The Landesmuseum in Trier had a rather useful model of the amphitheater which I had visited earlier on in the week. A rather good idea to run the city wall through the structure, why pay for two walls when one will do….
Author: admin
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Trier – Landesmuseum (Trier Gold Hoard)
The Landesmuseum in Trier is very proud of its gold hoard, which they should be as it’s the largest hoard from the Roman period ever found. I can’t begin to imagine how much this collection is worth (the museum says it’s ‘incalculable’) and it’s located in a secure room. It is though difficult to photograph because light bounces off from overhead.
The coins weigh a total of 18.5 kilogrammes and there were 2,650 gold coins within the find. They were found on 9 September 1993 when construction workers were digging a car park, and I can only begin to imagine the horror of the museum when they realised that there were likely many more coins at a dump site for earth from the project.
All of the coins found at the car park site were recovered, but they lost a few of the coins at the dump site, although most were turned in as the law required. The museum recovered what they thought was 96% of the coins, although I’m not sure how they worked that figure out.
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Heathrow T3 – American Airlines Lounge
For BA customers who have silver status or above, or who are travelling in a premium cabin, they can access all of the Oneworld lounges at Heathrow T3, which are Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, British Airways and Qantas.
I get to fly American Airlines from time to time, both internationally and within the United States, and I’ve never had a bad experience. The staff member at the reception desk was typically American, full of enthusiasm, customer service training and friendliness.
The lounge itself is large and wasn’t particularly busy, but everything seemed pretty well stocked up. There’s a First Class section to the lounge as well, but that’s beyond my access level unfortunately…..
The lunch menu consisted of smoked Spanish style chicken and chorizo with roast new potatoes and green beans. There was also a cured meat platter and and a pasta option.
There’s the cured meat platter mentioned on the menu.
This is the Spanish style chicken and chorizo, although I neither saw nor tasted any chorizo element to it. It all tasted fine, the chicken was tender and the green beans were served al dente (I think that phrase really applies to pasta, but I’m applying it to green beans anyway).
So Cathay Pacific are very proud of their noodle bar serving dim sum and other delicacies. American Airlines don’t have anything like that, but they have a sweet counter instead. This is partly why I like American Airlines so much…..
How rather lovely.
Reading other reviews, not many people pick the American Airlines lounge as their favourite if they’re taking part in a lounge crawl. Perhaps it isn’t, but I think it’s better than a fair few people say it is. Friendly service, spacious and, well, it has unlimited jelly beans and chocolate mints.
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Flights – British Airways (Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)
A morning flight back to Heathrow T3 from the beautiful country of Luxembourg.
A relatively light load across the cabin, which meant sufficient space in the overhead lockers. I had a row to myself, the same as on the way out.
As for the crew, they were exceptional. The crew member who managed the cabin had a service style which made me wonder if he was a crew trainer, he was faultless. He introduced himself to everyone and he remembered the names of all of the customers, that alone is a very impressive service standard which is rarely ever attained by the crew. For the first time in a long while, I’ve contacted BA to tell them just how good he was.
There was a choice between warm quiche or the above, which is smoked salmon with cottage cheese. Served with a roll, which appeared after I took the photo, and fruit and dessert. The salmon was sapid and flavoursome, the cottage cheese was unexceptional and the cucumber was, well, cucumber. BA seem to have thing about capers, and I’m certainly not one to complain as they add taste and texture. Overall, it was a perfectly acceptable brunch, as the airline calls it.
Note my initial choice of drink, which was sparkling water, was served alongside with a champagne I hadn’t even thought of having until the crew member so politely mentioned that it went well with the salmon. As did the glasses of it he followed up with during the flight.
The flight departed about five minutes early and landed around ten minutes early, not that I was in any particular rush. Heathrow T3 was well staffed, so I was able to leave the airport within twenty minutes of having landed. I’m sure that BA is on an upwards trajectory again after some years of complacency….
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Luxembourg – Luxembourg Airport
Luxembourg airport this morning, it looked quite inviting as dawn started to break….
The view over the runways….
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Trier – Colourful Buildings
I won’t upload hundreds of random photos of buildings, but there were some interesting and colourful frontages of properties in the city.
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Trier – Roman Bridge (Römerbrücke)
At first impressions this just looks like any other road bridge spanning a wide river, in this case the Moselle. However, it’s the oldest bridge in Germany and dates back to the second century AD. The upper part is modern, but the nine bridge pillars are all original Roman. The French destroyed the upper part of the bridge in 1689 and it was later widened in 1931.
The Germans didn’t destroy the bridge during their retreat during the Second World War, although this seems to be more down to technical problems than any desire to maintain the historic structure.
A plaque noting the antiquity of the bridge.
And a reconstruction of what part of the bridge would have looked like in Roman times.
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Trier – Bastion Südallee
There’s no information about this structure at the site, but it’s known as Bastion Südallee, or the Bastion on the South Avenue. This street used to be the line of the city wall, but it was demolished in the nineteenth century and turned into a park.
The bastion, also known as the Red Tower, was saved from being demolished. It was originally built in 1543 with the tower being fortified and the lower level was used as a gun chamber.
Unfortunately, the downstairs section is only occasionally opened up to the public and it’s a shame that something a little more can’t be done with this structure.
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Trier – River Moselle in the Morning
The River Moselle looking just a little foreboding in the morning…..
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Trier – Woolworth
In Germany, the Woolworth name lives on, originally founded as a subsidiary of the US chain in 1927. Between 2007 and 2010 it was owned by the British company Argyll Partners, before being sold to Tengelmann, who were able to save it from decline. They’ve been opening up new stores and have acquired the rights to expand the chain to countries across Europe, with the exception of the UK.
