperature had nothing to do with it)

We proceeded to park and walk through this great Black Gate.  Inside is this quaint little town with cobblestone roadways.  When you first enter there is a museum and an information center.  There you can buy what they call an Antiquity Card.  We got the Premium Card so that we could go to 1 museum and 6 other attractions (was 14$ for each adult, children were free).  This card got us into all the attractions we wanted to see. 

From there we went down the street to see the sites.  It was so cold and it was a Sunday so all the shops were closed but it was still nice to look around.  The main attraction that caught my kiddos eye at first was the beautiful building that housed a 2 story McDonalds LOL.  Of course we had to go in and even though it was McDonalds the building was magnificient and the second story had great view of the town.



We visited the Catlle Market Baths which were pretty neat.  We would have completely missed them if not for a sign out front because they are underground and the building you go into is very modern looking on the corner of two streets.  When we walked in they handed us an information brouchure which they had in English luckily.  They had numbers that told us what each part was so that helped us to picture what it would have looked like when it was functioning.  Really neat to go in and see.


Then we went on to the Kaiserthermen which was another spectacular sight.  It was beautiful and had a lot to explore.  Underneath there was a maze of paths.  It was dark in some areas which added a sense of mystery.  The archways were neat and beautifully constructed.  Back above ground, we explored the Alderburg Castle in the Roman caldarium.  There were passage ways through the arches on the bottom which were blocked off but made for fun secret "tunnel" for the kids.

There really could be a whole blog post on the church "Loebrauenkirche" and the "Dom St. Peter"  Both were breathtaking from the moment you walk inside.  The pictures I have don't do it justice even as beautiful as they turned out to be (PS I do NOT claim to be a photographer by any means).  I was amazed at the detail in all the carvings.  I would go back to Trier just to spend a day in these two places. (Although everything else is worth the trip as well).  My favorite was the ceiling in the Dom.  The detail...I am speechless about it.  There are so many pictures I could include from these two places but I won't fill this blog (any more than I have already) with pictures.  It is something that you must go and see in person.  It is definitely worth the little over an hour drive from Ramstein to see it.  Trier will definitely be a place on my list of places to show my family when they visit.  Happy exploring!

Burg Nanstein

We are currently a one car family so our exploring us dependant on that. Yesterday we were able to have the car after the kiddos dentist appointments so while daddy worked...we explored. Landstuhl is nearby so we decided to explore and find the local castle. Burg Nanstein is only about 10km from DH's work. I must admit the signage isn't spectacular when you are driving in heavy traffic trying to locate this castle. I even tried to find the exact address for GPS but wasn't successful (looking back I could have used the Schloss Hotel address). We have a Ford Explorer and the entrance to the drive up to the castle made me suck in hoping we'd fit. We did :) but it is a roadway mostly only one car width but it is a two way street. A hidden blessing was that this castle is closed on Mondays so while we didn't get to go inside, we also didn't meet up with very many cars on that narrow path.

When we got up to the hotel portion, we circled around to check it out. There is parking there and also a walking path up to the castle. We opted not to do this yesterday because it was cold and rainy and quite muddy. We drove up to the castle and began to look around. It was very neat. The kids were so excited. There were many archways and "tunnels" for the kids to go in. We walked up the steps to the castle door and discovered that it is closed on Mondays. That was ok for us. Still plenty to see and quench our exploring thirst. It was mostly still intact so it still resembled a castle. The view from the castle of the town/village was superb. The picture does NOT do it justice We will definitely be doing back to explore more.

Our Sunday Venture

In Germany all stores are closed on Sundays. It would be easy to complain and fuss because we are so used to going and doing our shopping and such on Sundays (and I have heard of these complaints). But we have decided not to waste these precious times. That being said, today was colder than I was hoping and so I had to alter our plans.

We decided to just ride around and see what we could find. I tried looking online for scenic places to visit around our village (we live in Wolfstein, Germany). On my quick search I didn't find anything so we loaded up in the car and headed north. The first "big" village close to us is Lauterecken. At first glance, it is nothing spectacular. But as you enter the town/village there are hidden gems to be found. First of all, there are quite a few shops. (Compared to our village that is). Quite a few clothing shops,which I am dying to go into those the German style, (at first glance I haven't seen much of a difference from American except the lack of color). However, being that it is Sunday the shops were closed, so we've planned to take the train up to the town and shop. So we did discover two beautiful churches. The statues outside the second church were neat. There was a lion and then some kind of eclectic wood carving. The lion was atop a stone monument with writing (but I couldn't understand it). On our way out of the village we crossed the river and on the bridge was a statue of a king. It was beautiful. Then further down was a monument of the crucifix. I always love seeing the intricate statue of this subject matter, it really tugs at my heart. All of these sights were a pleasant surprise.

We decided to continue north. On the way we passed a castle ruin and got a decent picture. Then we came across the town/village of Sien. There it started snowing so it was a quick picture taking trip. We found 2 more HUGE churches that were amazing in beauty. One had what we artists (haha) like to call the onion top. The other church had an amazing tower/clock tower thing. They are so spectacular here. Any church you come across, typically, is gorgeous. I really wanted to go inside these churches to see the beauty inside, but I wasn't sure what the rules were for that such thing. The "tower" church had grand stained glass windows that were pretty from the outside, I'm dying to see what they look like on the inside. This church also had a crucifix statue and it was so detailed and breath taking.

All in all our ventures were successful today. This Sunday was definitely not wasted. I quite enjoyed finding the hidden beauties. Can't wait to explore more