VM DC won't power up after trial ESxi 5.5 expired

Hello,

I downloaded and installed a trial version Esxi 5.5 for familiarization purpose. I also got vcenter server appliance and a VM DC on it.At end of trial period, both the vcenter server appliance and the VM DC will not power up! Was i wrong to think that all i would lose was access to the hypervisor and its management functions ? Don't i get some capability to at least support a small sized VM ? How can i get the VM running again, or at least export out the VMDKs.

Thank you
D.