Spring Break--Day 2 Trier, Germany

13 April, 2010--Day 2 Trier

After taking care of some essential errands on the air base (like getting our proof of insurance emailed from the London office and printed out at the local library) we took off for the city of Trier.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany, dating back to the Roman Empire. We decided to focus our visit on the Trier Dom, or Cathedral of Saint Peter. It is an amazing building, with quite a history. We were in awe of the ceilings, the inlaid wood in the pews, the intricate and ornate sculptures, and I could go on, and on, and on, and on...

Just see for yourselves:

This is the ceiling over the baptistry:

Isn't that inlaid wood lovely? And each pew had a different design!

This photo is of one of my favorite areas:
The Marienkapelle, or Chapel for Mary.

These next three photos show the wall of the chapel, divided into three panels, each describing a significant event in Mary's life.

The first is the angel appearing to her, telling her that she will be the Christ child's mother:
The second is her visit with Elizabeth, her cousin:
And the third is of the birth of Christ. I thought it was just a glorious area of the cathedral, and I wish my photos did it justice. I think you'll just have to trust me that it was beautiful. Sorry.



This is a record of all of the Bishops from the year 250 AD to the present day.

It was just an amazing building, and we were so thankful that we were able to see it, and that Dallin was worn out enough that he sat quietly in his stroller. We were very impressed with how reverent our children were. Sometimes, you never know how these things will turn out...

We went outside to look at the garden for a few minutes, and Abby wanted me to take a picture of this sculpture that caught her interest:

Once we felt we had seen as much as our eyes could take in at the Dom, we headed out to the market square.


We saw this lovely fountain, and wondered what that building rising behind it was.

So we ventured over, and found another beautiful church--St. Gangolf's. This is the magnificent path to the entrance...

where we discovered the name of the church...

as well as a brief history of the building; at least I assume that's what it is. I speak zero German, so bear with me!

Once we entered, we were surprised at the combination of ancient and modern. Check out this stained glass in the entryway--

And then once you get through the entry, you are met with this:

This is the baptistry, which I felt was a perfect blend of both styles:

We only spent a few minutes there, but I was so glad we took the time. We could have easily slipped past this treasure.


The reason we only spent a few minutes there was that our parking time was about to expire. You have no idea how hard is to park a vehicle like ours in Europe. It's near to impossible. We had finally found what appeared to be a good spot, only to realize that we had no Euro coins, only bills; parking lot machines don't take bills. So, DH set off with Adam, our most advanced German speaker, to find someone to help us exchange our bills for some coins.

Thankfully, a kind librarian took pity on them, and we were able to park! But, even though we made it back in time, we were frustrated to find a parking ticket on our windshield! What the heck!?

Apparently, our vehicle was mistaken for a tour bus. Imagine that! Why would a white 15-passenger van with British license plates be mistaken for a tour bus? And apparently, we had parked our tour bus in a lot for personal vehicles only. Sheesh. If we had known we would end up with a ticket anyway, we wouldn't have wasted all that time looking for a proper space!

Oh well, we decided to take it up with the German liaison person at the base legal office in the morning. What's 10 Euros (approx. $13.50) after all we'd been privileged to see?!

We had a thoroughly enjoyable day, and were very much looking forward to more fun tomorrow. Next: Ramstein Air Base!