Day 30 Monday, September 29, 2025
Today is a travel day to Frankfurt Germany and we have been travelling for month already. Bob says we have to stop and see another Eiffel Tower along the way but it is not quite as impressive as the one in Paris!
We had no idea that this is wine country. There are vineyards on both sides of the road as far as we can see.
The hills around each town we pass are all growing row after row of grapes. We see the odd group harvesting grapes but the main harvest occurred earlier this month.
We stop in Trier and have our picnic lunch on a bench with this view.
The breeze blew water spray and made a rainbow just as I took this photo.
This foot of Emperor Constantine is a replica of one of the largest marble foots to have survived since antiquity. It was part of a 12 metre high seated statue of Constantine.
The Roman Baths are considered to be the largest Roman baths outside of Rome. 
The ruins are impressive!
We are able to walk through the underground tunnels that would have been used as a service level for the maintenance of the bath’s heating system. This is the entrance to the tunnels.
There was a group of schoolchildren ahead of us…probably the loudest group we have encountered on our travels! We took a side tunnel to avoid walking behind them.
There are a maze of tunnels and we are free to explore as we wish. That is Bob peeking around the bend in the tunnel.
We do get a bit lost down here, but it was a lot of fun exploring these interesting tunnels.
Which way should we go!
This photo shows the size of the original baths, although they were never actually completed. The ruins of today are superimposed on the original baths.
The ruins are impressive, but they are only half the height of the original structure!
We pass this lovely garden on the way to visit Trier’s cathedral.
Photos really do not show how beautiful and enormous the trees are. I wish we were able to grow trees this large back home. These trees wouldn’t survive our colder climate.
Trier Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest cathedral in Germany. Construction started in the 4th century and it was built upon the foundations of ancient Roman structures.
And yes, the inside of the cathedral is very impressive.
It has one of the most ornate organs we have seen…
and many huge sculptures with multiple figures. We walk up these stairs for a view of the nave.
This beautiful blue and white Baroque stucco work decorates the choir loft of the Cathedral. It is stunning and unusual. This is the first time we have seen anything like this in a cathedral.
We pass this building on the way to the Nigra Gate. There are many ornately decorated buildings in Trier.
I love watching the bubble makers, and the children trying to catch the bubbles. This fellow made huge bubbles…
and lots of smaller bubbles. I would love to know how to do this.
At the end of the street we can see the Nigra Gate, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Porta Nigra, or Black Gate, is the largest Roman gate in Northern Europe. It was part of the defensive walls and gates that surrounded Trier in 200AD. It is incredibly well preserved, especially when you consider that it was completed around 200AD, and it almost two thousand years old!
We pay 6€ each to climb inside the gate. This ‘window’ has a pile of coins, perhaps people making a wish?
A view inside the gate.
We can see the Trier Cathedral from the second level of the gate.
Grafiti has been around for a long time. Some of the dates on the walls are hundreds of years old. I do really hate this practice of defacing monuments.
There is Bob, I sent him down to the street so he could take a photo of me in one of the gate arches.
Here I am.
These carved decorations are still in remarkably good condition.
Walking back to our car we stop for a photo of the Electoral Palace. We had our lunch in its beautiful gardens which have many white statues and small ponds.
Another gorgeous tree.
The clouds are moving in on our drive home.
Big black ominous clouds.
We arrive at our Airbnb in Frankfurt. It is smaller than our last place but cozy and has everything we need.
but this sculpture nearby gives a more accurate portrayal of the weather! 
We saw this statue “The Cloak of Conscience” elsewhere on one of our trips, but I don’t remember where. The artist, Anna Chromy studied at the Academy de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, my favourite life drawing studio! She is another interesting artist I read about today. I did not know that this sculpture was also carved in marble and stands over 15 feet tall! This website has some amazing photos of its creation.. 
and another big flowering Brugmansia.
trudymason.com 