June 25 Trier, Germany

Last updated on September 6th, 2023 at 03:48 pm

Photos from Trier
Video Summary of the Day

Bernkastel: The ship stopped in Bernkastel for a few hours this morning as there was an optional tour of a vineyard and wine tasting. After breakfast we walked around the town for about an hour. Since it is Sunday we couldn’t go in the church and almost all of the shops were closed. We did some window shopping, and picture taking. Again, more half-timber construction, flowers, church towers, and fountains, including a more modern one with bears and salmon. There was even a castle up on the ridge.

Kues, is the mostly residential town across the bridge, so Alan explored it briefly while Joyce enjoyed the scenery and people-watching from a nice shaded bench along the river. Alan saw a couple different sundials as he crossed the bridge and then on into the town, but they were off by about an hour from each other; apparently daylight savings time wasn’t programmed into the sundials!

There seemed to be some excitement at one of the local hotels with police cars and fire trucks coming from all directions. We didn’t see any fire, or see any alarm of guests or staff. We walked back to the ship stopping to watch some ducks and take pictures of some flowers.

We had lunch with Hugh and June from England and Dana and Danielle. Hugh is a bit of a historian, and quite a conversationalist. He has been collecting states, seeing how many people from various US states he could eat with on the cruise. Alan even was sure to have French Onion Soup on the boat, since we were nearly in France at this point.

We have been interested to discover that the cruise tour we are on does not include the time in Zurich and Paris for persons from the UK. It is packaged as cruise only. We’re guessing that’s because it’s relatively easy for those UK folks to get to those cities on their own if they wish.

The shore excursion this afternoon was delayed due to river traffic, as the ship had to wait our turn to go through a lock. We docked immediately after clearing the lock at Wintrich. Those participating in the excursion were loaded on 4 busses for the trip to Trier, about 40 minutes. As we drove away, the ship was already leaving.

We passed through Piesport (pronounced ‘Peace port’) the biggest wine growing center in the Moselle region. The way the river winds around Piesport with the surrounding hills full of vineyards, Piesport ends up in the center of a geographical amphitheater. In 1985, the biggest Roman-era wine-pressing facility north of the Alps was unearthed and partly reconstructed. It is the focus of the yearly Roman Wine Press Festival held on the second weekend in October.  We rode through a number of switchbacks through the vineyards to get to the hill high above the river, and a new point of view for us.

Trier is Germany’s oldest city, was founded by the Romans in 16 BC, but there was a Celtic settlement in the area before that. Trier has many significant Roman ruins, including some of the wall, ruins of a large Roman bath, an amphitheater and the most famous Porta Nigra, “Black Gate,” referring to the color of the grey sandstone from which it is made. Trier is approximately 10 kilometers from the Luxembourg border and about 30 kilometers from the French border.

We drove through the city to a lookout above the city to get fantastic views so our guide could point out the various sites. We drove back down to the edge of the old city to begin our walking tour. It is Sunday , so most shops are closed. There is a summer festival ongoing in the old city so it was pretty crowded. It was very warm today, 32-34° centigrade, near 100°F.

We began at the Electoral Palace, considered to be one of the most beautiful Rococo palaces in the world. Many of the statues on the building were covered with gold leaf. There was a beautiful formal garden with every color of flower beautifully displayed.

Right next to the Palace is a large red brick building, Aula Palatina, also called Basilica of Constantine (German: Konstantinbasilika). It is a  Roman palace basilica and an early Christian structure built between AD 300 and AD 310 during the reigns of Constantius Chlorus and Constantine the Great. An enormous elongated, rectangular brick building with a vast semicircular apse, it served as the throne hall of the Roman emperor or his representative. Following the town’s sacking by Germanic tribes, the building was reduced to rubble. In the 12th century the apse was converted into a tower, to accommodate the archbishop. In the 17th century the Aula Palatina was integrated into the newly built palace and its eastern wall was partly demolished. The hall served as army barracks during Napoleonic and Prussian times, but the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV eventually ordered its reconstruction. Today, it is used as the Church of the Redeemer and owned by a congregation within the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. The basilica contains the largest extant hall from antiquity. The hall has a length of 67 m, a width of 26.05 m and a height of 33 m. Like many other buildings, it was burned due to an air raid of the allied forces during World War II, and the inner decorations that dated to the 19th century were not reconstructed.

We made our way from there through an ancient gate into the area around the main churches. Trier had 4 churches built in a square in the Middle Ages. Two of them remain.

The Trier Dom, the High Cathedral of St. Peter on Liebfrauenstrasse, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which incorporates the remains of an older Roman brick 4th-century church in the nave. The oldest cathedral in Germany and notable for its long life span and grand design, it was constructed in stages from the early 11th century to the 14th century. The original cathedral was commissioned by Emperor Constantine the Great, and built on top of a palace of Saint Helen, his mother. Its furnishings include several outstanding objects, such as the Holy Tunic (one of the competing seamless tunics that supposedly was worn by Jesus), the tomb of the papal envoy Ivo (1144) and the skull of Saint Helena. This church also suffered many seasons of destruction from the Franks in the 300’s, to the Vikings in the 800’s.

Next to the cathedral, and sharing a wall, stands the Liebfrauenkirche, Church of our Lady, built in 1227–60. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the earliest known examples of German Gothic architecture. It is the earliest church built in French High Gothic style outside France. In 1951, Pope Pius XII designated the church a minor basilica.

From the Palatinate Hall, we walked through Hauptmarkt, Trier’s main market square, one of the most attractive in Germany, dating back to the 10th century.

On the southeastern side of the square is the Petrusbrunnen (St Peter’s fountain), dating from 1595, with sculptures of St Peter and the Four Virtues. On the southwestern side stands the 15th-century Steipe, with a steep gabled roof. Originally it was used by the town councilors as a guest house and banqueting hall. The Baroque Rotes Haus (Red House) next door dates from 1683. Löwenapotheke, in a 17th-century building on the southeastern side of the square, is Germany’s oldest pharmacy, its records dating back to the 13th century.

Walking through the market square, we headed to Porta Negra. This town gate, named (Black Gate) in the Middle Ages because of the color of its weathered stone, was erected in the 2nd century.  The oldest German defensive structure, it still impresses with its colossal size. Two gateways lead onto a small inner courtyard, and there are two tiers of defense galleries. In the 12th century the building was transformed into the two-story church of St Simeon to save it from destruction and served as such until the early 19th century. There was a large stage in front of Porta Negra with singers preforming loudly as part of the festival.

We walked to the left, by a statue of Karl Marx who was born in Trier. We learned Marx wasn’t the original family name as the family was Jewish. His parents changed their surname before Karl was born to a more German name that was common in the area.

The excursion ended in that area, which was also the bus pick up spot at the end of the hour and a quarter free time. The problem was, it was very warm, no shops were open and the whole area was crowded with festival goers. The adventurer, Alan, wasn’t going to sit around for that amount of time so he went exploring.

He got a better picture of Porta Negra from the other side without the stage, and then decided to see if he could get back to the Dom. He wound his way through the crowds, snapping a few pictures along the way of kids eating ice cream, wine punch stations being prepared, salmon cooking on wood fires, Karl Marx’s family home, American football being advertised, and hams being baked.

Upon arriving at the Dom, he was excited to see an amazing light show as the sun shone through the stained-glass windows to produce dancing images on the floor and on some of the statues. There wasn’t much time, so he took as many pictures as he could, including some of the other aspects of the cavernous cathedral.

There was a souvenir shop open on the way back, so he quickly found a Trier Cathedral key chain for the Christmas tree, and the kind shop keeper allowed him to use a credit card, even though it wasn’t the 10 Euros normally used as the floor for a credit purchase. He was able to make his way back through the crowd and get back in plenty of time.

There was nothing else Joyce wanted to see so she and a couple other ladies from the ship found a shady spot with a concrete bench and chatted. One of the ladies had stumbled and fallen near Alan as he was out, and he was glad to see that she was doing OK. Joyce had helped her some with some bleeding as she made her way back to the gathering place.

As time went on, Jovan, the program director, was in and out of the area. He saw the number of people gathering, so he called the buses to come early so we could sit on the air-conditioned buses. There were no dawdlers today, so we headed back to the ship, which was now docked in Schweich. Once everyone was on board we headed for Trier.

Tonight we ate dinner by ourselves, just the two of us. Our server, Ellen, joked that we were on a date and she would bring candles.

After blogging and working on pictures, we packed our suitcases and enjoyed our veranda one last time. Tomorrow we leave the ship at 8:30 a.m. for Paris.