What a packed last two days! We arrived in Trier on Tuesday evening and were graciously hosted by old friends of Stephan’s (vielen danke Jojo und Gaby!). They showed us around the city, which was the 4th largest city in the Roman empire from around 100 – 400 AD, was the seat of Emperor Constantine’s palace (y’know, the guy who made Christianity the state religion of the empire, no big deal), and was the administrative capital of the northern half of the empire. Also, Karl Marx was born there. There are Roman ruins everywhere, including in the parking garage downtown. Yesterday we made a wine tour further along the Mosel River, which is famous for its fantastic Riesling wine. Naturally, we bought a few bottles. Today, on our way back to Cologne for our last night this side of the Atlantic (yikes!), we stopped at ‘Burg Eltz’, an amazing castle first built in the 1300s that still looks, inside and out, much the way it did in the 1600s. The 33rd generation of the family that built it still live in one part of the place. Oh to be nobility in Europe!