I "lost" a bet in Trier.

We hit the ground running the very next morning, going around 45 minutes to Trier, an old medieval city.  We looked at the outside of the Electoral Palace as we walked passed it to go to the Aula Palatine.  It was once called Constantine Basilica, but is now a Protestant church.  

Electoral Palace

Aula Palatine

It was constructed around 310 AD and has the largest "extant hall from antiquity."

After some long and tricky bathroom breaks for the group we went over to the Church of Our Lady Mary (Liebfrauenkirche in German.)

This church was actually connected to a cathedral, but the interior doors were blocked so we had to walk around outside and re-enter.  The Cathedral of St. Peter houses both St. Helena's head and the robe of Christ.  Both are in Reliquary boxes and can't be seen well.  The robe of Christ is brought out once every ten years and we have not been so lucky to be in Europe during that time.

Cathedral of St. Peter

The Robe of Christ

Cathedral of St. Peter is on your left and Church of Our Lady Mary is on your right.  You can see that the architecture is different as well as the color of the two churches.

We walked around the market area and bought the children Gelato before making our way very slowly to the Porta Nigra, which is a Middle Ages Roman gate.  It was about this time that Brian called to make our dinner reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant near our house.  Unfortunately, I am writing this so much later than it really happened that I can't remember al the specific times involved in our bet, but I can give the gist of it.  Brian made the reservations far earlier than I thought we could actually get back given the slow pace that we had been keeping and the amount of pictures that one of our guests (who shall remain nameless, but it may be impossible to hide his identity completely here) was stopping to take of every old building along our way.  We were a good ways from our van and I made a bet with Brian that we'd be late for our reservations. 

Judah was being super silly in front of the Porta Nigra.

The stakes were that whoever lost would have to drive home from the restaurant.  Unfortunately, since the deal was public knowledge that person taking lots of pictures and slowing us down chose sides and picked up the pace significantly.  I tried to halfheartedly stall a couple of times stopping for a bottle of water and a potty break, but truly I couldn't lose here because I was tired and just wanted an earlier night than we'd been having.  So I "lost."  

But really I won.  😉

We had a lovely dinner at our favorite spot and our friends got to meet the sweetest Italian lady in Germany that we know.  They also got to try her family wine and some grilled Calamari.  Delicious pizza and pasta too!