Friday, March 16, 2007
Trier, Germany
I wish I had a beautiful church or statue to show, but sadly the St. Ambrose Church is a true abomination. The statue of St. Ambrose out front of the church was also scary! In fact, there wasn't even a sign next to the statue, so quite honestly, it could have been a statue of anyone!! Anyway, the good news is we still got a picture of this sign: Ambrosius Strasse - Ambrose Street!! :)
We began our visit by entering the Porta Nigra. It is the only Roman Gate that remains in Trier. It was once used to enter the city and it is the largest Roman City Gate north of the Alps. The wall adjoining the gate once went all the way around the city. In person, it is very large and imposing. The walls are several feet deep and it stands quite tall. You can get a little perspective from this photo of Mark in front of the gate.
Once inside the city gate, we proceeded to the market square. In German, this is called the Hauptmarkt. The square had many restaurants, stores, musicians, flower vendors, fruit vendors and a beautiful fountain. On the way home, we purchased what I call a 'bride's maid' bouquet for only 6 Euro in the Hauptmarkt!! That's about the equivalent of $7.50!! It was beautiful...
While we took a few minutes to soak in all the activity in the square, there was a musician playing the flute accompanied by a recording of Bolero- one of my favorite Classical pieces. After looking all around the square, we decided to take some more photos. This photo is of Kelly by St. Peter's Fountain. It was built to represent the virtues and ideals of the city government.
There is a story behind the manhole covers, but I don’t know the details… From what I have heard, towns have their own ‘signature’ covers which include an image. This is a photo of the manhole covers in Trier. St. Peter is depicted – you can tell because he has the key to heaven in his hand.
Ambrose and I decided to take a break in front of the cathedral to ‘tickle’ Constantine’s toe. Read the text above for more information about this crazy foot sculpture…
This is a photo of Mark in front of St. Peter's Dom (St. Peter's Cathedral). Constantine commerorated his 20th anniversary in power by initiating the construction of two important cathedrals: St. Peter's Cathedral in Trier and St. Peter's Cathedral in... Rome! Isn't that wild?? As you can see, the 'Dom' of Trier is among the most important in Roman times and is the oldest Christian church in Germany.
Flowers and trees were beginning to show signs of early spring. It was great to finally see some signs of new life! Ambrose had a chance to investigate a flower in detail. He was very enamored with this new ‘thing’.
Here is a picture of Ambrose and me in front of the Elector’s Palace. The Elector’s Palace was taken over by the bishops during the 12th century. This rococo side of the palace was the home of the archbishop ‘elector’ and was added to Constantine’s original throne room during the 18th century. Today this structure is ‘home’ to the local government of Trier.
Here are a couple pictures of the Roman Imperial Baths. In German they are called the Kaiserthermen. We decided not to go inside the baths during this visit, but will likely tour them in more detail when we return another time. You can’t quite tell from these photos, but the size of the Kaiserthermen was representative of Constantine’s ego – very large! The Imperial bath ruins also have nearly a mile of underground tunnels.
Our final stop for the day was the Roman Amphitheater. After a 10 minute walk from the Trier town center, we arrived at the ruins of the amphitheater. By the time we got there, Ambrose was asleep on my back! You can see him snoozing in the Ergo carrier in these photos. Classic! Mark got some good shots here, don’t you think? He also went up to the top of the amphitheater to get a good perspective of the size from above. You can also go underground to see where the Roman warriors awaited their fate in the ‘gladiator’ style entertainment featured in the amphitheater during Roman times…
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