Hermeskeil - (Another day trip to Trier) - New Years Day

When we went in for breakfast in the morning our table hadn't been set, and there was no food in sight. Eventually the lady in charge realised and came in and told us that the Americans were leaving early and our fellow dinner room guests were having brunch later, so we had to go and get our food from the spread put out for the Americans. We got the distinct impression that we had been forgotten.

We weren't really sure what to do for the day, as it was a double whammy of Sunday (not much is open in Germany on a Sunday) plus New Years Day. In the end we decided to go to Trier again and see what we had missed the day before. We parked in the same place, and as we expected, nothing was open. But we saw the Roman-built bridge over the Mosel River, and inside a big glass building (which wasn't open because of NY's) we saw some Roman baths which they uncovered when the were excavating to build a car park - which consequently never got built! We also saw Karl Marx's house.

We wandered back to the main drag where we heard music playing. We followed the sound and it turned out to be a small brass ensemble playing hymns and classical pieces on a colonnaded balcony of the cathedral, so the music flooded the square outside the cathedral - quite unexpected!

To fill in some time we had lunch in a bistro/bar where we ordered pizzas, which turned out to be HUGE! After finishing them, we tried to get the attention of the waitress, to pay the bill, but were blanked for half an hour, which filled in some more time too. We headed back to Hermeskeil.

It had been sprinkling a tiny bit throughout the morning, but on the way back, as we moved higher up in altitude, it started to rain, and then the rain got weird and seemed to float, and suddenly we realised it was snowing! In the snow we turned off to visit the local concentration camp, but it was closed and it was snowing quite a lot so we kept going on to Hermeskeil. We took a few photos of it snowing from the youth hostel.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in our dining room writing postcards, reading and knitting (me, not Tim!) and then had dinner in another dining room, with the remaining Americans. Most of them had gone home that morning (to the U.S.) but the remaining ones actually lived in Italy.

I will say here that it was at Hermeskeil that I first remember seeing concrete table tennis tables. It would seem that the YHA in Germany must gotten a good deal on them because they seemed to be at a lot of them. When the soccer world cup was on, I remember one radio correspondent who was staying at the Possenhofen YHA (which we will get to) making a comment about said table tennis tables. I eagerly agreed with the radio that they were quite bizarre!

Hermeskeil - (Day trip to Trier) - New Years Eve

Apparently lots of businesses close at about midday on New Years Eve in Germany, so we went to Trier for the day to walk around and see what we could see anyway. Trier is one of Germany's oldest towns and was founded by the Romans in 15 BC.

It took us about half an hour to get to Trier, and we saw some enormous windmills along the way. It was cold and bleak.

When we got to Trier we decided to chance the cost of a parking station rather than find somewhere on the street to park. It was pouring with rain and the snow was progressively turning to slush - all we needed was some cola syrup and we could have opened a slushie stall!

We went to the Porta Nigra first, which is a big black stone gate, and would have originally been the gate to the city in Roman times.

Wandering down the main shopping street (cobbled with no car access) we saw a big cathedral off on a side street - the Catholic church. It was huge and inside was very ornate.

We then headed off to see a Roman basilica, and on the way stopped at a lovely little toy shop. At the front of the basilica a rather ornate rococo style building was built, which was an elector prince's palace. The basilica is now an evangelical church. Inside it was very spartan (a complete contrast to the catholic cathedral). In Roman times it was an indoor marketplace.

We trudged on through the slush and rain to the library where an exhibition of the Egbert Codex was being held. The Egbert Codex is a local illuminated manuscript. The exhibition was quite small (and probably not worth the €4 entry fee) but it did have some other lovely calligraphed scripts and even a Gutenberg Bible. We then continued on in the snow to try and find a Roman amphitheatre. When we eventually found it, it was closed (New Years Eve strikes!) but a lady who was walking past suggested we walk up the hill behind it and then we could see some of it, but couldn't get any good pictures of it from that angle. We also saw the ruins of the Imperial Thermal Baths on the way there.

We then went to the Landesmuseum, but it appeared to be closed - not that we could actually find the entrance! This was a big disappointment to Tim, as it was one of the places he really wanted to go.

We then headed back to the main shopping area to get some lunch, and as everything was closing up for the day (1pm) and our feet were sore, we went back to the car to go home. We were quite surprised that the parking only cost €4,80!

On the way back we missed the turn off and ended up going north instead of east, but eventually we worked out how to get back to Hermeskeil.

We went for a walk when we got back, to find a place for a hot drink, and the only places open in the whole town were the pubs. We finally found a bistro which would serve us hot chocolate and we also ordered something that translated as cheese bread. When it appeared it was two enormous pieces of bread with quite a few slices of cheese, plus sliced tomato, capsicum and pickles on top, sprinkled with something like paprika. It wasn't what we expected but it was quite nice!

Dinner at the youth hostel. After dinner I was determined to stay up later than 8pm (the longest I had been able to manage until then because of jetlag) - it was New Years Eve afterall - so I kept myself awake until 9pm knitting. I then succumbed to bed. All around us though were very noisy kids (mostly American) running around, constantly banging the corridor door outside our room. The Americans also let off some fireworks outside at about 8:30pm, and were going to again at midnight, but I never heard the midnight ones. Thank goodness I was really tired because otherwise the noise would have kept me awake for hours.