A day in Trier and my final thoughts on the Eifelsteig

October 3rd is not the best day for visiting a German city. It’s a national holiday to celebrate German reunification and, apart from a handful of restaurants and cafés, everything in Trier was closed.

Even so, there were a lot of visitors in the city, as I discovered on going for breakfast after a rough night during which my feet really gave me hell. The hotel breakfast room was so packed, they’d had to open up two adjacent conference rooms. Even so, I ended up eating on the patio outside as that was the only area with a free table. With so many visitors in the city, I set off to explore after breakfast with the hope that some places would be open. A hope that was soon shattered.

The AllTrails app came up with a 7-kilometre walk taking in the key sights of the city that promotes itself as the oldest in Germany because of a significant number of Roman remains. But as soon as I set off, I felt like I was walking through a ghost town. Every shop was closed and there was hardly anyone about.

The walk led me from the area that I was staying in on a winding route past Karl Marx’s birthplace (closed) to the city’s main square and the huge cathedral (also closed to prepare for that evening’s reunification concert). There were a lot more people about in that area, all of them seemingly wondering how to spend the day.

Fortunately, a few places of interest were open. The Konstantin-Basilika was a huge building dating from Roman times that is now a church.

Next to the cathedral, the Liebfrauenkirche was temporarily open. Just as I entered, the sun emerged from behind a cloud and flooded the place with bright colours from the stained glass windows. This church also had a very fine sculpted portal.

I was also able to see the inside of St Gangolf just off the square…

…before following the main street up to the Porta Nigra, the old Roman gateway that has become the symbol of the city. It was an impressive sight, despite the hordes of tourists, and was no doubt a powerful symbol of Roman power back in the days of the empire.

From there, I made my way back to the hotel, passing the Konstantin-Basilika again, then the old royal palace and the sprawling Roman baths (by this time, my feet were sore again, so I didn’t go in to take a look around).

Just as I got back to the hotel the rain that had been threatening all morning began to fall, soon turning into a full-blown storm that lasted few hours. So the afternoon was spent in my hotel room, relaxing, resting my feet, and taking part in a Zoom conference call with colleagues in Paris.

Finding somewhere to eat dinner proved to be a challenge. Every restaurant that had attracted my interest while planning the trip proved to be closed or packed full (only natural with so few places open). I ended up in an Indian place where, after a 20 minute wait, I was served a delicious curry.

So that was my day in Trier. It’s a fine city and I would be happy to go back… at a time when everything is open.

As for my final thoughts on the Eifelsteig, these last two weeks have allowed me to discover a beautiful corner of Germany. It’s a wonderful trail that covers the whole of the Eifel range from north to south. Apart from a few tricky sections (the arrival at Gerolstein, some of the trail between Manderscheid and Himmerod, and the horrifically eroded descent to Biewer on the final day), the sole difficulty lies in the fact that some days can be quite long as it’s necessary to leave the trail to find accommodation. It was a trip rich in encounters and with plenty of wonderful discoveries: Monschau, the Vogelsang complex, Steinfeld abbey, Hillesheim, the lakes outside Daun, the Lieser valley, Himmerod and, finally, Trier. I heartily recommend hiking it.

So that’s another German trail off my list. Can’t wait for the next one!