Daytrip to Trier and Luxembourg City

Two countries in one day. Pretty cool!
We made our way back to Trier so we could pick up John's car. This time we were able to tour the city a bit.
It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC. The Romans called it Augusta Treverorum and it served as the capital of the Roman empire in this part of ancient Germania. Roman emperors, bishops, electors and prominent citizens all left their mark on the town. It is full of pretty buildings and Roman ruins and old churches.

The best known is the Porta Nigra, the massive Roman town gate.

This is part of the old town center.

Do you know who this Saint is?

This is Saint Peter. We are getting so good at figuring out who the statues are around the churches and fountains in Europe. St. Peter is always holding keys.

One of the main historical sites in the town is the Cathedral. It is the oldest church in Germany. It was first built in 320 AD. It has been added on and rebuilt over the last 1700 years.

The most precious relic in Trier Cathedral is the Holy Robe, the tunic of Christ. According to tradition, the Empress Dowager Helena brought the seamless robe of Christ to Trier. This is a picture of a picture of the robe. It is not on display and is kept in a sealed golden trunk. It will be diplayed in 2012 they told us. Accordiing to the cathedral website, the question of the authenticity of the Holy Robe cannot be answered for certain. For believers, it has symbolic meaning: The relic points to Jesus Christ Himself, His incarnation and the further events of His life leading to His crucifixion and death. The undivided and seamless Robe is also a symbol of the undivided Christian Church and is a reminder of the binding power of God.

The church also claims to have a nail used to hang Christ on the cross. The girls weren't convinced that this could possibly be an actual nail used on Christ. Lia didn't think it was sharp enough.




The town wasn't super exciting. Since we had recently been in Rome, the ancient bath ruins didn't appeal to John or Lily and Lia was too tired to walk to the amphitheater, so John decided we should drive on over to Luxembourg. That way we could visit another country. We crossed the border in about 10 minutes. Cool huh?
Luxembourg is a French speaking country. That's about all I know...

We drove into the capital city named Luxembourg City. It was crazy busy with traffic. We were trying to find the American Military Cemetery, which I knew was outside of the city but we thought we'd see signs. We drove all around but couldn't find any signs.

As we were leaving Luxembourg, back on the autobahn, I saw a sign, in French, about the American cemetery. We were thrilled. There are 22 American military cemeteries on foreign soil. This is one of them. There are over 5000 soldiers buried here. Of particular note, General Patton is buried there. Enjoy the pictures. It was a moving experience to see these crosses.







John watched the entire Band of Brothers movies. This sign showed where some of the men were buried.