The Trier Christmas Market

Mary and Joseph,with their baby in the stable. Santa and the reindeer on the roof. With a snowman. At the Trier Christmas Market.

And so the trip ends with a couple of visits to the Trier Christmas Market.

The Christmas Market was just a block from my hotel.  Downtown Trier is not really that large, so that's not surprising,

On a cold wet Sunday, the place was quite crowded.

The stalls were all decorated with evergreen branches thick on the roofs, which made for a nice Christmas look.

Christmas churros!  And a long line to get them.  Santa loves him some churros.  De claro.

 Reindeer on the roofs, too.

And evergreen boughs on the Christmas merry-go-round.

It was the usual mix of food selling (and hot booze selling) stalls and those selling Christmas tchotchkes of various kinds, mostly ornaments, candle holders, or Christmas houses.

And, of course, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Santa and the reindeer.  All together.

I guess that's a Christmas windmill.

Why not?

This place was selling chocolate covered fruits, mostly bananas.

Even the trash cans were decked out in holiday cheer.

Yes,  Seriously.  That is a trash can.

The Zamboni was out at the Christmas ice skating rink.

And right on the main square of the Christmas Market was one of the most beautiful McDonald's I have ever seen.

Yes.  That is a McDonald's.  You can see the golden arches.

There was an organ grinder.

No monkey.  But "What Child Is This," which is generally not one of my favorite Christmas songs, really sounded good on the hand-cranked organ.

I tipped a euro coin.

One of the purpose of this trip was to explore the Christmas markets of Germany.  (That, and like the McDonald's we just saw, I deserved a break today and needed the de-stressing trip.)

I would not want to do this every year, but this was a great treat.

And of course I returned after dark to get some supper.

And this was dinner:

Chiliwurst!  This was the hottest, spiciest bratwurst I've ever had.  Quite good.

The Christmas carousel was well-lit, as were some of the attendees, I presume.

The crowds were starting to thin out.

I'm not sure if the Christmas windmill was generating sufficient power to keep the lights on.

Last chance for Christmas tchotchkes.

Or Christmas crepes and waffles.

Apparently they go through a lot of nutella at these booths, since that seems to be what people nowadays want on the Christmas crepes and waffles.

O Tannenbaum!  Let's get in the mood with the song sung in German:  click.

Or do you prefer your "O Tannenbaum" by Andrea Bocelli?

And with that my first winter trip to Europe comes to an end.

In A Roman Mood (and in a Roamin' Mood, Too)

The Roman Bridge over the Mosel River in Trier

This trip ends in Trier, Germany.  And even though it is raining in Trier -- apparently for the sixth or seventh straight day -- which pre-dates my arrival -- which means I'm not to blame -- it is time to explore my final destination.  Of this trip.  My final destination of this trip.

Trier is reputedly the oldest city in Germany.  It goes back to Roman times and there are, in fact, Roman ruins here.  Let's find us some.

With a borrowed umbrella, I set out on my journey.  And right next to the hotel is the first of our Roman ruins, the Frankenturm Trier.

Actually, as part of the whole "Roman" theme to this city, my hotel room actually has a bit of faux Roman statuary:

Photobombing a Roman bust in my own hotel room.

First, though, in homage to the Goths and their Gothic style, is a cathedral near my hotel.  This is the Liebfrauenkirche.

After passing through the Trier Christmas market (more on that in a separate post), we come to the first of our major Roman ruins:

Porta Nigra.  Built aound 170 A.D.

This is your gateway into Trier.

Literally.

And I mean literally-literally, as this was a gate into the city.

And once you walk through the gate into the city?

A little tourist train.  There was no "conductor" on board, no passengers in the "cars," so we are going to hoof it to the next destination searching for the Roman ruins of Trier. 

And we reach our next destination, which I believe are the ruins of the ruins of the Kasierthermen, a bathing complex from the Roman years.

Selfie.  A Roman selfie.

It is kind of hard to be sure if this is the place.

The ruins are in ruins as they appear to be under major renovation, so it is difficult to tell what is Roman ruins and what is modern German construction.

Walking along the Kaiserstrasse, we come to our next historical site:

The Bastion Sudallee.  I presume this was fortification related.  If you information to the contrary, please leave it in the comments.

And that is just an interesting column:  a boy (angel?) riding a fish.  What's not to like about that?

And just beyond the boy riding a fish column, is the next major Roman ruin, also from the second century A.D., the Barbarathermen.

Again, these are the ruins of Roman baths.

Here is a very helpful artist's rendering of what the baths looked like.

Sleek and modern.  The floors appear to be especially stylish.

This was the central heating area of the baths, so this is where the hottest water in the bath complex would have been:

There were elevated walkways to see the bath ruins.

The complex was decently preserved, considering the circumstances, and the displays were informative.

Which means we end on the final Roman ruin, the Roman bridge.

This is the oldest bridge in Germany.  The pilings go back to sometime between 144 A.D. and 152 A.D., although the arches and road surface are ultra-modern, going back only to the 1800's.

Let's take a walk up Karl-Marx-Strasse.

The Karl Marx Haus, where Marx was born, is somewhere on this street,  I didn't look for it.  I have no interest in photographing it.

Weirdly enough, Karl-Marx-Strasse is something of the "red light" district of Trier, with a number of adult entertainment options to be found there.  And what else did I find in this neighborhood?

The tourist train!  It was functioning after all.