Happy New Year! On January 2 we drove down to Trier, which is southwest of us and close to the Luxembourg border. We have been there before (during a 2005 Christmas trip), but we missed a few things and it deserved a repeat trip with better cameras. And the weather forecast was clear and sunny, though it turned out more like partly cloudy. And cold - barely above freezing. Still, we had a very nice time!
We started out at St. Matthias' Abbey, which is on the southern outskirts of the city beyond walking distance. (But buses go there from the center, and there's a free car park across the street.)
The abbey church was interesting, with some nice Romanesque architecture and the reputed relics of Saint Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas. There's a marble effigy of Matthias at the front of the church, with his bare feet charmingly sticking out of his robes, and his relics are in a small stone sarcophagus in the crypt.
Then we found parking in the city center, in an underground garage by the Konstantin Basilika - a Roman throne hall built in 310 and used by Constantine (he became emperor in 312). It is now used as a Protestant church. Sadly it was locked so we didn't get to see the inside again.
We revisited the cathedral, its treasury, and its cloisters, all of which were as interesting as we remembered. I think I enjoyed it more this time because now I appreciate Romanesque architecture a lot more. Last time I was focused entirely on the connections with Constantine (of which not much remains).
