June 19

I got an early start at 5:30 this morning, to get to Koblenz on time to meet Joe and Marc in order to head to Trier.  We made all of our connections ok, and then set out to take in the city.  We first came upon the Porta Nigra, which is a massive gate and plaza area in Trier.  When you step through it, there is the typical German looking Altstadt (old city) with all sorts of shops and cobblestone.  We headed to the Kaiserthermen initially, passing by the cool looking Basilika and beautiful Victorian gardens there.  The Kaiserthermen is the ruin of an extensive Roman bath facility.  It still stood rather stolidly and majestically though, with plenty to see underground as well.  When we first arrived, we came upon a school group there (on Saturday‼).  That would be unfortunate to have to do.  We took plenty of pictures there and then headed on to the Karl Marx house.  It is a museum, but not in the way that the Göthehaus was a museum.  There was no Marx furniture, but rather they had taken his house and used it to put up lots of information that you could read on the walls and such.  It was interesting, and I could actually read a fair amount of it.  That is encouraging, but even more encouraging was the lady at the Kasse assuming that we were German, when I bought our passes.  I wonder how Marx would feel if he knew that his house was making money for someone in a capitalist system.  Probably really happy, warm and fuzzy inside.  After the Marx house and all of the commie things there, we went to the Trier Dom which was another fantastic cathedral.  There was a market in the town square, which is typical of Saturdays, so we bought some fruit.  Joe got some strawberries, and I bought a kilo of cherries.  Speaking for my bowels, it is a good thing that plenty of sharing was going on.  Before we left, a quick trip to the Mosel River was in order.  It actually turned out to be rather bland, but was still probably worth going.  We had to wait a bit for our train, so we had some food in a café nearby (Joe a chicken sandwich and me a chocolate croissant).  They had wifi there, so I could download some songs I had been wanting, and update the blog again, as well as briefly talk to JB.  I didn't really have time for much else and didn't end up getting a connection the rest of the day, but it was nice either way.  On the way back to Koblenz we stopped in Cochem, which is home to a cool castle.  Unfortunately, by the time we got up there, they had closed for the day.  We admired the view though (there is always a good view from a castle), and then headed into town.  We'll probably come back to try and get into the castle another time, because it looks fantastic, and is one that you can actually tour decently.  In town we found a nice pizza place and had some German pizza and a local white wine.  It was a great ending to a long day (also a first for olives on pizza, and white wine).  The three of us took the train back to Koblenz where we separated, and I headed back to Ingelheim.  I didn't see them, but I could tell that someone or some group was drunk on the train.  You can drink in public in Germany, which is sort of strange to see, coming from the U.S.; it makes for interesting train rides though, that's certain (on another note, alcohol, trains and Vuvuzelas (that loud horn they blow at soccer matches here and in South Africa) should never be mixed; there were some enthusiastic Dutch fans on the train as well).  What a nice, long day.