Intinerary and comments:
Note: we have seen Pompeii, so didn't feel moved to do a real tour of the roman stuff in Trier, in particular all of the preserved baths. There are also nearby reconstructed roman villas, which I'd like to come back and check out. Trier and similar "roman ruins/reconstructions" could eat a full day or two.
- Day 1: Mannheim to Trier
- Celtic Ringwall and Hilfort of Otzenhausen (1C BC, largest surviving celtic ringwall. Currently 20m tall, originally probably 40!)
- Trier: Porta Nigra, Dom, etc
- Day 2: Drive south along the Saar before heading back
- Saarburg
- Pretty view
- Klause bei Kastel-Stadt: Mountaintop settlement, continuously settled since the Celts, with sandstone outcroppings and temple/church atop
- Tree-top-path, Saarschleife views
a shareable google map of everything is
here
Day 1: Getting to Trier, Celts along the way
Celtic Ringwall and Hilfort
Location via googlemaps. Honestly, pretty easy to route over this when heading to Trier from Mannheim. I hadn't heard of it from anyone, I'd found it by my tried and true method (used for everything on this trip outside of Trier) of zooming out, then in, and clicking on things that looked interesting.
Hiking up to the TWO walls (there's an outer wall on the hillfort, then the inner ringwall around the old settlement, which is currently 20m tall) is free. There's a little reconstructed celtic settlement at the start of the path that you have to pay something to enter, and we decided to skip.
Details here. They have a virtual tour of the ringwall, even,
here.
After enough exposure, I realize now that often a "Felsenmeer" (sea of stones/bolders) is the remains of an old celtic settlement.
View towards the modern reservoir, from atop the first ringwall:
Walking a bit further up the hill, you come to the inner settlement. They've tried excavating the wall in some areas to understand how it was constructed, but it has no mortar, and the stones shift and fall --- it's basically impossible.
This thing is so massive. It is really hard to photograph. It's hard imagining it used to be twice as large. In the 1800s, the local ruler petitioned the grand poobah -- the Czar/Kaiser/whatever to make a law forbidding the locals from carting off the stones to reinforce their own houses (see: why is everything ancient in ruins? Because people are too lazy or lack the know how to dig stones, so they go pillage the old structures). For his visit, they built some stairs into this wall (kind of visible in the first picture)
And next, the view from the top:
Day 1: Trier
Trier is an old Roman town, located at the confluence of the Moselle/Mosel and Saar Rivers. It's quite close to the western border of Germany, kind of close to Luxembourg.
We arrived, found parking, and had an absolutely lovely lunch at this French place with a German name, the Kraemerei.
Then we walked around Trier, loosely inspired by this route. The Basilica is nuts. Dates back to 310, giant, Roman, imposing. And then someone slapped a...baroque? Roccoco? Palace front on the side. Utterly bizarre, but, well, Prince-Bishops and their tastes.
Pictures from all sides. As you approach from the Basilica side, walking around towards the palace front glommed on:
Not far away from the Basilica is another Franken-Building, the Dom, which was built in 4 different Eras. They seem to like models of things around here, and placed a helpful one in front of it. I was totally amused that the Bishop's winery had a wine garden (like a beergarden, but wine) across the street from the church.
And of course, the building to see: Porta Nigra. Famous Roman ruin.
We made some dinner in the flat, then went around the corner for turkish desserts at Tatlim Benim.
Day 2: Drive south along the Saar before heading back
Saarburg: 30 Minutes from Trier along the Saar
So, I was steering us to some places labeled as being great views, then I saw this town and declared we had to stop. With 1 Euro all day parking, a win.
What I saw:
Saarburg has a castle and church up on a ridge, then the old town center is kind of westish of that ... and IT CONTAINS A WATERFALL.
But, back to the castle and ridge, as that's where we started exploring.
If you don't know this about me, I adore crenelations. The zig zag things that kids draw on towers when you ask them to draw a castle.
We climbed up to the highest part of the castle (the crenelated thing was a tiny turret, this was in the other direction) and had this great view down the ridge to the Church, and the old town tucked behind it.
Heading over to the oldtown, I was skeptical of the thing labeled waterfall...but I could hear it. Nah, can't really be. WAIT WHAT?
In the 13th Century, the local ruler decided to reroute a local river/stream (smaller than the adjacent Saar) to run through town. The 18m drop let it then power a mill. This mill was later swapped out for a turbine (now housed in that building on the left, the Aemuseum (wordplay/portmanteau on 'amuse' and 'museum'), letting Saarburg be one of the first cities in what is now Germany with electricity.
[Optional: Beautiful View of the Saarschleife from the East bank]
Optional because it's kind of a pain to get back across the river (if your car swims, that would make this easier).
This is the view. Verra nice.
Klause bei Kastel-Stadt
This was really cool. Continuously settled hiltop village, celts, romans, goths, etc.
Celts and Romans from 2ndC BCE to 4thC CE. The first picture/map gives you a sense of scale, and suggests some hiking paths in the area (would be good for a return trip, or if you have an extra day)
This next one is an "Ehrenfriedhof". For soldiers. The headstones and whole thing were planned in one go, possible in the post-WWII situation.
A handy scale model. The darker/bronze looking thing is the chapel on the cliff that was originally a celtic worship area (maybe just inside the adjacent caves):
And after all this and the amazing views, the last stop in our adventure, the tree-top path.
Tree-top-path (Baumwipfelpfad), Saarschleife views
So, apparently there is a whole...chain? family? of these constructions, and not just in Germany. People found places with nice views, built a giant ramp thing following a "path through the treetops" and people pay admission for it. Definitely worth it.
The website for this one is
here.
As you enter, pictures of various other ones:
Then you walk up the path/ramp and through a large, nice park area along the height of the rather tall tree tops:
Finally the view. I have no idea how to translate this to English. This form on a river ('bend' seems insufficient) is called a "Schleife", or "Loop". So this is a "Saarschleife", and it has more than one of them as it snakes around:
It was windy that day, and it was super duper windy at the top of the thing:
Hope this inspires you to check some of these things out if you make it to this corner of the world.
