Trier, Germany

Trier, Germany: The Imperial Roman Baths, Porta Nigra and More

What an amazing city. I thought I'd seen ancient in my life until I spent the day in Trier. It was gorgeous today; the weather, the sites, the food, everything was perfect.

We will return to Trier in the near future!

Porta Nigra (black gate)

The Imperial Roman Baths

The Jacobsons at the Imperial Roman Baths

Inside the Roman Baths (the tunnels underground) they were wild!!

More Roman baths...

Street musicians.. Don and Bunny we got you a CD of their music...

You know what they say about big feet!

St. Peter's Square Fountain

Inside the Constantine Basilica Church

2006 Volkswagon Passat

2006 Volkswagon Passat

It's been a while since I've made an entry here. We've been busy. My fourth semester of graduate school is over (it went wonderfully) and we are settling into our lives here.

Here's the view from my window at work (minus the bars on the window). That's our car, VW Passat. Yes, I'm parking on the grass. The road to our building is being completed and we can't get to the parking lot. Anyway, It's fun to fly down the autobahn in that baby!

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Europe

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Worms, Germany



We went to see the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in all of Europe. It was incredible. The oldest headstone dates to the year 1076. Jews were buried there from 1076 to 1911. We walked through and saw a variety of headstones and different areas dedicated to different people. You have to remember, Jews were thriving in this part of Germany when this cemetery was set up. Worms was a "Jewish Center" for Europe.



Typically, even when visiting Jewish graves of someone that the visitor never knew, he or she would leave a small stone at the graveside. This shows that someone had visited, and represents permanence. This contrasts with the common custom of leaving flowers, which do not live long. Another reason for leaving stones is tending the grave. In Biblical times, graves were marked with mounds of stones, so by placing (or replacing) them, one perpetuated the existence of the site.

Coleman Barracks

I always feel compelled to post an image with every blog. I suppose I'm used to seeing words and images together - a storytelling thing..

Anyway, we're slowly, but surely, settling in and getting our bearing. We're painting the house, taking German classes and assimilating as much as possible. It's a process.

I work on a remote Kaserne near Sandhofen, right off of the Autobahn. It's called Coleman Barracks. It's really an air field (Called Coleman Army Airfield). It was a concentration camp for a short time; 1944-1945. It's small and very empty (for all intents and purposes). You can tell that it was a bustling place in its time but now the "cold war" is over, these places are going away. It's scheduled to close in 2010 or 2011. I hope to stay to the end (unless something better comes along).


Driving on Coleman at sunrise this morning.

Innerstadt Fest: Viernheim, Germany

Saturday night we went to the "innerstadt fest" in our village. It's literally a five minute walk to the village center (the big church) from our house.
It was very fun. A lot of eye-candy and interesting food and drink.

Here's a small video describing and showing interaction with the locals.



(7.2 MB WMV Movie)