Trier and Luxembourg City: April 28-29

This time I was off to Trier, Germany and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. This was my first semi-solo trip. Using my Eurail Pass I purchased for the visit with my sister, I took the 6 hour train ride to Trier. The scenery from the train ride was gorgeous, as the it followed the Mosel River up to the oldest city in Germany. At every curve or bend, an old castle or fortress overlooking the river would appear, showing a part of Germany I hadn't seen before. (Picture here is of Lux).

Once in Trier, I walked around the city a bit with my luggage, killing time until check-in time at Hilles Hostel. Once it was time to check-in, I found my hostel relatively easily. I was in a 6 bed co-ed room, and when I first arrived no one else was there. I made my bed and dropped off my bags, making sure I didn't leave anything valuable.

Then I headed back to the train station. I took the 45 minute train ride to Luxembourg City. I won't lie, I was a little scared when I first got off the train. After getting a relatively undetailed tourist map from the train station, I walked outside to find a large group of teenage hooligans making a ruckus in French. Luckily, Luxembourg has three official languages, German being one of them.

Once away from all the noise, I found Luxembourg City to be very pretty. Unfortunately everything was pretty much already closed when I got there. I didn't get to see the underground casements that once held soldiers and their supplies, but I did see The Grand-Ducal Palace and the Three Towers.

Lucky for me, I just so happened to be there on a day of city-wide celebrations! A festival of sorts was set up during the day with local merchants selling everything from handmade jewelry to carnival food. As night fell, I made my way to the main attraction. The streets were thronging with people as I passed beer stands, live bands, and mechanical, moving structures covered in small lamps of fire that were lit to create a spectacular display of dancing light.

The valley where this took place had an amazing backdrop. One could look from the plaza out onto a mountain side of flat rock. This rock was covered in strings of burning fire lamps. Rows and rows of lamps lined the mountain side. The light reflected off the small river that flowed through the valley, and the live brass band finished off the culture rich atmosphere. On this day Luxembourg City happened to wrest me of 15 Euros for a CD from one of the local bands and 20 for a pair of handmade earrings. I still think it was worth it, but perhaps it was something in the air that made me spend that much in one day...

Back in Trier the next day, I met up with Katie and Priscilla who had taken the train from Bamberg that day. Together, we toured Porta Nigra (black gate), a lasting testament to the Roman empire. Also in that vein were ruins of old Roman baths. Though there's little evidence they were ever used, they were some of the largest built in the empire.

We saw the basilica, cathedral and Walderdorf palace, as well as a Roman ampitheater with the underground rooms still in tact. It was a busy day, but worth all the walking. We then took the last train back to Bamberg, arrive around 1 am. Trier is a small city rich in history, and Luxembourg is rich in culture. I truely enjoyed this little weekend trip, and it helped me learn I'm alright with traveling by myself.