Morning in Trier

This morning I woke at 6 as usual, the bright light streaming into our second-floor apartment unimpeded by the white curtains and bouncing exuberantly around the white walls and tall ceiling of the bedroom.  I quietly made my way through the IKEA-decorated space, to the dining room where I sat in silence, knitting and sipping tea until the others woke up and gathered to cuddle in bed while watching Olympics.  It´s the kind of place I´ve thought of when I think of Europe: small building, tiny courtyard hidden from the street, tall ceilings, IKEA minimalism, tiny fridge, clean lines. We even walk to get our groceries.  Love it.  

I donned my running gear and headed out into the downtown area, running past the Kaiserthermen (third largest Roman baths in the Roman Empire) just a few hundred meters from our front door, then headed out past the Amphitheater and ran around the neighbourhood streets until I was confused but not lost and it was time to find my way home. 

To find the library, I walked – with a scarf knotted jauntily around my neck – through the breezy, autumnal weather until I came to the Dom, the cathedral of the Archbishop of Trier.  Many other scarf-wearing women were out and about.  It´s nice to be where others understand the marvelous possibilities of a scarf.  The fall fashions are out in full force here, and if you don´t own a purple shirt or a cropped black vest you might want to run out and get one.  Black and grey are mandatory as pants and jackets/sweaters, and with them you need a bright green, yellow or purple shirt.  Boots are everywhere, as are the most enchanting Anne of Green Gables-style shoes.  Textured and old fashioned. 

I´m loving our time here.  It´s a gem of a city – both full of Roman ruins and medieval churches.  A real condensed version of Europe.  If you need to do Europe in a day, visit Trier. We´re doing a very relaxed kind of tourism, dawdling over our jogging and knitting in the mornings while we watch the Olympics (really, we´re learning so much German watching hours of television…it´s all educational).  Knowing that the hard-core travel to Vienna and Budapest is still ahead of us is softening our urge to go-go-go.

I´m off – time to meet the kids and Rainer after their swim so that we can eat at a restaraunt that cooks from the only surviving Roman cookbook and then wander over to the museum and ponder the artifacts of the Roman, Germanic, and medieval periods.  Wearing a scarf, of course.

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