Turns out I didn’t get to do much today. Good thing I didn’t have anything specific planned. But the day started out great.

I slept decent and had a nice breakfast at the hotel. Via some junk email I just got from TripAdvisor, turns out the place I stayed at is the #1 spot in Trier on their list. So I’m not the only one who thought it was nice. I would definitely stay there again, but doubt I’ll be coming this way again any time soon.

I wanted to see the Roman Bridge over the Moselle River. Its foundational pillars are over 1800 years old, and it was resurfaced in the 1200’s and 1800’s. No matter how you count it, that’s pretty sturdy construction.

 …and it just kept going. It ran the full width of the arena and there was another staircase on the other side leading back out.

There was a pathway like this on either side of the arena entrance that lead to the seating areas. They were called vomitoriums because they would “spew out” people when the performances were over. Really.

I got a big kick out of this for some reason and was glad I went. There was lots of hiking to do all around it and it would have been easy to explore more, but I wanted to get to the train station to catch the 10:32, and it was about 9:50. I took a wrong turn I realized later than I should have, and then when approaching the train station, realized I was coming in the back way and had to figure out how to cross 12 tracks to get to the station. I found the pathway finally and you literally just walked across. I thought: this wouldn’t last long like this in America, because some idiot would get killed by a train, the railyards would get sued and suddenly there would be a bridge or something. But here I guess they trust you not to walk in front of moving trains. Imagine that.

As I laid my foot on the top step to the platform my train arrived, just in time! For all the good it did: about 30 minutes from my transfer point the train broke down. After sitting for more than 2 hours, they finally got going very slowly, and at the next stop we had to switch trains. When I got to Koblenz, the train to Cologne had just left and there wouldn’t be another for an hour. So I got out of the station and had a little lunch – currywurst – and made it back to catch the train to Cologne at 3:30. I finally got back to the room about 5:15. Literally the entire afternoon gone – had things gone as planned, I would have been back about 1pm. Oh well. It was pretty comfortable on the train and I read a lot. I know my legs appreciated the rest after the beating I gave them Monday and Tuesday.

I did some packing and took a shower, and grabbed a few pictures of our room at the Hilton.

At the right angle, you can see the cathedral.

Dan got in from work around 6pm. We planned some of the logistics for tomorrow then decided to go out for Turkish food for dinner. We discovered a little Turkish neighborhood on the opposite side of the train station. We haven’t ventured to that side since we were here first in 2013. It was a great little neighborhood, and the restaurant was packed with locals so we figured we were in for something authentic. And we were. Loved the food.

Dan took a spoonful before I remembered to take a shot, but that was probably better: Turkish tortellini – small pieces of pasta with little bits of beef in a nice sauce, and slathered with yogurt on top. All you saw when they brought the dish was the white blanket of yogurt with some of the brown and orange sauce. We were like “what the hell did I order?” There were no descriptions of the food on the menu, we were going just by title.

And that was the day. Not much to it. Dan goes to work tomorrow morning, I’m not sure what I’m doing yet but will find something to do in Cologne. We’re meeting at the Dusseldorf airport around 2pm. Tomorrow night we’ll be in Barcelona.