Quick Trip: Germany

Aachen, Germany

Playing the tourist in Aachen. We weren't the only ones though, it seems to be a hot spot for Dutch day trips, we heard almost as much Dutch as German in the main areas. 

What did Germany look like? Where we were, this is what it looked like. 

It's not actually historic, it's representative of history. Inside the pillared room you can feel the warm mineral water that has been valued in Aachen since before Roman times. 

Here is the jewel of Aachen. Maybe the geod. . . the inside is the best part. 

Inside the "Kaiserdom" or "Royal Church of St. Mary at Aachen". 

There's a good reason that this church was the coronation church for about 42 kings/queens. It is gorgeous. 

The pictures are pathetic in comparison to experiencing the cathedral in real life. The gold mosaics glint, the blue sparkles and all of the pictures and artwork in the mosaics are incredibly clear. 

What's more, this covers all of the upper part of the dome arches for two levels. 

The ceiling of the main dome. It's way up there, but it is no less impressive at this distance. It looks like a window into heaven . . . and maybe that is what it is supposed to represent. 

The bust of Charlemagne. In gold. 

Again, made a few hundred years after he actually lived, so they made the face fit his legendary self rather than his actual self, and man did he have legend on his side. Although he conquered and pillaged, he was considered by many to be the ideal of a Medieval king. 

More amazing than the bust of Charlemagne-- his hunting horn and hunting knife! 

He was riding through the woods with these some time between 768 - 814 A.D. 

Forget the bust, this made my eyes nearly pop out. 

Coronation cope, so-called Cappa Leonis

This so-called plaque was just like all of the other so-called plaques and used so-called words in ways that made us so-called amused. 

But perhaps the German majors could shed light on our so-called lack of German language knowledge?

Aachen has a famous town hall, and this also has been used for coronations and has a great bit of history involved with it, but it was closed so we just admired from the outside. 

Old city gate of Aachen. 

Now it just sort of stands beside a busy road as a reminder of different time. The Middle Ages seem so much more recent here (in Europe and especially Germany). 

Looking at all those buildings made us hungry, and the store fronts looked so lovely, so we went in to figure out what in the world 'printen' was. 

I was really lured in by the cute hedgehog, but he didn't include chocolate

so I didn't end up buying one.

As it turns out, 'printen' is gingerbread, complete with crystalized ginger and they dress it up with chocolate and nuts, with anise sugar coating, or just an almond. The chocolate ones are by far the best. 

It takes real food to keep you on your feet and German bakery is good at providing that. Aside from fresh baked goods they had pre-made cold cut sandwiches that were perfect for the hungry traveler. Made with the famous German roll-- hard on the outside, soft on the inside. 

A quick peek at our hotel room. The most peculiar part was our pillows, I've never slept on so much pillow, it nearly took up a quarter of the bed. 

The bathroom. The rubber duckies on the curtain gave us a smile. 

The door handle to the bathroom = my favorite part of the room. I was never expecting to see a door handle like this in real life, to my imaginative mind it looked like it was designed from a fairy tale.