The Saga Continues

The next time I was able to go out and see things was after a trip to an Optometrist so that I could fill my prescription for a new set of glasses which would improve the vision in the eye that had the potential to see. Although my depth perception was a little askew for a few days, the improvement was remarkable and I was ready to hit the Autobahn for some tourism on the weekend.

Gathering up a group of sailors, we decided to visit the oldest city in Germany. Trier was about 60 miles away and the weather cooperated so that we did not have to walk in the rain. We easily found parking near the Centrum and walked to the largest remaining Roman wall piece still standing north of the Alps. This wall section has an entrance to the city as it was almost 2000 years ago. Porta Nigra (Latin: Black Gate) is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Porta Nigra

Of course, this is not the only thing of interest in this old town. There were other sites of interest left by the Romans. There are recently uncovered baths and a Colosseum that is used during the summer for re-enactments of the gladiator fights.

Roman Bath

Colosseum

Finally, I had to go visit the birthplace of my arch-nemesis: the person who enabled me to have my life-long ambition to defeat evil. Karl Marx was born in the city and later teamed up with Engles to write the Communist Manifesto. The Nazis, under the direction of Hitler, destroyed most of the items possessed by the Marx family and used the house for political gain, but being able to visit and learn about the person with the unkempt beard was fascinating.

Darkness came early so we did not get to drive the few kilometers to Luxemburg to see Patton's gravesite at the American cemetary. We did not miss out on a fine evening of German food though and that will be a future topic.