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Published: October 9th 2005
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What a fun weekend it's been. Fri. I took my language placement exam for orientation. Beginning Mon. we'll be divided into groups of around 20 students depending on language ability for the rest of the three week orientation. In the evening Matt and Jaime came over to my place for dinner. It was a delicious dinner. We had planned to watch a movie, but we were having such a great time just hanging out, we never did get to the movie.
Sat. Jaime, Matt and I took the bus into the city and walked around for a while. We then found a place for lunch and had Dörners (Gyros)..... ahhh, they're sooooo good. It was the first one I'd had since being back in Germany. We walked around a little more, just looking at the different stores and stuff and then got some ice cream =). I love Italian ice cream. At two we met all the international students at the Porta Negra (Black Gate) for our city tour. It was a neat tour. I'll try to tell you some of the stuff I remember from yesterday.
Trier is the oldest city in Germany. It was established as
A Baroque palace and garden in front of the Constantine Basilica
Just a quick note about the Basilica... it was heated through floor and wall heating (by fire) The floors were kept at around 60°C, that's about 140° F!!! a town in the year 16 BC by Emperor Augustus of the Roman Empire. Before that the Celts had lived in the area. Come the 3rd Century Trier was a rich and prospering city. During this time roads were built. Due to the increasing wealth of the city, a city wall was needed. La Porta Negra (Black Gate) was the northern gate of the city and is the only gate of the four left standing. When it was first built it was almost white. The gate is built of a light sandstone. Algea has attached itself to the porrous surface of the sandstone and over time has turned the stone to black (hence the name today). Begining in the 5th Century Trier was part of the French Empire. In 1815 the city then belonged to the Prussian Empire. In 1945 Trier became a part of the state Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany. Trier was also home to Karl Marx until he graduated from school at the age of 17.
There are a lot of really old and neat buildings to see around Trier. The Cathedral had once been the palace of Emperor Constantine. He and Helena gave the Christians back the
right to practice their religion. He gave over the palace to the Christians so they would have a place to worship. The Palace was destroyed and the Cathedral built in its place. In the Trier cathedral is the robe that is said to be the one Christ wore during the crucifixion. Helena brought the robe back with her from a pilgrimage. The robe is publicly displayed only a few times every century. A golden cross hangs above where the robe is kept in the cathedral. Next to the cathedral is the Church of our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche) which was built between 1235 and 1260. It is one of Germany's first gothic churches.
During our tour we also got to see the Konstantine Basilica, a baroque palace and Imperial Thermae (die Kaiserthermen - a roman bathing area). There was definetely a lot to see and still more. I have some pictures up on my site. I plan on taking more pictures of Trier through out the next few weeks (as I didn't get pictures of all the buildings and places our tour guide talked about on our tour).
Well, I guess that'll about do for today. I'm off to Katrin's tonight for dinner and a movie or maybe hanging out in the city. We'll see. I'll try to write again tomorrow to let you know how my fist real day of orientation went (we have language and history lessons in the morning and then information session in the afternoon). Hope all is going well. Ciao!
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