Saturday, September 13, 2008 ~ Trier

We were so tired that we didn’t get up on Saturday until almost noon. I think that helped most of us work through our “jet lag”. Seth had left early that morning to scout out some breakfast for us. He came back with cold cereal and milk. Along with our leftovers from the night before, we were all full and ready for another day. Again we loaded up in the van and Seth drove us into Trier, Germany. It is about the size of Idaho Falls but much, much older. In fact, it is the home of the oldest standing structure in Germany, possibly all of Europe. It’s part of a Roman colony built around 10 BC. It’s called Porta Nigra (or the Black Gates). It's part of the wall that surrounded the city and protected it from outsiders. Of course there were city gates place in the wal and this is one of the gates. We got to walk through them and take several pictures.
We spent some time in a local internet cafe, checking our emails, bank accounts and blogs. It was nice to connect to the outside world again for a few moments because we don’t have access to our cell phones or internet connections outside of the cafes. When we found all well with the rest of the world, we headed for the stores.
Seth took us to a resturant and ordered each of us a "donor". You can see how big they are. Not all of us could finish ours, but they were VERY GOOD!! After that
we went to a huge “mall?” where we checked out the stores and ended up in the grocery store getting a few things for the week. How fun, to see new and exciting foods and to have Seth tell us, “It’s really good”.
They don’t bag groceries in Germany so James and Seth would reload the shopping cart as she scanned the items. We took the cart to the van and unloaded it all loosely in the back. Heading home we talked about what we would do the rest of the week.

Elizabeth had explored the possibilities of a river trip up the Rhine and a train ride back down. In the end, we decided on a train ride up and back. It would be a lot less expensive and just as fun.
We unloaded the van, gathered up the dirty clothes, swim suits and towels and ended down at the resort Laundromat and swimming pool. We loaded up 5 washers and then headed to the pool. Elizabeth, James and Alisha went swimming while Seth and I visited and finished the wash. One load washed for almost an hour before finishing and we still had to dry it after that. It was pretty late when we got back to our rooms but we’d had a nice time together again.