There are only 2 problems with Fridays, waking up to go to my 8 am which means 5:50 am in order to shower and finish packing. The second problem is the 4 1/2 hours of class! I set my alarm for 5:50 so that I would have enough time to make the 7:20 bus... I was then planning on going to "The Crazy Baker" to get breakfast. I decided instead that I would snooze and take the 7:50 bus which would get me to school by about 7:59. The only problem with this plan was that the bus was 4 minutes late. I mean, we are close enough to Germany that their punctuality should have worn off. Class was good however during the break I ran downstairs to get a snack as I was starving form the vending machine. I thought that I had selected a granola bar - nope it was a chocolate bar which made a delicious breakfast.
After class ended (the term weekend freedom has new meaning) I ran downstairs and left all of my school stuff - I will deal with that on Monday! Amanda, Megan and myself decided to catch the 12:49 train as we still needed to take our chest x-rays and TB shots in order to be cleared and have residency in Luxembourg.
The doctors office was in Esch which is a medium size town halfway between Differdange and Luxembourg City. As the octor was only in from 2 pm till 4 we stopped at a small cafe to have sandwiches - I had ham and cheese as I obviously didn't pay attention when we learned the foods in French class and literally only remember jambo and Fromage (luckily I like ham and cheese sandwiches). We finished lunch and headed to the doctors, we arrived to the doctors office around 1:30 30 minutes till it opened, however we wanted to be first so that we could be done quicker). After having the tests done, we finished and quickly left for the train station as we were attempting to catch a 3:17 train to Trier. We unfortunately missed a train by about 30 seconds and had to wait for the next train at 2:47. As the train was running several minutes late we started to get really nervous that we were going to miss our train so we called and had Kat buy our tickets for the train. However she couldn't communicate to the person that we only wanted a one way ticket so our ticket cost 6 euros instead of 3.
Amanda, Megan and myself pushed to the front of the train so that we could be the first off. We arrived into the station at 3:15 and proceeded to sprint through the train station -- we were a hot mess, we literally hurtled onto the train about 25 seconds before it left - epic!
After an enjoyable 45 minute train ride we arrived in Trier and decide d to walk to the Hostel, but as it was still early we weren't in any type of rush and decided to take our time. One of the first things we stumbled upon was the Porta Nigra or the huge city cate. Trier is the oldest city in Germany, ti was founded by Augustus in 15 BC, Roman emperors visited and stayed frequently and it was even used as the capital of the western part of the Roman empire at some point. The Porta Nigra is the ruins/remains of the original fortification when a large wall, with four gates encircled and protected the city. The Porta Nigra is the only suriving gate as it was converted into a church during the 11th century.
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| Porta Nigra, Trier Germany. |
After acting like complete tourist and taking a lot of photos we wandered through the city. It is relay fascinating the mix of ancient roman runs, medieval architecture as well as some new modern twits. The two is quietly nestled into the valley and seems quiet and peaceful. When admiring the roman ruins this it seems rather impressive considering what has transpired here over the last two millenniums (Trier is actually the only German City that largely survived WWII bombings).
We managed to get lost only once when heading to our Hostel which was impressive as a lot of words look alike and have a ton of unnecessary letters. The Hostel was quiet a hike away. At one point the directions wanted us to walk down the shoulder of a four land highway ummm... no thank you any country that is known for the autobahn I am not walking on the highway! We luckily didn't get killed and were able to cross the four lanes of traffic and walk along a bike path along the Mouselle river. The little town along the river was adorable - a string of cute little restaurants and pubs along the river with patios for outdoor dinning in the summer. During this summer this area is definitely packed with tourists but tonight it is quiet and peaceful with just locals walking or biking. As we continue to walk it continues to get more sketch. Some abandoned buildings and graffiti. I was starting to doubt and question where we were staying at lest I have a return ticket to Luxembourg and worst case can just head home.
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| Restaurant where we ate dinner, part of the really cute town along the Moselle on the way to the hostel |
Finally we rounded the corner we heard children playing... there is a playground, ping pong tables, volley ball court and a soccer field. The hostel itself is a new rightly colored building with large windows. We headed inside - the lobby is brightly colored with a cafe/snackbar with candy, ice cream, slushies, pizza and coffee. We hence forth dubbed it the chucky cheeses of hostles (atually there were mostly families with small children).
We had a moment of panic when we thought that they had lost our reservations - seriously we made them less then 24 hours ago. I was also in love with this place and I didn't really want to go and have to find another sketch place to sleep for the night. They eventually found our room (Kat wasn't pronouncing her name in German correctly.) After dropping off our stuff we headed out to get dinner. We decided to eat at one of the cute restaurants along the river as it looked delicious and amazing. The restaurant was basically empty so we chose the large circular table. The atmosphere was really cool and it seemed like a great place for a relaxing meal. Or waitress was beyond nice as she was extremely patient with us and very helpful. I decided to be adventurous wienerschnitzel which I have thought for my entire life was a type of sausage... I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that it was veal. Dinner was extremely relaxing as we were not rushed and were able to sit and talk for over an hour after we finished. We then continued onto another restaurant where we all had a glace of wine from the region and made our won make shift wine tasting! All in all it was an extremely enjoyable night very relaxing and great food and wine.
As we were too tired to trek back to the main part of Trier to find any nightlife (not sure if any existed) we headed back tot he hostel and played some cards till about 11 when we decided to be complete geezers and head to bed.
After an amazing restful night sleep we woke up in our "5 star Hostel" we headed downstairs as breakfast was included -- it was actually pretty good. I had a roll, jam, granola, some eggs and coffee. We then all proceeded to grab some extra rolls and cold cuts wrap them in a napkin so we were ready for lunch. We then headed out, unfortunately it was overcast and significantly colder today. We began wandering through the main shopping district we then continued to Trier Cathedral which is the oldest church in German and was built during the 4th century. It is believed that Helena, the mother of Constantine donated her hose to be converted to a cathedral in the late 3rd century (archeological evidence supports this). So basically this church is a millennium older than most of the cathedrals that we saw the previous weekend in Brugge. The church wasn't particularly beautiful but it was amazing - more in a gloomy creepy way. The building is also massive and you were able to go into most parts. We explored for over 45 minutes and i easily could have spent another hour.
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| Main shopping street in Trier Germany, Porta Nigra in the distance. |
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| Annie & Me outside the Trier Cathedral, Trier Germany built in the 4th century |
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| Looking out into the courtyard of the Trier Cathedral left to right Kat, Annie, Caroline |
We then continued to the basilica - the largest in tack roman structure outside Rome. During the roman empire it was used as a "throne room" I was rather unimpressed it was very empty based on photos it use to be more ornate but was destroyed/sacked at some point. Annie loved the basilica she said she really felt the presence of everything that had happened there - it was cool but won't rank very high on my Europe lists.
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| Basilica, Trier Germany largest in tack Roman structure outside Italy. |
We continued to walk through the down to the baths while the basilica spoke to Annie the ruins of the baths captured my imagination - I loved it and now I really can't wait for Italy. It helped to re-enforce the power and influence of the Roman empire, the profound impact it had upon western culture. It also in some ways seemed like a huge juxtaposition - rumor ruins nestled in a norther European city. As it had started to snow we were hungry and frozen and decided to head to the train station and continue onto the next leg of our journey.
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| Ruins of the Roman Baths, Trier Germany |
I am officially an expert on researching and planning trains. When we arrived at the Trier train station I decided that I wanted to go to the ticket counter to make sure that we got the correct tickets and didn't end up in "German Train Jail" for doing something wrong. A friend at home had told me about a train special offered on the weekends that allows up to 5 people to travel on 1 ticket for a really cheap price. We were pleasantly surpirsed when I discovered that the internet had lied and the ticket price was actually cheaper than we had planned on and the train was departing in 6 minutes - I mean we wouldn't have been able to do that if we had planned on it. After running through the train station we made our train just in time - 2nd epic train catch of the trip.
As the train was really full Annie and Kat had to sit next to a nun, so we decided that we probably shouldn't whip out our bottle of wine and use the "Manequin Piss" cork screw (that we bought in Brussels) So we ate our pilfered lunch without any wine which was still delicious and a great picnic snack.
The train ride was also enjoyable as I made Kat watch a CSI episode known as the "House of Hoarders" Kat is terrified of hoarders so her reaction were great. We then switched trains in Koblenz which is where the Moselle and Rhine meet. Unlike Trier which was one of the only German cities not seriously destroyed during WWII Koblenz was decimated (as an industrial city with access to two major water ways it was kind of given). This was the first time I really saw the impact / aftermath of the destruction. An entire city filled with history, character, personality was forever changed. 66 years later reconstruction has long since ended but the scars are still there and still visible.
We quickly caught our connecting train, this quick 45 minute train ride south along the Rhine was amazing. The train runs along the river on one side and the steep cliffs dotted with row after row of vineyards. The vineyards are amazing they are built into the sides of steep cliffs - at times old brick formations help to create cute outs into the mountains. The amount of physical labor and effort is unimaginable. As Kat kept saying "how do they even get to the top". Even in January with a light drizzle/ snow falling there were frequently men working and inspecting their vineyards - that is the definition of dedication.
We arrived in Bacharach which is the definition of a small town - there appears to be only one main road so I am not to concerned with getting lost but we decided to consult rick first. After going left we walked along the road for several minutes without literally seeing anyone. We then realized that thanks to ricks chicken scratch maps we had gone the wrong way. We finally arrived at the Bed and Breakfast which is owned by two adorable old German who woman who speak absolutely no English. After some confusion on who was sleeping where which was finally solved by one of the lady's teenage grand daughter. After dropping off our stuff we went exploirng through the won. One of the main sights is the German equivilant of the enternal flam commerating the dead from WWI. However ithas become an errie and comber rimender for the country and the flame was extinuqsed after WWII.
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| Bacharach, Germany cutest small town ever. The castle on top of the hill is a youth hostel today. Front center is the extinguished war memorial. |
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| Me in front of the town, Bacharach Germany |
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| Our Bed & Breakfast rally cute German women own it, Bacharach Germany |
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| Everyone in front of the Rhine River, Bacharach Germany Left to Right: Amanda, Megan, Annie, Caroline, Me. |
The twon reminds me of bing at LBI during the winter - ghost town which is eriely beautful. We then hiked up to the ruins of a 13th century chapple. All that remains is a semicircle of the distinct gothic style windows. It is incredibly beautiful over looking the Rhine. I literally could have stayed there all day and even proclaimed to everyone that I wanted to be proposed to here (Kat did point out that I probably would catch on during the 1/2 hour hike and therefore ruin the surprise.)
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| Ruins of the Chapel, Bacharach Germany |
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| Look, its almost my last name, Bacharach Germany |
We woke up around 8 am and headed upstairs to a delicious breakfast of rolls still warm, homemade jam, fresh hard boiled eggs - we decided that we couldn't take rolls for lunch again but didn''t see anything wrong with eating an extra one at breakfast for good measure. I am sure the little old German women are still trying to figure out how the 4 really skinny American girls managed to eat 12 rolls. We then headed back to the train station where I braved the ticket machine success!! We then caught the train back along the Rhine to St. Goar. St. Goar has the Rheinsfels castle which was once the largest castle on the Rhine while the French army destroyed the majority of the 13th century castle in the late 18th century a large fraction of the ruined shell remains. After arriving in St. goar we had to hike about 20 minutes up very steep terrain which made us feel like we were actually backpacking through Europe. The castle is on top of a cliff overlooking the Rhine.
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| Rheinsfels castle, St. Goar Germany |
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| Rheinsfels castle, St. Goar Germany |
In actuality I loved going to Rheinfels, it is incredibly interactive and hands on. We were allowed (I am not sure if we were technically but no one stopped us) to climb and meander basically everywhere. Our conclusions from exploring Rheinfels was that people 70 years ago were either much smaller or that they spent their whole life squatting. Unfortunately around 1:30 it started to rain and we decided that we should head home. Four trains to two buses later I got home around 8 pm - after all the stress of planning this weekend it turned out pretty good.
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