First Europe Adventure: Trier, Germany

We finally had all the kids at home and were settled into our house, so we decided to do a family adventure before school started.  After asking around and getting suggestions from others, we made a day trip to Trier, Germany on this rainy day.  We found an underground parking garage right in the city center.  Trier is a city that was founded by the Romans and contains many well preserved structures.  It is also one of the oldest German cities and we found out that it has eight UNESCO sites.  We made the Porta Nigra our first historical Roman stop.

The Porta Nigra is actually a Roman city gate and is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps.  The name actually comes from the dark stones, since Porta Nigra means black gate. Originally the city had four gates, but this is the only gate that remains today.  This is largely due to the fact that it was turned into a church in the 1200s.  But then when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, he dissolved the church in 1802.  Word has it that he wanted to completely tear down the building, but the locals convinced him to turn it back to its Roman origin.

The Porta Nigra was turned into a UNESCO site in 1986 and has been protected ever since.  Cars are not allowed to drive through the gate, but tourist, like us, can buy tickets and walk all around and through the gate.  The halls, columns and archways were simply beautiful.

The views from the top were really pretty awesome too.  It was great getting a full city view.  From the window, we saw a huge church in the distance and made that our next destination.

After descending the circular staircase, we walked in the direction of the church we had seen from the window.  As we were leisurely walking we came across one of the cutest town squares we have ever seen.  It was like something from an old fairytale, complete with a clock tower.  We found out that this is called the Hauptmarket, which is the market square.

As we continued walking we turned the corner as came face to face with a gorgeous cathedral.  We learned that this is called the Cathedral of Trier or St. Peter's Cathedral and is the oldest cathedral in Germany and also a UNESCO site.

The oldest part of the cathedral was built in the fourth century. This church boasts of Romanesque towers, Gothic vaulting, and a Baroque chapel.  It was really neat seeing all the different architecture and works of architectural art all around and intertwined.

One of the most impressive sites and sounds was the organ.  While we were walking around, we found out that an organist was going to play the organ in only a half hour, so we decided to get tickets and stay for the organ performance.  The sound of the organ in the church was super impressive.  It was incredible hearing the echoing of the pipes.  Monster had enough pipes after about 10 minutes, so I took him out and we walked around the church while Kevin and the girls enjoyed the rest of the music.

It was well past lunchtime when the organ performance was completed, so we went on hunt for food. A friend recommended a restaurant called Kartoffel Restaurant Kiste, so we went on a hunt for the restaurant.  We found it and sat down to our first German restaurant.  German's love their potatoes, so we had some carb stuffed food.  It was good, but very very heavy.  We didn't have a reservation, but luckily the let us have an outside table.  We have learned that it is important to have a reservation for any restaurant in Germany.

We left the restaurant and made our way back to the Hauptmarket.  We enjoyed walking around the market and seeing all the shops and the products they had to sell.  We found a gelato store and decided to end the day with gelato.  There are still so many more things to see in Trier and I know we will be going back soon to hit them up.  We enjoyed our day out in Germany and are excited to be living here for the next few years.