Visits to Traben Trabach and Trier

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We started of with rain but it turned out a beautiful sunny day. Through this we had the wrong clothes on and it became very hot later in the day. Going direction Koblenz we saw a lock in the river, that invited us to have a closer look. There were a few ships that had to go through. You need to be a very good skipper the be able to steer those ships through these narrow openings. Continuing our trip we landed at a Benedict Convent, at least that is what it was in earlier days. Now it is a restaurant, Museum and Brewery. The building was interesting and had a chapel from 1084. Driving along the Mosel is such a pleasure. The scenery changes, from the small villages dotted along the river to the vines climbing up the mountains. We approached Traben Trabach and crossed the river through the old porch. Very lucky, we found a parking underneath the Bridge. Places like these you leave your car and do some walking. Well passed coffee time made us look for a nice place where we sat down and enjoy a coffee and apple cake. We walked back over the bridge to Traben to have a look at this place but we did not see the lovely buildings that these places are famous for. We were dressed far to hot that made us go back to change. At the Hotel we were very happy to Finnish celebrating Liz birthday with a cool bottle of wine and some cheese. It had been a beautiful day. Next day we set of to Trier. Only 55 kilometres away, but driving along the Mosel can take hours. We had no Tom Tom and sometimes made that land us in impossible places. But we got out of it. Close to Trier we set the Tom Tom in that took us quickly to the centre of town and a park place as well. More problems were awaiting. This time it was me not watching where I was going. Missed a step and scraped along a very old first century wall, scraped a bit of skin away, that had to be seen to. Liz fixed it all up and we were ready to discover the city of Trier. A very busy place with lots of churches. Trier dates back to the Roman Empire till that crumbled and was taken over by the Franken. The Dom is an amazing church and the inside with the many sculptures makes it feel warm and inviting. It also contains the Rock, the under cloth Christ was wearing on his way to the Crucifixion. Queen Helena, who also found the Cross gave that to Constantijn the Great who took it to Trier. It is only to see in certain years. We walked according the town plan that sets out the most interesting points. We came to the Constatijn Church, that was the Throne room while in Trier. Now it is an Evangelise Church. Time became urgent when we walked to the Amphitheatre. Such interesting places and they close at 6 p.m. We just made it to see the Arena and underneath where the animals and Gladiators had their quarters. These all dated from 100 AD. Walking through the Arena thinking back of all the happenings that took place there,makes you feel happy not to live there in those years. We had to go back to Bernkassel and to do this in a reasonable time we used the Tom Tom that took us back within the hour. Although nearly there it took us through some very small streets, that was not necessary. A nice shower was next and a clean-up of my injuries brought the day to an end. Bye for now, no doubt further adventures will follow. Liz & Allan.

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