In which we visit an Easter market in Trier

On Friday Carol and hubby took me to Trier, just over the border in Germany, to visit an Easter market. Trier is famous for its Christmas markets so this is a new - and probably lucrative - departure for the town, which attracts hordes of tourists all year round from miles away.

Our first stop in Trier was to admire the guild fountain. This is made of wrought iron and features all of the trades - shoemakers, bakers, tailors, etc. In the summer the fountain works but no water flows in winter, probaby because if the water were to freeze it might damage the metalwork.

From there we made our way to the main market square with this ornate statue in it and the church of St Gangolf in the background.

Here I am mastering the intricacies of a menu written in German.

In the square a variety of stalls had been set up - one selling home-made wines and liquors,

another where you could have a drink of wine or beer, a stall selling clothes and jewellry, and two with Easter decorations.

meeting the Easter bunnies

There were several flower stalls and, best of all, a carousel, on which I absolutely had to have a ride.

We stopped at the drinks stall where the bar tender commented - rather unkindly I thought - that it looked as if I was hanging onto my glass for dear life and wasn’t going to let go. Actually the wine was pretty good so it’s not really surprising I didn’t want to let go.

We walked the length of the pedestrian precinct so that we could admire the famous Porta Nigra (black gate). Trier was the most northern outpost of the Roman Empire in the time of Constantine and there a lots of roman remains including a well-preserved ampitheatre, thermal spa, Constantine’s basilica (built in AD 310) and the Porta Nigra.

Some of the shops had beautiful wrought iron signs outside them.

This beautiful unicorn head graces the Unicorn Pharmacy

Easter trees are very popular

On our way back to the car we passed some beautifully preserved buildings of which Carol took a number of photos

and this quirky jewellry shop window with its vegetable puppets.

Caravanserai Easter

Our last port of call was a recently restored baroque fountain, painted in white and gold.

Carol’s husband proved to be a dab hand at taking photos of us and he really enjoyed himself. He said he thought it was a brilliant idea to send me on a round the world. When Carol told the stallholders - whose permission she asked before taking some of the photos - that I was on a world trip, between you and me, I think they thought Carol was absolutely bonkers, but it made them smile if nothing else!

More information on Trier can be found here.