My Dad came in town this past weekend! It was so nice to have a face from home, as well as someone to show all these things I’ve come to fall in love with! He’s still on his cane from some knee surgery so I tried to keep the walking to a minimum, which actually wasn’t so hard since Trier is so tiny!


He got to the train station at 8pm from a week of business in Amsterdam, and we walked in the rain to his hotel that was right across the street from my house and got him something to eat in the restaurant on the ground floor. We enjoyed some tiny beers and then we headed over to my apartment so I could give him a tour and introduce him to my roommates. He finally got to see my room on the other side of the webcam! And I gave him some of my roommates fresh apple juice that she makes with her dad on their farm back home! yumm. And he also met the dreaded Crookshanks..

The next morning I met him across the street for breakfast, and then we headed to Karl Marx’s house that is now a museum. The Marx house was bought by the Social Democratic Party in 1928, but the house was confiscated by the Nazi Party in 1933 and turned into a printing house, which explains why the inside of the house has been cleaned out. It was a little strange to visit a famous house sans old furniture, but it also allowed for some pretty cool design elements to lead people through the house while learning all about the history of Karl Marx. Also it was cheap, and we got cool translating headphone things to hear it all in english!

After the tour, we went to the grocery store to get some things to make lunch in my apartment- caprese sandwiches and spargles with hollandaise! and Guiness! We ate and my dad iced his knee, and then we left, all full and fresh, to walk all around Trier and see the sights. I took my dad to the big Dom church thats pretty magnificent on the inside and has a really cool courtyard/graveyard. One of y favorites. Then we went on to the Porta Nigra- the main Trier landmark, though I had wished I knew more about it’s history before we went.. pretty spectacular none-the-less. We walked to my school and stumbled upon Jarred, who my dad had recognized from my amsterdam blog post! haha We got back to my street and went to the coffee shop on the corner in the Hauptmarkt and called my mom. We went back to our rooms to get ready to go to the wine tasting at Deutschherren-hof, and I had some last minute recruits- Jenn and Krista! Who had just flown in from Kansas to visit KP, but she stayed with me a couple days before KP got back from England.

The Wine tasting was sooo fun, and I think everyone had a really good time getting stuffed and being cultured. It was Jenn and my second time to this place, and it was even better this time around because we had some german under our belts to impress our foreign guests, and also the wine guy talked a lot more to our table than last time when it was a big group of students. At the bus stop outside the wine tasting place someone threw a donut out their window and it hit Krista and left a bruise. My dad went to sleep when we got back, and we headed off to the Panic Club and danced till 5:30 in the morning and my dad soon called me at 9:30 and was ready to check out of his hotel. We dropped his suitcase at my place then walked all the way down to the Mosel river. We got some coffee at a small place on the river and i got some apple pie with vanilla frosting. mmm breakfast. We took an hour boat tour and saw the university crew team practicing, and my dad tried to figure out what the german boater signs meant, because that’s what he does. It was soon time to take him back to the train station, but of course we found a little time to find a hole-in-the-wall thai restaurant and grab a quick lunch first.

A goodbye with a train is very dramatic. I didn’t really realize before, but trains are very “movie-esque” for me and most Americans I feel so I didn’t expect to cry when my dad left, but when the train pulled out and I was still standing there waving and watching my dad get settled in his seat, my eyes just started watering..

Love you dad. Thanks for stopping by to say hi 🙂