Discovery Channel: "Underneath a German bus terminal, archaeologists have found the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman roadside rest stop that included a chariot service station, gourmet restaurant and hotel with central heating.
Upon arrival, travelers would have entered a forecourt, where mechanics stood by at a chariot service station. Hay and water troughs would have given the horses a nibble and a drink while their owners dined on a variety of foods, including ethnic cuisine.
"We haven't found any brown sauce sachets, but we have uncovered many ceramic plates, pots, and pans," Sabine Sauer, an archaeologist for the city of Neuss, told the Telegraph newspaper in London. "We have found the rubbish tips - and although much of the organic waste has long since rotted away, we have clues as to what they ate from discarded pottery. There were spice jars containing garum sauces from North Africa, similar to what one might find in a Thai restaurant today."
She added, "We know from the bones that they ate a lot of meat - chicken and pork - as well as bread, rice, lentils and fruit. There were desserts of sweet cakes, cooked with sesame seeds and almonds. There must have been a flourishing trade; there were many fragments of wine amphora and broken plates."
After the big nosh, travelers would have had the option of staying for the night at the hotel, which was made of slate and bricked with narrow joints.
The foundation was raised to allow for a wood-fueled furnace at the bottom of the structure. Hot air from the fire would have risen naturally to fill chimneys located within the guest rooms. The hot air also warmed the walls, which were made of partially hollowed-out bricks.
Sauer said the complex was energy efficient, since the forests around Neuss already had been mostly depleted before the inn's heyday. In addition to the underground heating system, a slate roof on the building captured the sun's heat, somewhat comparable to how solar panels operate today."