Trier, Germany

When my mom was visiting in October, 

we took her to Trier, Germany for a day trip. 

J & I had been before, three years earlier, 

and loved the town,

so we wanted to share that with my mom.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany

It was built in 16 B.C. 

It's rich in culture and history and is a 

beautiful little town.

They have a fantastic walkplatz area full of 

shops and eateries, as well as 

the two most visited historic attractions:

The Porta Nigra & The Cathedral of Trier.

The Cathedral of Trier is the oldest cathedral in Germany.

It has been built and destroyed many times, but

it hasnt lost it's beauty.

The outside of this cathedral is gorgeous and

 one of my favorite cathedrals in Europe. 

It looks like a fairy tale castle.

Side view

Dome inside

A shroud that Jesus supposedly wore is kept here in a vault

The details and work never fail to amaze me

A better view

The look of this is very European, very Roman.
I love it! 

Graves in the courtyard

The Porta Nigra is Germany's oldest defensive structure, 

built in 180. 

I am so amazed and impressed that it has 

survived this long and still looks great!

In front of the Porta Nigra with my mom

The back

Inside

Happy Sunday Everyone! 

Mainz, Germany

Hello!

Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately. J was gone to Africa for 11 days

on a work trip and got home last Monday. We left on Tuesday 

for a fantastic trip to Brugge (which Ill blog about soon!). 

We'vebeen so busy since we returned, that I havent

had a chance to sit down and write until now. 

We've been to a few Christmas markets and I cant wait to blog

about them, but first I wanted to tell you about a 

trip that we took in October to Mainz. 

It's a beautiful old city that was hit devastatingly hard during WWII.

It's filled with old, unique cathedrals which was the 

motivation for our trip. 

The star of the city is St. Martin's Cathedral in the center

of town. It is enormous, gorgeous and...

morbid.

Yes, you read that right. It was a very unique and very

morbid cathedral, unlike one that we have ever seen before. 

I'll get more into that in a moment. 

The day that we were there, they were having a farmer's market

in the central square, in front of St. Martin's.

In 32º weather.

It was FREEZING cold! 

Gorgeous, bright flowers, despite the cold.

Fresh fall & winter veggies!

The entrance to St. Martin's

Eerie neon green lights...

So here's where it gets morbid... 

I've never seen skeletons in a church as decoration. 

They were everywhere, on everything.

Can you tell what's going on in this photo?

See the skeleton?

He's helping someone into (or perhaps out of) a coffin. 

 Here's a winged skeleton hovering over the pope's hat, among other things.

And another one....

this one has a bone between it's teeth.

An angel slaying the devil

Tombs on site

Gorgeous courtyard

Another tomb

A scary looking skeleton

And another

A headless statue...holding his own head

Like I said, morbid

There were others too... 

A scalped man holding his hands to his head, creatures slaying each other, 

more skeletons and tombs, among other things.

It was very cool, but very strange. 

We've never seen anything quite like it. 

Another view of the cathedral

Odd Frankenstein-like statue

Street performer

St. Stephen's Church was my favorite. It was built in 990 and heavily damaged in WWII

but it is gorgeous! The windows were all designed and made 

by Russian Jewish artist Chagall.

They are a beautiful, glowing blue color. 

The entrance

Back of the church

The beautiful windows

The entire inside of the church was a glowing blue.

It reminded me of being under the water in the ocean.

Mainz is a beautiful town, rich in history and I would love to 

go back and visit again in warmer weather. 

There was a great shopping district that Id love to explore! 

Happy Monday Everyone!