Of all the places I would be visiting in Germany, Trier was the one I looked forward to the most. Founded in 16BC by the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, Trier, or Augusta Treverorum as it was known, was the most important Roman city in Northern Europe. I have not been disappointed, but also pleased to find a lovely little city beside all the Romanness. Trier was also the birthplace of Karl Marx, but I must disappoint my communist friends because I did not visit the house he was born in. As I mentioned in the previous blog, my hotel room looks out over the remains of one of the Roman gatehouses – the Porta Nigra. It is called that now because of the dark colour of the stonework, but we don’t know what the gate was
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