Holiday – Day 3: Exploring Triere

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Triere is calling us – so we called a taxi! Peter, our holiday co-ordinator, had enthusiastically suggested that we walk from the hotel to the station, quoting ‘only fifteen minutes’. Given that the taxi took ten when we arrived, his estimation felt a little on the optimistic side – and we had to think of the older members of our family – Denis and Lee too! 🙂

Just before we set off, I took another shot of the castle opposite.

We all piled on the train and it only took just 45 minutes to get to our destination, Triere, (documented as the oldest town in Germany). It’s also the town, as every good school-kid knows, that is the  birth-place of Carl Marx.

It was then a quick ten-minute walk to the start point for the group – Porta Nigra (the Black Gate), almost 2000 years old, and the must-see attraction if you come here. We just had a short time to take a few photographs before we boarded the ‘land-train’ that took us for a 35 minute whistle-stop tour around the town.


When the train returned to the Porta Nigra and the end of our tour, we made off in the direction of the shops and the sights – and on the way, some free wi-fi and some coffee. The latter was easy-peasy, the former, a real challenge – even after visiting an O2 shop where fractured German collided head-first with fractured English, resulting in me being pointed in the direction of McDonald’s!

Back to the important stuff – the local architecture was amazing – very colourful and striking in its appearance.




But of all the sights, the interior of the Cathedral was easily the most spectacular.





13.00: We fancied something a little more nutritious than a Big Mac for lunch, so walked a little further and stumbled across Da Franco. Initially, we sat outside, but were ushered inside when it started to rain. The place was very busy when we arrived, and although we had to wait a while before our meal arrived, it was definitely worth it – we all agreed that our pizzas were probably the best we’d tasted anywhere… ever!.


We agreed that we wouldn’t need to eat for at least a week! (famous last words!!!) – even Lee managed to get through about a hundred times more than she normally does for lunch. Super-stuffed, we took a slow walk back in the direction of the station, with just time for one more coffee before heading for our platform and the 4.13 back to Cochem. In the rush getting on the train, I lost sight of the others and ended up sharing the journey with Tony and Sandy who we’d met on the journey here and who were also part of our 40-strong group.

18.00: Arriving back at Cochem, our well oiled-plan to grab a taxi back to the hotel revealed a missing ingredient – a taxi!! We waited about 15 minutes before concluding that for whatever reason, none of them had the Station on their list! So, we reluctantly walked back to the hotel. Twenty minutes later, we were  in our room looking forward to a putting our feet up for an hour-or-so before the mad stampede for the communal evening meal.

19.30: Slightly more refreshed, we settled into the now familiar routine of a change of clothes followed by the group-troughery-experience. The food is OK, and although it’s not the best we’ve tasted, there’s plenty of it. In fact tonight was a marked improvement on previous nights.

Early breakfast tomorrow – 7am – in preparation for our river cruise down the Mosel.