Daytripper, ja

This weekend has been all about the return of F1, but last weekend it was all about the sunshine and unseasonably warm weather we have been enjoying (right up until, um, this weekend). I decided that I had to do something to make the most of it - while this winter has been unusually mild, it's still been winter after all - so I headed out on what was almost a 6-hour return trip to Trier, Germany. (It's not that far, but way cheaper to use my "free" train pass to go to Luxembourg and then switch trains there than to go direct from Metz.)

Often on the way to work I find myself gazing out of the train windows (if I can tear myself away from building pyramids on my phone) and pondering, somewhat reductively, about how many millions of lives were essentially lost in the battles over the surrounding landscape. If there had been no Franco-Prussian War, no occupation of Alsace and Lorraine, would there have been a WWI? Without WWI, would Hitler have ever come to power? Do we have to search even further back in history for the roots of this conflict, or was it all inevitable all along?

History is certainly ever-present in Trier, but as you stroll around, you're more likely to come across relics of a more ancient past than reminders of 20th century conflicts. Trier, founded around 16 BC, "might" be the oldest city in Germany, and it's got the monuments to prove it. I've already been to Trier once, to check out the Christmas markets (and the Karl Marx museum), but this was a chance to take in the sights (mostly) without the crowds. Strolling in past the Roman Porta Negra, the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps, I first checked out the cathedral, a hulking edifice which dates back to Roman times as well, and is Germany's oldest cathedral. The main chapel was supposedly laid out on the orders of St. Helen, the mother of Constantine.

Porta Negra

Town square (Hauptmarkt)

The "Steipe" banqueting house, a reconstruction of a medieval building destroyed in WWII

Palace gardens. No digital trickery by the way, the sky really was that blue!

From there, I went to see the Imperial Baths, another set of Roman ruins. They weren't the most amazing things visually, but what was quite cool is that you can walk around inside the underground tunnels originally used to supply water and drainage to the baths. In practice, this means stepping out of the warm sunshine into a cold, dark, and slightly scary labryrinth. I made it out in one piece though!

The Roman baths, later joined up to the medieval city wall (on the left) and used as a palace

Could do without the scruffy shopping bag, but I brought too much heavy stuff with me (water, ipad)!

Lunch was bratwurst (of course), where I made a dick of myself by successfully ordering in German (okay, "eine bratwurst mit ketchup, bitte" is not rocket science) but then failing to understand when the guy said "2.20€" (or whatever it cost), whereupon he switched to flawless English. Then it was time for a stroll to the (unexceptional) banks of the Moselle while enjoying my first icecream of the season. Guten appetit!

Finally, I went back to the Liebfrauenkirche next to the cathedral, which had a service going on when I was there in the morning. I'm glad I did, as I think it's my new new favourite church. Very bijou, very harmonious, and just gorgeous with the strong afternoon sunshine streaming in through the stained-glass windows. I took about a million photos and also just enjoyed sitting in there taking it in. It dates back to the 13th century, although unfortunately the original stained glass was presumably destroyed in the war. The replacements are very pretty though, especially in the bold choice of colours.

That was all I had time for on this occasion, but I feel (especially casting an eye over Wikipedia for some of the names and dates I've mentioned) there's much more I could have seen in (possibly) Germany's oldest city. Perhaps I'll be back!

'Tis the season to be jolly

As I said last time, I wanted to be sure to check out a German Christmas market while I had the opportunity. So on Saturday, the Brit and I headed over to Trier, apparently the oldest city in Germany, which is just 45 minutes or so by train from Luxembourg. (And, by the way, a return ticket from Luxembourg cost less than 10€, whereas it would have cost something like 70€ from Metz! That doesn't include that I can travel between Lux and Metz for "free" with my monthly train pass, but still.)

The Porta Nigra, a Roman gate in Trier. Looking on Wikipedia, it looks better from the other side...

Town square in Trier

Hideous elephant. The "elephant parade" was going on around Luxembourg (and apparently Trier) since I visited in the summer until last month or something. Unfortunately, this one strayed from the herd

The Brit had actually suggested on our first date that we go to the Karl Marx museum sometime, so we decided to combine that with the market excursion. Marx was born in Trier, and the museum is in the house where he was born and lived for maybe a year or so. This tangential connection to Marx pretty much sums up the museum. It was informative (thank goodness for the free audio guide though, because all the written information was in German) but pretty much entirely devoid of any artefact that had even a passing connection to the man himself. There were a couple of reproductions in cases of things like newspapers he wrote for, but even those were few and far between. Bizarrely, there was an old Atari computer from the 80s in one room (we had an Atari growing up, but ours was the type that plugged in to the TV), although I couldn't tell you why.

We learned some interesting things though - who knew that Marx died stateless, having renounced his Prussian citizenship, or that two of his daughters and his son-in-law committed suicide (for unexplained reasons)? It also did a good job of mapping out the influence of his ideology on different thinkers and regimes around the world, in a pretty balanced way. You did kind of leave, however, thinking that there was not much there that you couldn't have got from reading a book or listening to a podcast.

Marx museum done with, it was time to look around the markets, sip glühwein and eat sausages. Which we duly did. The markets were nice, although very crowded. I feared for my coat with the amount of red wine served in tiny boots and cigarettes that were sloshing around the crowd. The atmostphere, however, stayed festive. We stayed until almost 9 pm, by which time people were definitely on the merry side, but I didn't spot anyone that seemed to be blind drunk. Judging by the conversations I could hear around us, most of the crowd were German, with a minority of French speakers, which I imagine is not the case for the bigger markets in places like Cologne or Munich. We spoke to the vendor in a sweet shop who told us that weekend, the first of the Christmas markets, was the biggest of the whole year for him, and I can believe it with the crowds there were. I must say, everyone we interacted with was very nice too, so much for stereotypes!

So, there are two reasons why I don't usually blog about "relationship" things. 1) Nothing to report, ever. 2) I'm naturally pessimistic about everything and I don't like talking about jobs/dates/moves etc. which I think won't end up working out. So yeah, turns out that was my last date with the Brit, so I should have stuck with the policy. Two days shy of my 31st birthday, I got an email this morning to say that he didn't think we should see each other any more because I don't want children. I guess that's appropriate enough, since it's surely a sign of getting old if men start running away because you *don't* want kids. I was kind of surprised, since I didn't think things were serious between us, but maybe that's the point. Before you feel too sorry for me, he called on Skype last night - presumably to break up - and I thought "I'm tired, do I have to answer that? He's not even my boyfriend..." Clearly I'm a selfish person who doesn't deserve to be in a relationship anyway.

Still, even if he wasn't the one, I'm a bit upset. We got on well, I liked him. It was just nice to have someone around for once, especially since I'm low on friends etc. here. This would have been my first birthday celebrated with someone since 2004, or 2003 if you count that I was actually on the other side of the world and a few months away from breaking up with my boyfriend in 2004. That's a long time. And it hurts a little to be confronted with the reality that you reach a certain age where things are just going to get harder, when obviously they haven't been easy up to this point either.

So I suppose my actual birthday is going to be lonely, but at least this weekend I will be back in Tours to drown my sorrows with my friends...