Day 7 - Albersbach, Pfalzerwald Forest, Trier, Kaiserslautern

We woke up about 11 am on day 7 at Holly and Dan's house and had a nice slow breakfast with Holly. Dan had left really early despite our late night because of how busy he was on the base with preparing volunteers to help out with submitting taxes for everyone stationed at Ramstein. Dan is a JAG officer for the Air Force, by the way. Holly was on bed rest late in her pregnancy, so we were bummed to have to leaver her behind to go explore the area. We are actually bummed we weren't able to hang out with them more while we were there. It felt like we just saw them for a few hours during our stay and then rushed off to do our own thing. 

I guess that means we'll just have to go back and spend some quality time with them. So, be expecting us sometime soon, Holly and Dan!

Don and I got in our car and drove to the Pfalzerwald Forest, a deciduous forest that my dear friend Jenny (a friend in family housing who grew up in the town next to where Holly and Dan are stationed) told me about. She said that the forest was heaven to mountain bike through and after hiking around, I believe her. 

We drove to Johanniskirche, a small town high in the forested hills and parked our car. Then, we started hiking around only to realize that we hadn't picked the best place to hike since there was a lot of logging going on in the area. We'd seen absolutely stunning areas on the way up to where we were, so we looked around for another trail head and then chose to drive and try to find a better place to start from.

Don, my fearless manual transmission driving man next to our rental car.

I couldn't get over how mossy and gorgeous everything was. Even though all the trees were leafless, there was a lot of green to be seen.

Walking through the logged area.

The light was really beautiful and the weather was cool and crisp. I liked this shot of the large fallen logs with the inn in the background.

This inn was just what I'd imagined for Germany with a big beer garden in front that I'm sure is teeming with people in the summertime. The men in the picture were shoveling hot manure off the tractor and it was steaming in the brisk morning air. 

Walking down the road to find another trail head... but it didn't look like it led to anything different than what we'd seen so we drove to the trailhead below.

And it was just what we were looking for!

We found these neat old stones. I'm not sure if they were a grave marker or some other kind of monument, but it has the date May 26, 1093 engraved on the top. 

And here is the steep ravine with a rushing stream and lovely smelling fallen leaves and moss-covered trees. Gorgeous!

I decided that I was obsessed with the amazing variations of mosses to be found! I liked the soft, spiky sea anemone looking ones by my head in the picture above best.

There were huge mushrooms growing, too!

We met up with a road on our short hike and then headed to Trier for the afternoon. 

Trier is Germany's oldest city and brags that Celts inhabited the area for 1,300 years before Rome even existed. In 16 B.C., Augustus founded Trier, which was called Augusta Treverorum for 400 years. When Emperor Diocletian (who ruled A.D. 285-305) divided his overextended Roman Empire into four sectors, he made Trier the capital of the west: roughly modern-day Germany, France, Spain, and England. For most of the fourth century, this was the a favored residence of Roman emperors. Emperor Constantine even chose to live here and spent lavishly on urban projects. But, when the last emperor left in A.D. 395, money dried up and that was the end of Trier's ancient glory days. In the late 400s, when Rome fell to the barbarians, so did Trier. 

Since we were interested in seeing some of Germany's Roman and early Christian history, it was a great stop for us. It was also the place we ate our first real German bratwurst. We also tried some other very interesting meat, including a liver cheese, which kind of reminded me of spam and was not something I'd choose to eat again. I'd try most anything once, though, so it was an adventure.

Our first look at Trier!

Don walking towards the center of town eating a delicious cheesy bread.

Trier's main square and St. Peter's fountain, which shows women who represent the idealized virtues and rude monkeys hiding behind them displaying the opposing vices. It was built in 1595. I love all the architectural variety. All of the buildings were so unique and colorful!

The onion domed Art Deco building on the left is actually a McDonalds. I love that Trier made them tone down their obnoxious advertising. Do you notice the tiny golden arches?

The white tower with yellow trim above is the tower of the Church of St. Gangolf. Every night at 10 pm, the bell in the tower rings to remind local drunks to go home. 

Here is the Porta Nigra, or black gate. This gate is the most impressive Roman fortification in Germany; it was built without mortar and the sandstone blocks are only held together with iron pegs. The sandstone was originally light colored but has turned black over time.  There were four gates like this in the original 4th century Roman wall that surrounded the city, but this is the only one still standing. The others were destroyed by medieval stone and metal scavengers. This gate only survived because it was turned into a church after St. Simeon, a pious Greek recluse, lived there for seven years. A monastery was later built on to the church and has been converted into a city museum. 

This is the oldest building Don or I have ever been inside. We climbed up into the tower and felt like we were transported back in time. We also got a great view of the city from on top.

A Roman carving I found particularly beautiful.

I liked the hallways and the lighting was just perfect. 

Interesting rooflines...

Looking down on the town.

A view of the front of the gate. The rounded part protruding towards the left was built on in the 12th century when the gate was a church.

It amazed me to see a building standing that has just been held together with iron pegs for over 1,600 years! Talk about sound construction!

Walking back to the main square...

Here is the House of the Three Magi. This 13th century Venetian-style building was constructed as a keep. Do you see the door on the right side about a story up? Before the age of safe banking, rich men hoarded their gold and silver inside their homes and everyone knew it. Understandably paranoid, many built floating doors which had a wooden staircase that was the only way in or out and could be pulled up when necessary.

A view both ways from the middle of town, one looking towards the Porta Nigra, and the other looking towards St. Gangolf's.

This is the deli where we ate our first German bratwurst and tried the liver cheese. All the meat was so salty and greasy and Don and I were amazed at how much meat these people seem to eat! I was also astounded at how thin everyone was compared to most Americans, particularly with the fat-filled, meat heavy diets. The primary difference is how much these people walk. Everyone walks! And they walk everywhere! 

Look at this meat! If you click on this picture you'll see the clear, gelatinous logs filled with little pieces of floating meat. Those really grossed me out. I wondered how they tasted but not enough to order some.

This is the assembly hall. There was major discontent between the people and the archbishop in Trier. The archbishop was one of the electorates for the Holy Roman Emperor and held huge political and religious power. The people of Trier wanted to be a free imperial city and only report directly to the Emperor himself, but instead were under the thumb of a power hungry and tyrannical archbishop. The people wanted a town hall but the archbishop wouldn't allow it, so they built an "assembly hall" instead. On the assembly hall above, the knight on the left has his helmet up and is watching the townspeople while the knight on the right is facing the cathedral and archbishop and has his helmet down and his hand on his sword, ready to fight. 

There are signs throughout the main square of the tension between the people and the archbishop. In 1507, the mayor built up the tower of St. Gangolf's church (the people's church) to be higher than the towers on the cathedral and wrote the words, "Stay awake and pray." In response, the archbishop spent all his money building up on tower on the cathedral to be higher than the one on St. Gangolf's church and topped it with a threatening message of his own, "For you never know the hour when the Lord will come."

Here I am in front of the Dom, the oldest Christian church in Germany. After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Emperor, his mother, Helena, allowed part of her palace in Trier to be used as the first church on this spot. In A.D. 326, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his reign, Constantine began the construction of two great churches: St. Peter's in Rome and this huge cathedral in Trier, also called St. Peter's. The facade on the church that you see here is 12th century Romanesque.

A view of the ceiling inside the church. I had to lay on the floor and hold perfectly still to take this picture. It was so dark and gloomy inside the cathedral. You could hardly see any of the artwork or 12th century Roman frescoes and there was no way to take a picture of them. They were pretty amazing, though.

I cropped my knees out of the bottom of this picture. I couldn't take a picture without using them as a tripod because it was so dark. This picture is about 100 times lighter than the room actually was. It was so dark in there!

This plaque was really interesting to me. It listed all the names of the archbishops in Trier from 250 A.D. to the present. Amazing!

Then, we headed down into the crypt and I got some great shots of the shadows on the stuccoed ceiling. It was very peaceful and quiet down here.

I liked this altarpiece.

Then we headed in to the courtyard to get a look at the mish-mash of architectural styles that occurred when the cathedral was added to over the centuries.

Such a beautiful garden!

I really fell in love with the sculpture of these three angels.

The big red cube on the right is all that remains of the enormous, original 4th century Roman construction, which was one time twice as tall as what you see here. The rest of the building are chunks that were grafted on over a millennium and a half of architectural styles. 

After our time at the Dom, it was starting to get dark but we wanted to see the Basilica, another Roman building, and Karl Marx's birthplace before heading back to Dan and Holly's house. 

On our way to the Basilica, I saw this funny "children crossing" sign that made my laugh. I love the girl's braid sticking straight out of her head!

And here is the Basilica. It is the largest intact Roman structure outside of Rome. It was originally a throne room. We weren't able to go inside because it's closed on Mondays. 

I actually tried to sneak in the church that's attached to the Basilica to see if I could peek inside but some German women came out of the door as I was trying to come in and motioned for me to come away from the door while saying a hundred things in German I didn't understand. I just slowly backed away and then kind of ran towards Don. I felt silly that I ran away; I just really didn't want to talk to them. Who knows? Maybe there were telling me to go right on in and have a great time! Probably not, but it was still dumb of me to run from them. Ha ha! I'm sure they wondered what was wrong with me. I probably looked totally crazy.

Here is the plaque on Karl Marx's house. 

After our wonderful day in Trier, we drove back to Dan and Holly's house in Albersbach. Don and Dan went to a pizza place my friend Jenny had told me about in Kaiserslautern and brought us home some take out. We had a great dinner and had so much fun talking and catching up. 

We watched Maggie and Josh dance around to the music videos at the end of Shrek

And ate as much pizza as we could hold.

I was amazed by how spacious and nice Dan and Holly's house was! The view from their bathroom and the dining room was amazing! Just as green and pastoral as could be! What a beautiful place!

But the one thing the people who built this huge house forgot was a decent sized kitchen! It made me laugh how small the kitchen was (that tiny corner over there) when the rest of the house was just yawning with open space.

What a great day!

Much of the information came from Steves, R., Rick Steve's Germany, 2010. USA: Warzalla.