Trier, Köln, Dusseldorf

On Friday Sept. 4th, I went with four others from GTL to Germany. It began to rain early in the several hour train ride, and continued to do so as we got off in Trier and consulted a map. Discouraged by the rain, but not deterred, we walked to the Porta Nigra, the gate to the old city built by the Romans.

Porta Nigra

Inside

View toward Trier city center

Sohail and John in Porta Nigra, are they laughing at me?

We climbed up into the stone structure and took some photos. My camera didn't quite capture the mystical effect of the fog lifting off the hills in the background.

This type of roofing was popular throughout Trier. I wonder what it's called.

Once beyond Porta Nigra, we were in an old shopping district, which culminated in a quaint plaza.

I believe we found the most beautiful Mcdonald's in the world...



As well as a Subway sandwich shop with a happy hour.

As far as I can tell, in Europe, Subway is the cheapest place to get food that won't give me a heart attack in less than 30 years. We elected to eat at a real German restauraunt. The waiter recommended schnitzel, which sounded exotic, but was a basic fried slab of meat. In the evening we again tried the local cuisine and were similarly disappointed.

Good Irony



This was an incredible fountain. The iron vines that form the structure were decorated with artisans and craftsmen, like masons and blacksmith.

We saw these ruins from outside the complex, as big black clouds approached from the opposite direction and lightning began to strike. I got a free retrospective peak at the ruins by poking my camera through a hedge. I just looked at it for the first time today and it was a much better view than I had from the outside.

We found shelter nearby and waited out the mini-storm. Umbrellas were opened and closed at least three times an hour for the entire day. As the rain eased a bit, we photographed this beautiful building.

Kurfürstliche Palais


Trier's Cathedral

Our hostel was on a path that ran along the Moselle river. Here we are looking from central Trier across the Moselle to the surrounding hills. The Moselle is the same river that runs through Metz. One of the tour boats docked was run by Tauck Discovery tours, which I think is based in Norwalk, CT.

Moselle River

The hostel had more families and elderly people than students. In fact, during our stay, I saw no one between the ages of 12 and 30 (aside from my group). It seems to me there must have been cheaper hostel options available. Trier was sleepy at night, though, which could be a factor. I taught everyone how to play pitch, a card game that my extended family plays at every reunion. Phil, an avid poker player, especially enjoyed the game, and prodded us to play throughout the weekend.


The next morning, we caught a train to Köln. We used the Happy Weekend pass, which covers up to 5 people for around 40 Euros for a day of travel - not a bad deal. Köln was a much larger, more heavily touristed city. Our first stop was a kebab shop. I had gorged myself on free breakfast from the hostel, including eggs, cereal, and two salami sandwiches, and gladly passed on a kebab. A European kebab is not skewered meat and vegetables, rather, it is a hot sandwich made of meat (usually lamb), veggies, sauce, and a thick bread or roll, similar in taste to a gyro. A huge cylindrical slab of meat is often hung pinata-style in plain sight in the shop and the "chef" uses a razor-like contraption to shave the meat off onto your sandwich. Watching this is pretty disgusting to me, although others disagree.


Outside the kebab shop, there were a few soccer fans from South Africa, dressed in Bafana Bafana gear, blowing their famous Vuvuzela horns that. Why were these soccer fans in Köln Germany? I speculated that there must be an international match nearby, and felt a little disappointed I didn't know about it.

We walked past the soccer fans to the cathedral, which was probably the biggest I have seen yet.

Kölner Dom (Cathedral)

Dom Stained Glass

The cathedral has an underground treasury, which, true to its name, contained ridiculously lavish religious items. There were gold-laced clergy outfits for special events, gilded, bejeweled, staffs and crucifixes, monstrances, chalices. Many of the fineries were out of space for any more precious stones.

Next, we hiked to the top of the cathedral via a single staircase that had both climbers and descenders on it. Someone could have caused a lot of problems by shouting "Fire". The view from the summit was obscured by wire cage and the surrounding areas were more modern than historic.

View from the top of the cathedral

Afterward, we crossed the street to the museum Ludwig, which housed an impressive modern art collection - much more extensive than the Centre Pompidou in Paris. There was a Picasso for every day of the artist's life, or so it seemed. There was also plenty of art that I didn't "get". Unfortunately, photos of the art were prohibited. In fact, as I entered the name of a piece in my ipod, a woman came over to see if I was taking pictures with it.

As we walked along the river and checked out the city center, we saw the Beer Bike go by. The Beer Bike is a bar on wheels propelled by patrons who pedal from their seats. Two of my friends were offered a ride with this bachelorette beer bike party, but hesitated to leave the rest of us and still have not forgiven themselves. I was in Subway a hundred yards away getting a sandwich at the time. A Beer Bike event is actually a decent deal - 20 liters of beer for 10 people for 200 euros and 2 hours. We saw another beer vehicle in Dusseldorf that night, but it was a bachelor party this time. There were many bachelor parties going on in both Koln and Dusseldorf, with the bachelor and his entourage wearing matching custom t-shirts. Not having matching shirts, we almost felt left out. We settled in outside a bar that was gearing up for the Germany-South Africa game. Intrigued by the Giraffe, a five-foot cylinder of beer, we ordered a three-liter variety and had our own tap for glasses of Kölsch, the popular, but mediocre signature beer of Köln.

Beer Bike

The plan was to ride over to Dusseldorf by train and see what the fuss is about its nightlife. We boarded a packed train for a half-hour ride, which spat out half the passengers at Leverkusen where the Germany game was played that night. I was now very upset I didn't know about the game and could have seen it for minimal travel expense as opposed to setting fire to cash on the way to Manchester the next week. Dusseldorf had an extremely busy line of bars, with hundreds of people passing by every minute. We did not sample the nightlife, but did sample some cheap and sadly delicious Pizza Hut.

In the morning, we returned to Köln and headed straight for the chocolate museum. The museum covered every part of the process from growing and harvesting cacao to packaging and marketing. Here are some highlights.

Ingredients of small chocolate bar

Chocolate wrapping machinery

Cacao plant growing in the museum's small, sweltering indoor rainforest

Molding Chocolate:

Molten chocolate is poured into a mold and placed on this contraption to create "constant rotation in every direction on its own axis" ensures uniform thickness throughout the finished product. This would have been a good gyroscope example for my dynamics class.

Cocoa beans were used as currency by the Aztecs, who deeply valued the bean. It was used as a sort of panacea to treat fever and wounds.

There was an incredible chocolate shop in the museum. I bought some absurdly high-percentage dark chocolate - 90% and 99% - for my mom who is a fiend for the 85%. I bought another 99% for all of us to try. My friends suffered through their tiny squares - someone said it tasted like dirt. I got pretty hooked and had finished half of the bar before our return to Metz. After a Italian lunch easy on the taste buds and stomachs rattled by German cuisine, we boarded the first of a few trains that would take us back to Metz, and played the first of many games of pitch.