Trier

This past weekend was our final class trip - to Trier, Germany - which is the oldest city in Germany and was once the capital of the Roman empire. Unlike our other trips, we took a bus to this one, which was awesome. We first made a stop in Luxembourg to visit an WWII American Military cemetery and monument. It was truly one of the most beautiful things I have seen. The weather was amazing, about 75 degrees and sunny, so that certainly added to it. But it was amazing to see such a great monument and cemetery recognizing the support of the U.S. military, way out here in Luxembourg. We explored it for about an hour, and then had a picnic and got back on the bus to continue to Germany.

Luxembourg is a beautiful country. Who would have thought. The countryside is all rolling hills with vineyards and valleys and lots of windmills. It was really cool. When we pulled into Trier I was equally excited, because this place looked really cool. We visited many different things in Trier, the highlights include the ruins of an ancient Roman Bath, Karl Marx's house, the Porta Nigra - the old city gate, an old Amphitheater where gladiators used to duel, and a huge hill overlooking the city where our teacher let us get out of the bus and chill for a while. I actually got a sunburn! It was so beautiful out.

For dinner we went out to a real Roman restaurant, and had a more or less preset meal - interesting. When you think of Roman food, you probably immediately think pasta and pizza. Wrong. Romans ate some weird stuff. For an apertif (a "starting drink") we had some strange liquour mixed with honey and anise. No lie, it tasted like crap. I was able to finish it though, in time for our appetizer. Two sausages and some green beans. Sausages = delicious. Green Beans = Not. I have never eaten green beans prepared in a way that I didn't like until I had these. Grosssssss. We got to choose from a few things for our main meal, so I had the lamb steak in some sort of prune sauce. That was pretty good. Then dessert came, and I think one person actually was able to finish. It was literally pears covered in lard. NASTY! I asked the waitress to bring me the best German beer they had, and was disappointed as to what came back. Being in Belgium has certainly turned me into a beer snob. I mean yeah, it tasted okay, but come on, I thought Germans knew how to make beer.

For the night a group of us tried to go out, as it was the night before my birthday and we wanted to celebrate. Well, lets just say nightlife isn't the most important thing in Trier, in fact, there was none. So we went back to the hostel and went to bed, which was probably a good thing because we had to wake up at 8:30am the next day for breakfast.

Slept well, breakfast was good, then we set off for our final day in Trier. This is when we saw the inside of the Porta Nigra and Karl Marx's house. Interesting places. We had chinese for lunch, it was ok. Then we finally got to the part of the trip we were all looking forward to, Wine Tasting!

We took the bus a little outside of the main city, to a huge vineyard with very steep fields. We met this crazy German man who ran the vineyard (9th generation) and he insisted on taking group pictures every five minutes and would just steal your camera and do it. We learned about the process of wine making, and the different grapes and wines that this particular vineyard produced. The steep hills were used to grow Reisling grapes, which produce a sweet white wine. The hills are steep so that there is maximum sunshine on the grapes throughout the day. Under the ground there are rock slabs which break in the heat and release important minerals into the soil. We toured his vineyard, and saw his wine cellars and fermentation tanks. It actually was really interesting.

Then came the fun part - the tasting. Now how many people can say that on their birthday they got to go Wine Tasting in Germany, with perfect weather and a great group of people....this guy can. We first learned how to properly taste wine, hold it up to the sun, swish it, smell it, slurp it, swish it, drink it. We started with their dryest wine, a chardonnay, and then went up in sweetness to their dessert wine, and ended with their red wine. They supplied us with fresh baked rolls to eat between tastings. It was AWESOME. Matt and I purchased a bottle each for ourselves, and one for our host mom whose birthday is today. Great times.

The ride home was long, and the toilet tank was filled so we all had to hold in all the wine we just drank for a few hours - slightly uncomfortable. We watched Spartacus on the way home and all just chilled after a great weekend.

This was by far the best trip of my semester here. And who would have thought, this was the one I knew least about and didn't expect much from.

Kristina visits soon!

Home in less than three weeks - crazy!

Check the pics out.