Marx and some bourgeoisie statuary

We were still behind schedule, so today would be another round of train travel. Our first stop was the city of Trier, about 90km (60 miles) farther up the Moselle river. It’s potentially Germany’s oldest city, having been established by Romans in the first century BC, and that means even more than the usual number of artful monuments preserved in an arrested state of decay, to stand next to and make blog posts about.

Nick’s first observation upon arriving: “Smells like cigarettes.”

One of the things I was keen to see was the “Black Gate” (and not just because of a beloved old computer game called “Ultima 7: The Black Gate”).

Back when the Romans built it, it was part of a series of walls and gates to protect the city and regulate commerce, and in the 2000-or-so intervening years it was nearly torn down, then left as a ruin for a while, then repurposed into a pair of churches, before finally being “restored” more-or-less to the form the Romans had planned. There is of course no need for a giant gate to regulate commerce, nor any point to having a giant wall (in this age of missiles, long-range artillery, and flight) so it now stands as a tribute to the deep history of the city and the passing of ages. And for Nick and I to stand in front of while taking photos, of course.

Another thing we came across in our wandering was a big statue of Karl Marx. No surprise because Karl was born here in Trier, in 1818.

Indeed, it’s possible to take a tour of the very house he was born in, which has been turned into a sparse but engaging museum you can walk through. The entrance fee was small, so Nick and I checked it out.

After that we wandered a while in search of snacks. We passed a portable fairground, and were amused by the deliberately off-kilter cartoon characters.

From this amusing bit of “low culture” we wandered into an area of “high culture”:

The Palace Garden, designed in the style of a French garden of the 18th century, with a deliberate mix of perfectly maintained vegetation and worn-looking statuary.

The official website for the garden gives the following handy breakdown, for reasons I cannot understand:

Water: 30%
Baroque: 60%
Greenery: 70%

The various statues represent a gallery of old gods and notable mortals. See if you can recognize Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Kronos, et cetera:

While Nick was wandering, he fell into conversation with another patron of the arts:

I watched from a distance while he tried his quickly improving German and his new friend filled the gaps with English. Eventually they went from bicycles to travel to looking up nearby points of interest on the phone.

Alas, we were on a time limit, with a hotel room booked in Luxembourg at the end of another train ride, and the train was leaving soon. The most we could do was meander back to the station.

The train didn’t have a designated bike car, but it had some all-purpose areas with no seats. We shoved the bikes into one of them and they bobbed merrily with the rolling of the tracks. It was a quiet ride. In a while the train drifted away from the river, which felt strange after so many days of following one.

The arrival in Luxembourg was grand. The central city is built on a massive hill that appears to have been cut long ago by the changing course of a river, and has since been layered and re-layered with fortifications, more recently layered with modern train tracks and paved roads.

To my eye, the most amazing part was the Bock, a wedge of rock and ancient stones and modern concrete, spearing out from the hillside towards the east. In ancient days it had been a Roman site, then the property of a nearby Abbey, then a fortress, and then finally in the last couple of hundred years the fortress was demolished and the remaining material reinforced so a paved road could be built right along the top of it, leading into the city.

What’s truly impressive is that the reconstruction was done to preserve some evidence of the previous roles played by the Bock, and you can go strolling out onto it and look around. I decided that’s what I would do.

But first, we needed to check in at the hotel. I’d managed to get a good deal on a room overlooking the central square, a.k.a. the Place Guillaume II, but only by booking it long in advance. That deadline was part of the reason we’d been pressed for time in earlier weeks, which was irritating but unavoidable.

Attendants were just beginning to set up a fancy welcoming ceremony for some more important people, at the Hôtel de Ville across the square. Maybe some dignitaries bound for the city hall on the west side.

Meanwhile, Nick and I went in search of snacks!

After that it was time to wander. We split up, and I took my bike (much lighter with all the touring gear unpacked) and went squiggling east towards the Bock. Along the way I met the Grand Duchess Charlotte:

I also encountered this charming little tree, turned into a community art project:

Here’s one of my favorite encounters: The Hämmelsmarsch statue, constructed in 1982 by local artist Wil Lofy. On top of being masterfully done, it’s also totally adorable.

I love the vertical surfaces. I grew up in a house on a hillside, and now I spend a lot of my time near San Francisco where houses are stacked in layers, and I feel a very particular sense of joy when I’m looking at architecture and nature wrapped over and under itself and I have to untangle the scene in my mind.

There was so much to see in this city it was completely overwhelming, and a bit painful because we only had about a day to check it out. It seemed like every street corner and windowsill had a history, which is arguably true of any urban place more than a couple hundred years old but felt especially true here.

Take the Monument of the Millennium, for example, which I wandered past. The government had intended to celebrate the 1000-year anniversary of the city with a monument, and while excavating for its construction, had discovered ancient ruins that compelled them to stop building the monument and focus on the ruins instead.

The light refined as the day moved on. I moved back towards the city center, still trying to cram the detail into my eyes.

Eventually it was time to meet Nick for dinner. We wandered the nearby square, inspecting menus for something that looked good but didn’t cost a fortune, and found something that was good and merely very expensive. We talked about what we’d seen, focusing mostly on the urban planning, and looking things up on our phones for reference.

After that we spent a little time wandering together, taking more photos.

And dangit, that was all the time we had.