The Roman Bridge
Luxembourg and Trier (April 07)
Easter weekend is a four day holiday for most European countries. So it was a perfect time to get out and explore a few more places that we hadn’t been to yet. We decided on going to Luxembourg City and Trier. We live in about a 2 ½ hour drive from Luxembourg if the traffic is running smoothly. So we figured that we would drive down on Good Friday and spend the day in the city. We left the house and two hours into the trip we a stau (the German word to traffic jam). It took us 20 minutes to go a kilometer and it was getting pretty frustrating, but we pushed on. I was also getting pretty toasty in the sunlight as it has been a bright and almost rain free spring. We have already hit temps in the high 70, which I’m sure means that we will have a really hot summer. On a quick side note, during our quick restroom stop along the way we saw what I believe to be an 80- year old hooker
We finally drove into the city proper and began our quest for a place to park…which is not an easy task. The town was packed and there was a ton of on-going road construction projects that just added to the noise and confusion. The city is split by a river valley (there is no longer a river) with one side being more modern and industrialized and the other is the old city center and tourist region. A “ring” road encircles the city and the views from the bridges over the “valley” are simply stunning. Part of the road is in a tunnel that goes under the old city for almost the entire eastern side of the city and if you aren’t paying attention or if you don’t drive aggressively you get funneled on to the tunnel road time and time again…even if you want to take the surface roads. After driving the “ring” road three times and driving through the tunnel we finally managed to get onto the correct exit (under construction) and took the surface roads into the city center. Many European cities have well marked parking signs and even list the number of spaces available in each lot. We just kept seeing signs that said “vol” or “full.” There were lines of cars waiting to go into the underground parking areas and we began to give up hope. We ended up taking a side street and followed a local repair van on an unplanned random tour. After a few minutes that pulled over to a construction site…I think that there were lost too. Since our frustration level was growing we decided that it would be better to drive to Spangdahlem, AFB where we were staying and to try to visit the city again at an earlier time on Saturday.
For those of you who are non-military, let me try to describe the BX culture. The BX/PX (Base Exchange/Post Exchange), “is really a poor man’s Wal-Mart. We don’t have a US BX at Geilenkirchen and the one at Schinnen is really small and dumpy, so even if you really don’t need anything, it is considered bad form to pass up an obvious opportunity to shop at a bigger BX at another base. Service members and their families quickly learn which BX or BX-tra has the best DVDs, electronics, furniture, clothing, and so on. For example, it is well known that the BX at Spangdahlem has a newly renovated Power Zone (the electronics store) but if you want clothes or a wide selection of household goods you should drive to the Bitburg BX, which is about 25 minutes away. Ninety minutes south of that region is Ramstein AFB, Vogelweh AFB, and a few other tiny bases. If you want regional gifts, a good book store, or house wares you go to the BX at Ramstein, but if you want electronics Vogelweh is the BX to be at. In fact it is almost criminal to go to a base and note check out the BX…even though they all pretty much have the same crap. It’s just that some have more crap than others. The other “must do” when you travel to other bases is to eat at the American chain restaurants that your base doesn’t have. Here we only have Burger King and Anthony’s Pizza (which is really horrible) so during our stay at Spangdahlem I was able to dine on Taco Bell, Popeye’s, and Charlie’s Steakery. Ok, so sure I should be experiencing European fine dinning, but I can do that back in Geilenkirchen. So shop and ate we did!
Saturday morning we headed back towards Luxembourg City, which was only about an hour’s driving. We first visited the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/lx.php where General Patton is buried. As far as making an impression, after being to cemetery in Normandy it seemed pretty darn small…which I guess is a good thing. The entire area was impeccably manicured and I don’t think a blade of grass was allowed to grow out of order. I’m sure that Patton likes it that way too! His grave was at a special location at the “top” of the field of graves so that he can always look down to his troops.
We also stopped at the Germany cemetery
http://www.marville.org/misc/mamisc-3a.html which was very interesting and different. This cemetery wasn’t established until the last 60’s and was internationally funded as a place for friendship, peace, and understanding. We were the only car in the parking lot and we saw only one other person there who was walking out when we arrived. You have to walk on a wide trail through the woods to get to the entrance and instead of the white marble, polished brass, and a pristine setting as seen in the American cemeteries, you had to walk through a small door in the brown rock and brick wall to get to the grave markers that were formed in the iron cross shape, but made from brown stone. The wall housed a small chapel and across the ground there was a small mound with a large brown cross for all of the unnamed German solders. Most of the marked graves had at least three bodies in them and I have no clue as to how many bodies were in the mass unknown grave. The cemetery had a very natural feel about it which seemed to reflect the Germans love of nature and hiking. (Hiking over to invade their neighbors maybe?) To be honest, it was in no way a memorial to the Nazis and it seemed very sad, lonely, and tragic.
After our visit to the cemeteries we headed back into the city and onto that damned ring road. Luckily we had already learned our way around the city the day before and we found an open parking lot only halfway around the ring. By the time we pulled up there were 5 spots left. We drove down a ramp under a park and began a very narrow drive looping around and around and driving deeper underground. There were about 5 levels that maybe held about 10 public parking places and around 40 privately owned spots. When we reached the bottom floor we crossed over to the ramp heading upwards before we found one of the 5 coveted parking sports. Back on the top side we headed over to the “Place de la Constitution” where the Luxembourg Memorial was located and where we could look down over the Petrusse Valley.
There are a lot of catacombs carved into the wall of the valley but the main one near us was closed. I was a bit bummed as I have developed a real taste for historical catacomb and cave tours. The city had a small trolley tour that goes down into the valley and a plethora of the “Hop On, Hop Off” busses, but we decided to head into the centum for lunch. We ate at a Mexican place that had fairly decent fajitas and the margarita was passable….but barely. Afterwards we took the trolley tour. The trolley itself is designed to look like a train, so we felt a bit silly when we first boarded, but considering that it ended up being a sold out tour I guess that it wasn’t that silly.
The drive down into the valley was really nice and we listed to a recorded tour that was poorly done. Everyone had ear buds that plugged into a personal radio where the listener could select from five languages. There was way too much music and not enough history on the different buildings that we were seeing. The one thing that I did learn was that almost everyone has over-run Luxembourg at one time or another. In fact, I think that the Chinese might be the only nation that hasn’t had political control of the city at one point. Part of the recording told about how King Siegfried or “Siggi” as he was referred to in the recording, and the water sprite from the now non-existent rive married and settled in the valley over 1000 years ago. Afterwards the invasion began and didn’t stop until WWII ended. The musical accompaniment was a mix of classical and some really bad funky jazz that was mixed with different quotes about the city. The worst was the advertising refrain, “Luxembourg, so small yet so grand.” After hearing that about 20 time most of the people had their head phones off and were chanting away with their seatmates.
Once we were off the trolley we strolled around a bit more, enjoyed the architecture, drank a beer and just enjoyed the beautiful day. We made it back to out billet in Spangdahlem by early evening.
The next day we drove about 90 minutes to get to Trier which is the oldest city in Germany. The city itself is located in the Mosel valley and was first founded by the Romans as one of their western most trading ports in continental Europe. The place is just littered with Roman baths and ruins that have all become designated as world cultural heritages sites by UNESCO. The most famous of these sites is the Porta Nigra or “black gate.”
The city center is one of my favorites that I have visited so far. It was really beautiful with a lot of attention to details such as ornate dormers, carved statues mounted on the buildings, and the fact that almost everything had been restored so it looked stunning. Throughout the town there are brass places placed on the cobblestones know as “stumbling blocks.” Inscribed on the “blocks” are the names of former residents who were victims of the Nazi persecution. In many cases the blocks are located in front of a home that a family was forced out of by the Nazis. The blocks also locate former significant Jewish historical sites within the city such as the former location of the old Synagogue.
The day was beautiful so we decided to take the tour trolley that was offered. This one was a lot better that the Luxembourg one. There was a much better explanation of the historical sites and a better historical background offered in the presentation. We even got to see the house that Karl Marx was born in, which leads me to believe that he was just a spoiled rotten brat. The city is filled with outstanding buildings and amazing nooks and crannies to walk down. One of the most famous alleys is the Judengasse which was the Jewish ghetto off of the main square until the Jews were first forced to leave the city in the 15th century. After that the other “undesirable” groups lived and worked in the homes in the narrow alley. Of course later on the Jews and their business were welcomed back into the protection of the walls only to be forced out again generations later.
After visiting the city center we decided to walk down to the Mosel River and take a 2 hour cruise. The sun was a bit bright and it was very hot until we finally pulled away from the dock and we could enjoy the pleasant breeze on the river. On our trip we cruised under the “Roman Bridge” constructed in the middle of the 2nd century. Let’s face it, this place is old and here in the states people whine if a 50 year old building is slated for destruction.
If you get a chance to visit Trier it’s well worth it. It’s really impossible to describe how beautiful it is of the diverse architecture that ranges from Roman to medieval, to modern (out side the city center of course).
