T R I E R

What a beautiful place! Last weekend, we made a quick day trip to Trier about an hour from our house. With Justin and Tyler on a track road trip to Holland, we decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine as well. It was a much needed break and overdue relaxing time together to re-charge a little before Jim left for Croatia.

We've been a little too serious and stressed over here... trying to lighten up.

Trier is Germany's oldest town, founded by the Emporer Augustus in 16 BC. Old. As with all of these older, larger cities it's a little tricky to navigate and find parking when you don't really know where you are and where you want to be.

This time, I think we did pretty well parking in metered parking on the street right next to the Imperial Baths- where we spent most of our time.

At first, it didn't look like much to us. We paid the entrance fee {6 Euro, about $8.50} still not knowing quite what we were doing.  Cool ruins in the background, but we didn't do our research before going and weren't quite sure what we were looking at or for.

Behind us here {above} is the largest piece of the wall that is still standing, after the bombing of WWII. The actual baths are underground. They were a combination of hot, warm and cold baths and the person went from one to another. The brick work is phenomenal, especially considering the lack of tools and resources they had back then. The tunnels and turns go on and on and on- the coolest maze. Coleman and Caden had a blast!

We found it amazing how drastic the temperature drop was just going down a few steps. It easily had to be 15-20 degrees cooler underground. It made a cool place to play hide-and-go seek and fun for the little guys to run around.  

He's reminding me, "chin up..."

Very old, very cool. Even a little scary {and dark} which added to the excitement.

Down the cobblestone street a little is the oldest church in Germany- the Trier Cathedral. We didn't make it inside this time, but opted for ice cream cones instead. Always a good choice when you have tired {whining} kids cutting your trip a little shorter than planned. I guess it's all about flexibility when it comes to parenting, right?

We'll definitely be back- without little guys. Jim and I could have walked and walked {and walked} all day.

The shopping looked great- quaint specialty shops up and down the street. A beautiful vegetable stand was set up in the middle of the downtown area. There were several corner bistros with outdoor seating that looked very enticing to just sit, people watch and soak in the history all around us.

Adding to the atmosphere and mood were old ladies singing on a corner all dressed in the same {orange} dresses.

SO much fun- we loved it.