Trier

Basilica

Black Gate

Synagogue

June 4, 2011- Historic Re-Cap

You probably guessed that since I've stopped talking about the weather it has improved. Today is 83 and sunny.

We opened our eyes not only to a new city but to several miracles. Our captain had managed to turn our boat around in this very narrow river and the slate hills of yesterday are gone. We are now staring at red cliffs. Are we in Georgia, Dorothy? Then the bus taking us to the city center passed Hotel Kessler. That's my maiden name. I have to start looking for my mother's maiden name, but if I told you that you'd be able to access my accounts. I'm jumping ahead, but another bit of excitement was getting to go pee-pee in a Roman ruin looking at a Roman wall. Wonder if the men got to pee on it? David says no.

Here we go again...Celts, Romans, France, Prussians, Catholics, Protestants, & Karl Marx. The latter grew up here and his home has become a pilgrimage site for Chinese. Go figure. All fought, some prevailed, lots of dead bodies, peace at last. Trier is Germany's oldest city dating from Roman occupation in 16 BC & has several World Heritage sites. Their most dramatic ruin, which is still in use as a Lutheran church, is their 2,028 year old "Basilica". It’s extraordinary that in the time of Constantine they were able to build an enormous structure of many stories. The windows alone are two stories tall with opaque glass. The entire structure was brick covered with plaster and has to be at least as large as a football field. The plaster has fallen away but the flat roof remains. Another miracle of Roman engineering is that the roof has no interior pillars supporting it. The still functioning heating system was comprised of a double floor between which were furnaces. Heat rises up the hollows in the exterior walls to a height of twenty-four feet before being vented to the outside. Today they can still use the heating system with electric heat but the cost is prohibitive. The Lutherans take refuge in a more modern building during winter months. Attached to this wondrous edifice is a pink rococo palace. Yes, a bishop wanted to knock down the Roman "ruin" to build his palace but "saner" minds prevailed. I'm not sure those who approved the pink “wart” can be considered sane. Allies saw fit to bomb the town destroying 60 % so it really isn't totally original but still impressive. At some point, as we were standing in the gardens in front of the palace, our camera battery died. That's why God created postcards.

Our guide spoke of the enormous Roman baths we’d passed on the bus. They were more than baths and served as social facilities where speeches were given, there were saunas, areas for games, and men could confer as they sat in the toilet room on benches with holes in them. The sketch based on archaeological digs she showed us reminded me of a very upscale version of the toilets we'd seen at Birkenau. In al,l the baths looked like a Roman Community Center, perhaps an RCC.

Unlike conquerors to follow, Rome let their subjects keep their own culture and slowly assimilate into Roman society. Not so Catholics and Protestants. In the majority Catholic city (80% at one time) Protestants were only allowed to stay in town for three days with special permission. Even within the Catholic Church there was rivalry and we stood before what seemed like dueling cathedrals. Side by side they were built competitively with towers being added to one when the other became taller. The one we toured must consider itself victorious since it’s the keeper of the tunic Jesus wore as he walked to be crucified.

The patron saint of Trier is Peter who is honored by having his image on every manhole cover. David was impressed by the pagan nature of belief today as our guide pointed out that the mayor goes to the statue of St. Peter in the market square to kiss the statue's hand & offer flowers in hope that they’ll have four consecutive days of good weather for their festival.

Our last stop was the Black Gate, formerly the white gate. Ancient pollution has taken its toll & the patina is left to protect the stones from modern atmospheric assault. The Roman wall and gates originally surrounding the town were plundered for stone in the Middle Ages and the only reason this gate remains is that a monk, Simeon, holed up in a room, was sealed in, food and water was handed to him through a ceiling opening, and he died there. The pope made him an instant saint and the gate was made into a church. Everything was hunky dory until Napoleon came and closed down the church. But, at least Napoleon had sense to preserve it. Built in 80 AD, of sandstone, it took the Romans from four months to two years to complete. That's based on knowledge of their timing on other projects. Our guide quipped that today it takes that long to get permits to build.

We chose to walk back to the boat. It was an easy (twenty minute) stroll through a tree-lined park. We beat the bus & got to charge the camera battery for the afternoon tour.

Synagogue Visit

The tour of the synagogue was fully booked with some people being shut out. We found three more Jews on our boat when the group assembled. Our guide said that due to security it's hard to tour European synagogues. Permits are needed and there's red tape. The one in Trier is easier to see as there's not a huge security concern here. Our tour was led by a member of the Jewish community and he did a very good job of presenting a lecture on basic Judaism. There were times when he needed help translating from German (our guide bailed him out) and times we all pitched in to figure out what he meant. David got to read the Hebrew inscription over the entrance. The building was constructed in 1957 and is a basic stone cube. There's a social hall and kosher kitchen in the lower level. The closest I can figure is it's conserva-dox. Women sit on the opposite side of the aisle from the men with no screen unless the rabbi is there. Then women go upstairs to the balcony. With the influx of Soviet Jews they have prayer books in Russian and Hebrew and the ones at our seats were German/Hebrew.

In the entry there's a plaque for a young soldier killed in WWI. It was dedicated by his parents for their son "who died for the Fatherland." Twenty years later they were deported to Auschwitz. Another plaque commemorates those transported in WWII. There are two six-branched menorahs in the sanctuary symbolizing the six million Jews lost in the Holocaust. BTW, the word “holocaust” has yet to be spoken by any guide on the trip. Seven Torahs are in the ark two being original to the old synagogue. The others are from Strasbourg, France.

There have been Jews here since the 1100's. Urban I was a problem followed by the Crusaders. During the plague when Jews were blamed for the epidemic the bishop took them into his protection behind the walls of his palace. In 1480 the archbishop forced Jews to give him their money at which time they went to Italy and Poland. In 1807 Napoleon gave Jews the rights of all French citizens and the area around the Judenstrasse was considered a prime property near the market square where the wealthy lived. He had them pay taxes and they had to Germanize their names and register. In 1859 the synagogue had an organ and was part of the liberalization of German Jewry and the start of what we know today as Reform Judaism. Before WWIl there were 1200 Jews in Trier. Only fourteen returned but they established orthodox ritual without an organ. Now there are about 475 Jews with lots of non-observant Russians in the mix. The Jewish community is not well integrated in the city as a whole and attempts are being made to rectify that. They will be part of a planned international festival. Today's congregation is served by rabbis from Cologne, Mainz, and Luxembourg.

We chose to walk from the synagogue into the old city (about fifteen minutes). Our mission was to stop at McDonald’s to buy two Happy Meals for Talia and Rylee. The clever toys are what attracted us and of course we won't bring the food home. We gave most of it away. We walked from there back to the boat (twenty minutes) and David tried listening in with our receivers to a tour group from a Viking cruise. It worked. Their guide pretty much said what ours did.

We sat with a couple from Columbus, Oho during dinner. They're Anglicans who split from the Episcopal Church over the LGBT issue. They really got "enlightened." Then we were stopped by Dewi and Becky, two tour directors. Dewi has wanted to discuss the LGBT issue ever since I asked about the rainbow flag the other day. She finally got a chance and got a short version of our spiel. They're both very supportive & Dewi has an uncle married to a trans woman. She has David's PFLAG card and is anxious to go on line to pflag.org.

After dinner there was an oompah band. I couldn't take it so retreated to the cabin. Tonight we'll sail to Traben-Tarbach from where we have an all day bus tour of Luxembourg.

Toby