We almost missed it entirely.  In fact, we DID miss it twice.  Third time's the charm.

I have been to Trier three times now.  The first visit was made during the summer Roman Festival which is held on the Kaiserthermen grounds, home of the Imperial Bath ruins.  I thought we covered every square inch of the place that day.  It was hard to miss the massive structure. 

Trier itself is ancient – truly. It is thought to have been founded some 2000 yrs before the time of Christ by the Assyrians of all people.  The people who descended from them, the  Trevi, were conquered by the Romans in the century before Christ. It became a major hub for Roman big wigs.  The Imperial Palace was constructed and south of that structure these incredible kaiserthermen, the emperor's baths, were built, fed by the Roman aqueduct system.  After the Germanic tribes seiged the city in 360 the baths were used as barracks. 

The facade is still intact and I wanted to be sure to take the boys here when they came this winter.  It is a bit of Rome right here in Germany, seriously like stepping back in time. I told them we could save the entrance fee and just walk along the sidewalk.  It was so tremendous you could see it all anyway.  Zach's friend insisted on treating so we ended up walking through the grounds instead.

As we were wrapping up our visit we noticed steps.  They really appeared to be just maintenance areas or something though.  The boys wanted to check it out.  They vanished down below and didn't return.  After a while I told Colin I would go check it out.  It was like slipping into Alice's rabbit hole.  Just a short flight of steps down you entered a series of tunnels which connected various rooms throughout the entire grounds. There were openings in the roof periodically which lit the space.  

I hollered MARCO? and Kieran hollered back POLO!  I heard, but it took a bit to find them.  It was vast, but flat and paved. We all had the same thought – Colin HAD to get down here.  So Zach went back up to help navigate the chair and we all explored a good while.  The whole day was a good lesson in sight-seeing. There is always more than meets the eye and you usually miss the best parts rushing to the next place. 

This volume of pictures is probably like sitting through your uncles vacation slides.  You are free to go <g>  I just still am awestruck that we touched the walls that saw Constantine.