Incredible Germany

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Article by Graham Parker

Tour tips for Trier – Travel – Destinations

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Trier is an exceptional tour destination, whether for the large, bustling Christmas market of tinselled stalls and ginger-bread men, or as a Mosel riverside city destination of culture, history and wine. If it has a problem, it can only be how to do it justice!

There is no denying that it is a considerable journey from the UK to Trier, so at the planning stage, how much time can be devoted to the city is governed by the length of time there, naturally.

Ideally, if it is a two night Xmas market excursion, then Trier should be your sole goal, with three nights away, one full day in Trier is balanced wonderfully with a visit to nearby Luxembourg or a cruise down-stream along the Mosel to one of its many picturesque towns and river ports. But before we look at Trier, let’s just consider those two options, it may help with planning.

Excursion to Luxembourg

Luxembourg city is easily reached, being just an hour coach ride away. Nestled around a cliff top ravine, the buildings of the upper-town offer a wonderful shopping experience. Top-end shops and boutiques line narrow pedestrianised lanes fringing flea-market squares. Fine dining is available in chic restaurants and the square also offers up fast-food out-lets for convenience. The fresh fruit and vegetable market counter-balances with the lovely patisseries. It’s a wonderful mix.

Apart from shopping, there is the lower town to discover beneath the city’s vast and lofty bridges, and the best way of seeing this is via the land-train that departs from the coach drop-off point. It’s an easy and inexpensive excursion that shows off Luxembourg’s unique setting. There are also the very interesting but lengthy military casements to tour, and it would be worth finding time to visit the big and beautiful cathedral.

Being such an easy journey to and from Trier, as a tour manager, I always suggest leaving for Luxembourg after breakfast, arriving at 10.30 and staying until 15.00. This means we’ll be back in Trier 16.00 (ish) to mop up the day in a city that is somehow more ‘practical’ than Luxembourg, but you will have to have visited them both to understand what I mean!

Take a journey down the river

A tour from Trier down-stream on the Mosel is as long as one would like. Heading toward Koblenz, sailing with the current, a good speed is made and a considerable distance is covered. Choose your destination and allow ample time there for lunch, shopping and trying some wine from the impressively steep vineyards you will have just sailed by. The coach will travel up later in the day to collect you from the quay side where you disembarked to take you back to Trier and your hotel. What can be more leisurely?

Trier, the main event!

But now Trier, and what a delightful city and super destination! The Christmas market is gathered in the main city-centre market square and reaches up the adjoining street to the piazza in front of the stunning flood-lit cathedral. It’s one of Germany’s busiest markets, especially so at the close of the working day when all of the locals pause to enjoy the atmosphere over a glass of Gluhwein with their friends on the way home. This settles down again to an evening paced with food, drink, shopping and yet more Xmas cheer!

Ancient discoveries

The following isn’t just about the Christmas market and is good for a visit at anytime of the year, and is based on staying at a destination outside of the city, although European Connoisseurs Travel use excellent Trier city centre hotels. The coach will drop beside the Porta Nigra, Trier’s Roman Black Gate, the largest Roman gateway north of the Alps. Built between 186 and 200 AD it is as impressive as anything that you will see in Rome itself. Now, isn’t that a recommendation! It can be toured as a part of the city’s museum. Walking through and under the gate’s massive arch, the pedestrianised shop-lined road leads to the medieval square and site of the annual, full to bursting, Christmas market. It’s typically German with quirky-shaped timber-framed buildings and an imposing church spire dominating the backdrop. In fine weather, the restaurants push their seating and tables out into the square under umbrellas to enjoy city alfresco amidst the bustle of the flower or produce market. Off in the side streets are a number of historical buildings waiting to be found, but turn left, and head up to the cathedral. What a sight as it fills the end of the road in its layered blue-stone Romanesque bulk! It stands partly on the site of the Emperor Constantine’s Palace and one time home of his mother, St Helena. Its size is breath-taking and inside, behind the alter and in the treasury are some of the religious artefacts, relics and wonders she brought back from her pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 4th century. The cathedral has free admission but there is a charge to visit the treasury.

It’s difficult to leave this incredible building especially if there is one of its many free concerts in progress, but outside, and left again, you will pass the famous Weinstube Kesselstatt on the right, very much within the cathedral’s precincts. European Connoisseurs Travel arrange wine tasting sessions here, in cellars once a part of the Roman Palace complex, but even so, drop in for a wine experience anytime upstairs in this very atmospheric bar or sit outside in the leaf-dappled shadow of the cathedral’s looming walls. Push on up the same street, under the arch and bear left, directly across the road is the Red House, but your eye will instantly be drawn right, to the massive, windowed walls of the Aula Palatina, the Basilica of Constantine. Now a protestant church, it has had many uses and a jumbled history since being built as the Emperor Constantine’s throne room, and is now, 1600 years later, the largest extant building from the ancient walls. Open to the public, outside of church-service time it has an admission charge.

You will see that the church is adjoined to the beautiful baroque Elector’s Palace and a walk around the front to admire its fussy 18th century frontage will lead you to a lawned perambulation beside statues and a long formal pond, and thence a wall-walk to the ruins of Constantine’s bath-house complex. Easily viewed from the palace’s gardens, a cutting to the left drops down to the road and a round tour can be made of its exterior, all free of charge of course, but an admission charge is levied to visit within. Completely encircling the baths will lead you back to the garden wall-walk and then back the way you came to the city centre. But if you have the time, and inclination, over the road and left of the baths, is the Roman amphitheatre. At 5 Euros entrance, it’s a mixed bag, and probably needs to be ‘your thing’.

The Abbey of Saint Matthias

A little way outside of town, and a good walk away (but the coach may do an optional excursion here if the interest is sufficient) is the Abbey of Saint Matthias. This is a working abbey, and home to the mortal remains of the apostle and disciple St Matthias. His tomb is in an iron-banded stone sarcophagus in the crypt. The crypt itself is open only on certain days, but an ‘open window’ arrangement has been fashioned in the abbey’s aisle floor, so that the tomb can be seen at all times. This is a lovely excursion to the abbey, its cemetery grounds and the most excellent gift shop. The whole excursion here is built around St Matthias, but doesn’t necessarily need to a ‘pilgrimage’ to visit. One hour or so here is quite enough to take it all in. If you have walked to the abbey you may like to return by the river bank. En-route you will see the last remaining medieval city-wall tower, remains of the Roman bridge (well, its layered piers at least ) and some windmill lifting cranes on the river-bank.

Clearly Trier has so much to offer, and a short visit of only two nights demands that it should be a stand-alone experience, as there is so much to take in! With three nights, a river cruise and a visit to Luxembourg make a natural option, but in any event and at any time of year, make Trier one of your must-see destinations.

Find out more about booking a trip to Trier.

About the Author

Graham Parker is Tour Manager for European Connoisseurs Travel, with years of experience conducting specialist group tours in Europe and the USA.

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Graham Parker

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