This weekend I took another little trip. I thought I was going to be going alone, but at the last minute a friend of mine told me that he was able to come with me, which made me really happy because I'm tired of traveling by myself. Anyway, we left Saturday afternoon after my language course and headed down to the town of Trier, which is actually the oldest city in Germany. I had thought that Köln was the oldest city in Germany because that's what somebody told me a long time ago, but it's actually Trier. It was a pretty short trip, but a nice one.

Since his decision to go was so last minute and we weren't going to make the train I had been intending to take at 2:18 Saturday afternoon, my friend decided that it would be better if he just drove, so we went in his car. The drive there actually took longer than we had expected because of a detour (we can't figure out why his navigation system had us leave the Autobahn when we did) but it took us along windy mountain/country roads, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I love this part of Germany because it's just indescribably beautiful. And, since it's fall, all of the trees were turning colors, and the leaves were blowing in the wind. It doesn't get much better than that, really.

When we got to Trier, the first thing we did was check into the hotel. Originally I had reserved a bed in a hostel since it was just going to be me, but when Stefan told me he was able to come along we thought it would be better to get a hotel room. The hotel was actually quite nice. The room itself was nothing spectacular but it was definitely a good, clean, comfortable room. The lobby was really cool, though. They had a full bar at the reception, several nicely decorated, comfortably furnished, cozy seating areas, a pool table, and a Wii. It created a really nice atmosphere and really kind of made you feel at home, or at least happy to be at the hotel. It definitely cost us more than the hostel would have, but I'm really glad that we stayed there.

We were both really hungry, so we decided to head out right away and find a place to eat as we began exploring the town. It was around 6 or 6:30, so it was starting to get a little bit dark, and cold. We had a map that showed where all of the main tourist attractions were but we didn't really use it that much. Trier is so small that it's kind of hard to get lost or to miss something. Plus, there are as many churches as there are people, so there's always something cool to look at. Nothing that we may have wanted to check out in greater detail was open because it was so late, but we saw some Roman ruins and ancient buildings, and more Roman ruins (the town is really full of walls and buildings and ruins from the Roman period). In the center of the Altstadt there was a stand that was selling Glühwein, wine, and something called Federweißer, which is a very young white wine. It was basically grape juice with yeast in it, so it was slightly fermented with a very low alcoholic content and tasted really sweet. Traditionally you would eat Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) with it, but we just tried the Federweißer. Afterward we went to a fish restaurant to have dinner, and we both got full off of the soup and weren't able to eat most of our meal. It was really good, though.

When we got back to the hotel after dinner we decided to hang out in the lobby and play pool. There were 2 guys that were just starting a game when we got there, so we bought a bottle of Riesling from the bar and hung out while we waited for them to finish their game. After their game they were actually done playing for the night, so Stefan and I were able to get a few games in before we were too tired to stay awake any more and had to go to sleep.

We didn't exactly get an early start Sunday morning, but it was ok because I had hardly slept Friday night and was absolutely exhausted, so I needed to sleep in a little bit. After we checked out of the hotel we put our stuff in his car and started walking again. The first thing we did was go back to the center of Altstadt, partly because it's so gorgeous with all of its old Fachwerkhäuser and partly because we were looking for something to eat. I introduced Stefan to the Sausage McMuffin with Egg (apparently he had never been to McDonald's in the morning before and didn't know there was such a thing as breakfast) and he now has a new favorite food. Then we headed over to the Dom and the Liebfrauenkirche, which is supposedly the oldest Gothic church in Germany. The Dom was originally sanctioned by the emperor Constantine, I believe it is the first Catholic church in Germany, and it houses both the Holy Tunic (not to be confused with the Shroud of Turin) and a nail that is believed to have been used to crucify Jesus. Unfortunately we weren't able to see very much of the inside of the cathedral or to take pictures because it was Sunday and they were having service. If I ever go back to Trier I'll have to make sure I do it on a weekday so that I can really check it out.

After we saw the cathedral we headed over toward the Mosel River, stopping in several churches and taking pictures of ancient buildings along the way. There was a path that ran along the river that was lined with trees and it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked along this path as we headed toward the Roman bridge, and we sat in a bench in the "sun" for a little bit to enjoy the view because it was too pleasant to do otherwise. At first we were slightly disappointed by the Roman bridge when we saw it, because aside from the fact that it looked really old there was nothing spectacular about it, but then we saw the other side and realized that there was a statue on it from the early Christian period.

The next thing we saw was the Kaiserthermen, which is the ruins of the Roman bath in Trier. We were actually able to go inside, which was really cool. I always feel very at home when I'm among archaeological ruins. The underground passages of the bath complex were open, too, so we got to walk around all over the ruins. Next we walked to the amphitheater, which also allowed access into the underground passages. A significant portion of the amphitheater had been destroyed in the Middle Ages because the stones were taken and used to build houses and whatnot.

The last stop on our tour (after eating at a delicious Chinese restaurant where the owner hooked us up with a really sweet deal) was the Porta Nigra, which was the northern entrance to the Roman city. We had seen this the night before but I wasn't able to get any pictures of it because my camera sucks and I can't take any decent pictures at night. I was glad that we were able to climb up to the top of the gate because it's really tall and I was dying to climb those steps and see it in more detail. It was a really nice end to our trip.

Once we had seen all that we really wanted to see, and since my camera battery was dead despite the fact that I had charged it the hotel, we headed back home. I felt bad that Stefan had to drive because he was just as tired as I was, but I was glad that I got to nap a little bit in the car. If we ever take another trip again, I don't think he will be driving the next time.