Day 20 (June 24th): Luxembourg

We woke up at the hotel and went downstairs for breakfast. They had a nice buffet setup with fruits, rolls, meats, eggs, bacon, hash browns and juices. I chowed. We finished up and went back to the room to pack up and then check out. Since we had seen most of Luxembourg already, Al just wanted to check out the Synagogue before we left. We drove by but it wasn't anything special. I had found out the Luxembourg had one casino in the south and I wanted to get a chip. We drove down to a city call Les Bains and found the casino. We saw a lot of people very dressed up so I took off my sneakers and put shoes on. Al waited in the car as I went in. At first I couldn't find the casino because there is a hotel inside also. After a couple of minutes of searching I found the cashier and asked for a chip. The smallest denomination was 5 Euros. The chip was smaller than normal but interesting. We then hit the road again to head to Trier, Germany. Before we went there, Al wanted to check out the vineyards along the Moussel valley so we cut south and found the Moussel river. The first vineyard we stopped at wasn't open to we continued north and found another one in the town of Matchum. Al had a sampling of three wines for 3 Euros as we sat outside and looked at the beautiful scenario along the Moussel River. Luxembourg is on one side of the river and Germany is on the other side. We hung out for a while and then hit the road again. We finally made it to Trier. At first it looked like a dump and we couldn't find anything. Then we reprogrammed the Nav and found the old city in Trier. Fact: Trier is the first city in Germany and has a lot of Roman ruins. We parked the car and walked over to the Porta Nigra (old black Roman gate) which is the main entrance to the old city. The place was packed with people. There was a dance competition going on and they were blasting the music. We got a map and found out the points of interest. The main street was extremely busy with numerous vendors selling food and beer. We walked to the old Jewish section of town that wasn't very big at all. We saw some other old Churches and Roman buildings and then came to the birthplace of Karl Marks. Took some pictures and continued on. We sampled a potato pancake with apple sauce. Pretty tasty. We then went over to an old Roman Basilica and walked in and checked it out. Not far away was another old church with some very interesting stained glass windows, organ pipes and carved sculptures. Outside the church a stage was set up and a band was playing Pink Floyd (another brick in the wall). It was late afternoon and we decided to head back to the car and start driving to Dusseldorf. I knew that Trier had a casino and I wanted to see if I could get a chip. We found the casino and when I went to speak to the cashier he wouldn't give me a chip because the tables were not open for another hour. I told him all I wanted was a chip but he didn't understand, so I used their bathrooms and went back to the car. We were about 2 1/4 hours from Dusseldorf and we discussed stopping in a city before heading home to grab dinner but we decided to go home instead. We dropped out things off at the apartment and then returned the car to Avis. Parking at Avis was much easier this time. As we walked back from Avis we stopped at an Italian restaurant and had dinner. I had a mixed grilled seafood platter with a couple of beers. Pretty good meal. After dinner we were tired and headed back to the room. Another good weekend.