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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Trier

Beth and I kicked off the holiday season with an evening at the sauna then a long weekend down in Trier, Germany for the annual Christmas market.  Here are a few pics from the trip.



Trier is a bustling little market town with an interesting Roman history.  The streets were crowded with shoppers, with the ancient Roman gates in the background.








Porta Nigra  (The Black Gate - 200 AD)



The third largest baths in the Roman empire are in Trier - it was an important city on a very hostile edge of the empire.

So important in fact, that emperor Constantine spent much time here (probably planning his actions that would lead to the eventual fall of the empire - IMHO).  This massive, yet innocuous looking building is his original throne room - once part of a vast complex.


This part of Germany is all about wine.  The hillsides were covered with highly improbable vineyards.  Some of the hills were so steep that there were little cog train lifts to service the vines.


 We then took a nice drive up the Mosel river to discover many class German villages and hundreds of vineyards.  

And finally, a little video of the market for my mom...including cheesy animatrons...gotta love the goats at the end.  Merry Christmas everyone!


Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Hobbits?

Living in the country with the tallest people in the world, Beth had to stop and make a pose when we came across this itty-bitty door on our last trip into Amsterdam - it isn't often that she has an opportunity to feel tall around here...

 
 ...and even less often than to feel like a tall, Dutch sexpot!