The oldest city in Germany and the richest country in Europe? Yes, please! Early Saturday morning, Izzie and I left Bonn Hbf to head to Trier, but we had one change rather than a direct train. Usually I don't mention this but pulling into Koblenz Hbf at 8 am, my oh my it was beautiful. The train passed over the Rhine and the view was absolutely stunning. There was a layer of fog that covered the details of the buildings but left the silhouettes, including those of two sets of twin towers. It made me want to leave the station during our transfer but there wasn't nearly enough time for that. I may return another day, but it won't look the same. And now on to an update from the second train, first off the view is great here too. I'm not quite sure where "here" is, but I love the look of mountain villages and that's what I'm passing through right now. But really i just wanted to mention that I just got woken up by a train worker and was chastised for having my shoes on the seat. Whoops.
Since trains, busses, and planes are where I get most of my blogging done, it should be no surprise that I'm now writing while on the bus to Luxembourg. We're spending the night and tomorrow there, before we return back to Bonn tomorrow night. But yeah, here's a recap of the day:
Our first stop was for brunch and I absolutely loved the cafe we went to. As we were walking up we were talking about how much we wanted pancakes and then when we opened the menu I saw, for the first time in Europe, a section entitled Pfannkuchen and had a good laugh about how perfect it was that we stumbled into this particular place. Of course they weren't American style pancakes, it was a crepe, but I got it nonetheless along with an omelette. What a great start to the day!
Next up we headed toward the city and went to the first bank we came across. This sparkesse had an interesting statue out front: a man with three pigs. And then right next to the door looking inside was yet another pig, this time alone. And then once you were inside there was yet another pig! Why? I do not know. Once we'd gotten money, we walked a little further and stumbled straight into what I'd come to see: the structure of Porta Nigra, or black gate. I didn't know much about the history of it going in, just that Trier is known for its ruins and buildings from Roman settlement and that this structure was the most iconic of them. Izzie and I learned a lot from the small pamphlet we received at the entrance as well as the short animated video we found projected onto the wall on the lowest level. The view from the top was quite nice along with all of the facade detailing on the outside and within the corridors. Definitely worth the 3 euro (yay for student discounts!).
After that we walked to the main market square, popping in and out of shops on the way. Can we just take a moment to stop and appreciate how cute all the buildings are?? The inner architect wannabe inside of me was having a BLAST walking along all of the streets. Going from the charm of the main shops and restaurants that populated the area to the contrasting Roman style ruins that popped up here and there, and then right back to the charm again made me really happy. Also the small palace we stumbled across may just have been the most beautiful building I've ever seen. I'm not quite sure exactly what color it was but it was a nice pink-y tone, along with white/grey marble and gold detailing. Also, there was a white railing and statues positioned perfectly in front, lining the stairs. The view of it was slightly ruined by the Huntsville-prison-esque red brick basilica behind it, which to me was just an eyesore more than anything else, but all of the components of the palace worked cohesively with each other to make it a really spectacular crib. And since we're already nerding out about cool buildings, St. Peter's Catheral may just have been my favorite of all the ones I've seen so far. The outside was a mixture of two styles that somehow worked SO well together. One half was gothic and the other baroque?, I'm not quite sure. The inside also had some unique features. One was the organ--it is one of very few I've seen that had any sort of design on it (plus it's a pretty rockin design), but most notable was the domed ceiling that was opposite the organ. It had a simple blue background with a white statuary coming out of it. While only a small portion of the church, it absolutely took my breath away. As for other places to visit, we also went to the old amphitheater. It was a short walk from the city center and it was pretty cool. There wasn't all that much to see, but I quite liked envisioning chariot races and spartan duels and whatnot taking place as we walked around it.
Iz and I also shopped around a lot today which was nice because I never seem to go when I'm in Bonn. All I ended up getting was a sweater (quelle surprise!), but I also have quite a few more shoes piling up on my list of things I'd buy if I were rich. I'm also still on the hunt for good running shoes, because my poor puma sneakers are just not meant for all the running I've been doing lately.
And the last thing we did in Trier? Well, I've been wanting a haircut for a while. I even meant to cut it before coming to Germany in January, I just never got around to it. But today, I did. We both did. We didn't plan on it at all, the idea just kind of popped into our heads and we became determined to make it happen. We're both pretty happy with our cuts I think, although it seems Izzie wants hers slightly longer and I want mine slightly shorter. But opinions can change a lot after a new haircut, so we'll just have to wait and see how we feel about them tomorrow. We also decided not to tell anyone what we did/hide it in our snapchats and just wait for them to see for themselves, mostly because I want to see the surprise reaction of Ibk when I walk into the house tomorrow night with like 5 or so inches of my hair missing. I think she's going to flip and I'm excited! (Update: she did flip and the video I took of her reaction is adorable. Also, my cut is lopsided but I have no plans to fix it.)
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| Before |
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| After |
Luxembourg first impressions:
- General confusion / What the heck is going on? (There was a weird man screaming by the bus stop/outside the train station that really freaked me out.)
- Rode the loudest bus I've been on to date, apparently the normal don't-have-extensive-conversations-on-the-bus policy that we've encountered in the rest of Europe is not a thing, especially when you're surrounded by drunk people (at 8:40 pm) and rowdy middle/high schoolers
- Our hostel is legit
Luxembourg, although I didn't have many expectations for it, was kind of a bust in my opinion. In Trier, us not having a real plan of where we were going worked perfectly, but here it was a little different. While the city was still pretty walkable, it is somewhat divided into sub cities, each with different characteristics. We didn't find the one that had the vibe I wanted/was expecting from the city until just before we had to leave for our train. Nevertheless we still had a fun time together and saw some cool things along the way.
We started off with a killer climb to an overlook we could see from the breakfast area in our hostel, took a long breather, and hopped a small fence to get some pics with an old castle watchtower. From there we walked aimlessly and stumbled upon the largest, prettiest, most extra retirement home on the planet. Seriously, it looked like a palace. Next we walked toward the city center and were surprised to find literally everything closed. Even though we knew that in Europe it's more common for things to be closed on a Sunday, we'd never really encountered it on such a large scale. Because of the lack of restaurants and shops, the whole area was pretty deserted except for the other travelers who were visiting the city. We ended up picking up a map from the tourism information center, then pretty much disregarded the sights to see it listed and went to check out the Luxembourg City History Museum. It was free for students (woot!) and well worth the visit in my opinion. There was tons of information (provided in English, German, and French) and plenty of cool things to look at. My favorite part was the 360 panoramic mural of Luxembourg by the painter Antoine Fontaine. They also had a photography temporary exhibit that depicted Luxembourgers from the past up to the present which I quite enjoyed.
Next up we went in search of the most beautiful balcony in all of Europe. Unfortunately when we found it we were quite disappointed with what we saw. It had an okay distance view, but when you were actually there most of your vision field was just full of dead or straggly trees. Not exactly the beautiful view I was expecting. BUT alles gut because we were totally at the wrong balcony! Once we left that one, we just walked around for a while and ended up stumbling upon the actual most beautiful balcony, which yes, was much nicer than the first, but I have a hard time believing it beats out ALL others in Europe.
Random things:
- The bus drivers all just waved us off and let us pass for free when we went up to buy a ticket from them, so we never paid for public transportation even though we fully intended to.
- My Urban Piano Luxembourg
- When you see a playground, you have to play on it. Right?
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