“Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” ― Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battutah

There are some places you travel to that you words just can’t describe.  Hence the saying a picture is worth a thousand words.  Sometimes I think the reason on these river cruises that the saying exists is because of the amount of wine imbibed in that you have to take pictures in order to remember what exactly you saw.  I say “you” in hopes that you never think I might have had too much wine or as my friend Tom Haas says “that’s my story and I am sticking to it.”

Today we went on a tour of the city of Trier, Germany.  It is one of Germany’s oldest cities and has remainders of the Roman settlements.

The city and the church and the main square were lovely.  Skip enjoyed a sausage which  smelled delicious.

There were street vendors selling the freshest most delicious strawberries and white asparagus which I mistook for bread sticks.

There were amazing ruins of a gate called the Porta Nigra  which dated back to 180 AD.  It was interesting and quite amazing to think about the changes and how long it survived.  The stone was from a yellow quarry but turned black due to the elements.  Thankfully our tour guide Dave was able to lend a helping hand.

Once back to the ship we had a lovely lunch and then to the top deck with my friend Loretta to take a lot of photos of some beautiful scenery as we opted out of a trip to  Berkenastel to sail down the Mosel River as we chatted about life and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  The vineyards are planted down incredibly steep slopes that you can not even imagine in order to get the best sun, I can not imagine how difficult it must be to harvest them.

We had another dinner with too much wine (is that possible) too much food and I went back to the room to try to recenter myself to kving in the moment as I found my mind wandering to things I can’t control.

I am having a good trip, sunshine helps.  Wine helps.  Skeep eludes me but what I have received helps.  Being surrooundned by beautiful places and beatuiful people that makes you smile helps most of all.  I laugh and I try hard not to worry.  This made me laugh.

“I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places”. – Henny Youngman

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything”.

~Aaron Siskind