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Trier and Burg Eltz
Day 1, Saturday July 7
Day 2, Sunday July 8
Day 1 of our Rick Steves tour has begun! We said goodbye to Marlon and Klaus and hello to 26 travelers we would be sharing adventures with. Every day our wonderful guide,Tara, made sure we saw the itinerary. If we were on the bus she passed it around and then had it posted in the lobby of our hotel. We always took a picture of it because there is no way mom and I could remember the details!
Mom Wow!
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Burg Eltz and the yummy desert in Beilstein
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Trier City Walk and the map of how the city looked during the Roman times.
In front of Rick Steves favorite castle, Burg Eltz.
Door of the Day
Trier, Germany
First day of our tour began at 4pm when we met our tour mates for the next two weeks. Our friendly group consisted of travelers from Oregon, Washington, Missouri, California and Virginia. The youngest was 18 and the oldest was 77 (my mom!). Our guide, Tara, talked about some tour basics and then we picked buddies. A tour buddy had to be someone you didn't know and it was are a great way to check-in and make sure no one is left behind.
We set right out on a city walk and saw the majestic Trier Cathedral, which is the oldest church in Germany, and Roman Emperor Constantine's Basilica. We also learned about stumble stones that mark where a deported Jewish family had lived. The day ended with a fabulous group meal at Weinstube zum Domstein. (Sorry, I was too busy eating and talking that I forgot to take a picture but believe me, it was scrumptous)
Day two began with local guide, Paula, giving us lots of insights into the town her husband was born in. She told us the ancient story of how the devil was mad at the church because he thought they were building a pub so he threw one of the church columns in front of the cathedral. It remains in the same place today and her husband has many childhood photos of himself in front of that column.
Trier was once one of the four capitals of the Roman Empire. The Porta Nigra Roman gate has withstood all those years and we were able to climb to the top! At the top there was an interesting map that showed what the walled city of Trier probably looked like. She also showed us the Frankenturm which is a Medieval tower in the middle of the city and now used as an event space.
Karl Marx was born in Trier and in 2018 his 200th birthday was celebrated by an 18 foot tall statue donated by China. This gift caused lots of discussion among Trier citizens. Paula was a delight and I could tell she really loved Trier. A wonderful part of a Rick Steves tour is city walking tours led by local guides.
Then it was time to meet our bus driver, Joost, and climb aboard our spacious bus. Joost sold a bag of tokens for 20 Euros that we could use for a cold drink anytime on the tour. After giving us the scoop on bus rules we settled in for the drive to Beilstein where we had lunch and a yummy desert at Hotel Lipmann. A tour of Burg Eltz was next. This medieval castle is still owned by the same family that lived there in the 12th century. It was very interesting to see the rooms in the castle decorated as they were hundreds of years ago.
Afterwards Tara greeted us with local wine to quench our thirst after the hot hike back to the bus. Back in Trier we had dinner on our own, walked around town and then headed to the Residence. We woke suddenly late at night to the sound of loud banging. Not knowing what was going on, we shut the windows and made sure the doors were locked. Next morning we found out it was fireworks celebrating the end of a festival!
In Trier we stayed at the Hotel Residenz am Zuckerberg which is also an assisted living building. The residents were really friendly and our rooms were huge! Another great perk of a Rick Steves tour is that breakfast is included every day. Lets talk about breakfast...this isn't just cereal, fruit and toast, no way. Every breakfast had so many choices I often didn't know where to start!
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