So today was Trier and Bernkastel. Trier is a very
historical city – roughly 2000 years old. There is a large technology
university there and the city is roughly
100,000 people + 20,000 students. It’s a regional shopping place and
there were some great stores around the town square. Unfortunately since it was
Sunday, everything was closed except for restaurants and coffee shops. We had a
guided tour (by the same woman with the Arkansas accent). Turns out her husband
is from Germany and he is (was) on faculty at the university. She was full of
lots of historical facts – too many for me to remember at 8:30 on a Sunday
morning – but she was also quite fun. We saw parts of the large wall – actually
the gate (Porta Nigra) - which
surrounded the city and is from the original Roman settlement. We also saw the
house where Karl Marx was born. You can see it in the picture below. Note the
store that now occupies the lower part of his home. Basically, it’s
“Everything’s a Dollar” – only in this case it’s “Everything’s a Euro” – I just
found the political irony of that hysterical.
We sailed down the Moselle for the afternoon – basically
we’re sailing through vineyards. The hillsides are quite beautiful. Then we
stopped in Bernkastel where there are remnants of a Castle and a number of
preserved half-timbered houses surrounding the marketplace. It was really
pretty. Know why they stopped making half-timbered houses? The invention of fire
insurance! Seriously – that’s what they told us.
Ray and I napped a bit and then rather than eating dinner on
board we had a delightful dinner in town since we didn’t sail until 10:45pm.
After dinner we went for a bit of a stroll and then went back to the ship to
enjoy a beautiful sunset across the wine country. Unfortunately I missed
getting some spectacular photos, but Charlie (one of the people we’re traveling
with) got some stunning ones so I’ll be able to add those later.
The boat remains quite nice – internet service is pretty
spotty – mostly because we’re in valleys a lot. But other than that, really the
service has been spectacular.
Fortified gate in Trier
A peacock in a pot....was just something by a restaurant that I thought was pretty fun.
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