Seems an appropriate title for today. The other title I was considering was ‘I Took A Bath At The Baths’

Today started with a walk to the St. Paulinus Basilica on the far side of town. The church I went to yesterday, but was closed. I was debating whether or not to, but I am glad I did. Wow, it’s incredible. “Saint Paulinus’ (German: St. Paulinskirche) is a Baroque church in the city of Trier, Germany. Constructed between 1734 and 1753, the interior was designed by Johann Balthasar Neumann. The ceiling of the nave features a painting by the artist Christoph Thomas Scheffler. The tomb of the saint after whom the church is named, Paulinus of Trier, is located in the church’s crypt.” Just look at the images.

Then I went back to the old town, and sort of near the Porta Nigra is the Franketurm, (Frankish Tower). It’s a 1,000 year old castle tower, but is now used as a place for private and organized events, and isn’t a museum.

Then it was off to the Palais Princier de Trèves, a neat palace that I have no idea what or who it was used by or built for, but it has a neat garden out front. Then it was off right next door (almost) to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum. A big museum focusing on the Roman history of Trier. A Roman settlement and military camp built around 16 BC., and then became the major capital of the entire Western Roman Empire, from Trier, to Gaul, Spain and parts of England, the emperor sat in Trier. The museum is full of everything you’d except, statues, figures, pots, jewelry, big grave stones, everything Roman. It also has a small section on the Trier region in the Neolithic Era where early people lived and made tools, many of which are on display.

After that it was off to the Kaiserthermen. (Imperial/Emperor Baths) Because the Barbara Baths of yesterday just weren’t enough. At least these ruins were a bit more intact. Now here’s where the bath part of my alternate title suggestion came in. It started raining hard. Really damn hard. But this time I was prepared with my umbrella. I didn’t care. I went in to explore anyways. The baths were built after Trier (then known as Augusta Trevorum) became a major city, sometime around the 3rd century. A new Emperor Constantine changed plans and the cities political activities, and construction was halted. Then along came Emperor  Valentinian I. Long story short, it was never completed, and different parts were used for different things, like a castle wall and a church. Annoyingly, a big section of it was covered by scaffolding, presumably for repairs. This one also has a big tunnel section underneath I was wandering through alone, reminiscent of the time I spent in the haunted bunker in Berchtesgaden. After a couple wrong turns I finally made it back out, and left. I was wandering the ruins while as I mentioned it was just pouring down rain, even heard thunder booming a whole bunch. There was nobody, save for a tour group inside the ticket center a little ways away. I wandered around for a while and saw nobody. Then I turned a corner to go down underground, and there were 3 people there huddled under an old archway roof to keep out of the rain. Amazingly when I left the horrifying and haunted underground tunnels the rain had significantly slowed, and a few minutes later stopped, and the sun began to come out again, I headed southeast a ways to the…

Amphitheater! A neat and surprisingly large theater, but not for plays – for gladiatorial combat! Yep, gladiators fought each other for up to 18-20,000 spectators! It doesn’t look like much now, as much of it is covered over in grass, but it had a neat underground chamber, and the whole floor, or at least much of it is supported by large wood beams. There’s still rooms you can go in, but a lot of them were flooded with several inches of water. The underground chamber was also heavily flooded. There is a neat tour you can do here, a walk and story/history with a guy armored up like a gladiator, but as with all the other Trier tours, it’s German only. And Fri/Sat/Sun only and I’m not sticking around too long on Friday.

I took a couple videos, but those take forever to upload, so I might add them later.

I also spent sometime deciding if I wanted to step out of Germany for a day and visit Luxembourg, which is very close, but there wasn’t really much there that piqued my interest sadly.

But for now, it’s time again for a German city with a goofy name Today’s winner is: Essen. Well it doesn’t sound very funny, but the German word for food is “Essen”. With a capital E, too, because for whatever reason, nouns are always capitalized, every time, everywhere. So you can ask the question “Essen Sie Essen in Essen?” Which means “Do you eat food in Essen?” Also, the title is a line from the movie Gladiator which seems pretty fitting. Have some pictures now.

Trier city center video with end of a bell show:

 

Video of the ruins: Pretty much everywhere… it’s gunna rain…

And I didn’t need a jacket…

…

…

AHEEHEEHEEHEEEEEEE