Simple meal, simple pleasures, simple day
Trip Start
Jun 21, 2008
1
31
44
Trip End
Aug 03, 2008
Trier,
Rhineland-Palatinate,
Germany
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
They had some really good bread at breakfast, so once I again I tried a sandwich - still no better than breakfast for the past week in Holland. I thought it was funny that a table of girls brought their own Nutella, having three jars of it between them all.
Off to Ettelbruck by train, from where I would catch a bus to Vianden. It was a hell of a hike up to Vianden's Chateau, and I was exhausted after. The Luxembourg sightseeing card is one hell of a deal for 10 Euros - even just seeing a couple of sights today and with public transport (the card grants you unlimited travel within Luxembourg), I probably saved 6 or 7 Euros
a
. And that was very light use of the card! The views from the Chateau were nice, but that was about all that I can say about it - pretty forgettable. I descended to the town, and caught a chairlift up one of the hills (also included with the Luxembourg Card). The lift was kind of lame, but the views from the top were nice. It started to get cold and windy, sprinkling rain.
Back to Ettelbruck - I was tempted by a nearby kebab joint, but went for a ham, cheese, tomato panini, instead. A good choice! Crisp, toasted bread, and gooey cheese ... too bad a mixture of oil and tomato juice oozed out all over my pants!
I arrived in Luxembourg, grabbed my backpack from the train station, then hopped onto a train for Trier, Germany. It's only a quick ride, and it only cost me 6 Euros - I took a quick nap aboard the train. Walking from the Trier train station to the hostel, I noticed a Vietnamese restaurant - perhaps dinner will be here tonight?
A few drops of rain sprinkled down as I got to the very cool Porta Nigra gate - massive! From there, a bustling pedestrian zone leads to the market square. So far, Trier has some neat stuff - I like! The hostel was OK - they have given me a single room instead of a dorm room, but that got corrected. It's pretty busy with school groups, and has three different restaurants.
The Cathedral was pretty decent, and free - I've seen many lesser cathedrals and churches that make you pay for entrance
a1
. The cloisters were amazingly well-preserved. Next up was the giant "Basilica", an ancient Roman building, and I think it's actually the largest ancient Roman building outside of Italy. Trier has lots of sub-par Roman ruins scattered about town. I wandered around town, and did some shopping. Trier's pretty cool, though it's still only worth a day, or even just a few hours en route to elsewhere. For dinner, I was tempted by all the people eating frites in the market square ... and I haven't had a kebab in a while ... but in the end, I decided on Krim. They had a paella on offer that sounded delicious, but I opted for the lamb platter.
I grabbed a gelato for dessert - Nutella and banana, I've found that German gelato is pretty good, but still not Italian-quality. The Nutella seemed to be nothing more than vanilla gelato with streaks of Nutella, and was only decent. The banana was much better. It was a big serving, with two huge scoops. There is no simple pleasure in Europe more enjoyable than having a gelato and strolling.
I went to a cheap internet cafe, took a quick walk around town (pretty dead at night), and went back to the hostel. There were no reading lamps in the room, so I read outside in the chilly hallway. I found the hostel kind of creepy, and soon went to bed ...
