Supergeil Deutsch Blog: Sundaytrip

The next day I was invited by a friend to check out a few spots along the Saar, including the Saarschleife, but this time from the correct side! The Saarschleife means the "bow" of the river due to how quickly it turns.

The visitors center was very new and pretty.

And the view was even prettier:

Right at the highest part in the middle you can see the castle from yesterday's bike outing.

And here is a picture of the crew, minus the boyfriend, who had to be photographer:

I also worked on pioneering Selfie technology:

From the Schleife we went to Trier, an old roman city.

Here is La Porte Negra from ancient Roman times.

The best part of Trier were the two beautiful churches. Both are Baroque style, which was refreshing to see, especially because I hadn't seen this style before.

The first, the Cathedral of Trier, rivals the Koelner Dom in size. It is the oldest Bishop's Church in Germany. Apparently 'Cathedra' means seat of the bishop in Latin.

I'll paraphrase some of the brochures I read and bought from here on out:

-Legend has it that the mother of Constantine, the Roman Emperor, gave her house to the church in the 3rd century in order to build a church (ruins of a house found under church).
-The first church on the site dates to around 313 AD; the main walls of the church as I saw it were built around 340.
-5th century Germanic invasions destroy most of the church
-9th century the vikings destroy the rebuilt church
-11th century restored and vaulted ceilings built
-13th century the Church of Our Lady is built (the second church I will refer to)
-17th century, the church is remodeled in Barque style at the end of the 30 years war
-1702-08 the Holy Robe Chapel is built to house the seamless tunic of Christ (more on this later)
-1960-1974 fully restored, church is consecrated and Cathedral open again
- 1986 UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sight

Garden of the Cloister:

I was captivated by this part of the ceiling:

Apparently the clock says, "you do not know when the lord is coming" above it, in latin.

So I didn't take any pictures from the Chapel of the Holy Robe, but it was pretty crazy. There were jewels and gold and beautiful stone work surrounding a giant sealed glass case, which had the chest containing the robe inside. Tradition has it that Constantine's mother brought the seamless robe of Christ to Trier, although it is first mentioned in the 11th century, and only officially documented during the 12th century. Beginning in 1513 the chest was opened on occasion for pilgrims (between 1513 and 1996 it was opened 16 times).

Starting in 1996 the chapel of the robe became accessible during the Holy Robe days, which was why I was able to see the chest (I think, signs and websites not entirely clear). Unfortunately, it the last time the robe was on display was 2012, and due to concerns about preservation, it isn't planned on being opened in the near future. Apparently at one time it was dipped in rubber, in the thought that it would help preserve it (bad idea). The authenticity of the robe is unknown, even within the church, but it remains important as a "symbol of the undivided christian church and [...] of the binding power of God".

From the Cathedral we went to the Basilica of Our Lady:

This was built by french architects in the 13th century and is technically "high-Gothic" in style. I should of taken an architecture class and not music appreciation- if only I'd known!

The church is extremely colorful and everything stands out on the white stone. Its motto, poorly translated by me, goes "Let the rose bloom again", because it was recently restored to it's full splendor.

It also had a beautiful ceiling:

Here are the gardens, I believe, of old Constantine's Palace. Behind the building pictured is apparently part of his residence (which can still be visited- we didn't).