Closing out January this year we took a weekend trip to Germany’s oldest city, Trier.  There seems to be a bit of a dispute about whether Trier really is the oldest city in the country.  Worms and Köln also are vying for this distinction.  In any case, Trier claims to have been founded in–or before–16 BC, which is really old no matter how you want to slice it.

The most impressive monument in Trier is the Porta Nigra, or Black Gate, which was built by the Romans, is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps, and is a UNESCO world heritage site.  A couple of other sites we visited were the ruins of the old Roman amphitheater and the Roman baths.  The baths were built over 1,600 years ago and are an impressive remnant of Roman civilization in Germany.