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Aachen, Germany

After one week in Maastricht, I started my forays to other places. The first was a short day-trip east to Aachen, Germany. I am amazed that within a few miles (literally a few feet) one can change from Dutch, to German, to French. I don't understand how after centuries of time, that people who live so close to each other, can continue to speak separate languages. They may as well be thousands of miles apart

Aachen is JUST over the border in Germany. I left my room in Maastricht, took a bus to the train station, then took a bus from Maastricht to central Aachen. Within 30 minutes I was in another country seeing German signs and hearing people speak German. If you go back to the first page, you can find Aachen on the map.

I wanted to go to Aachen for two reasons. First, it was a short trip to help me prepare for longer ones later on. Second, Aachen is where Charlemagne lived and is buried. According to my genealogical records, I am a descendent of Charlemagne. I needed to see the place where one of my ancestors lived.

While in Aachen, I took a self-guided walking tour that led me around the magnificent Aachen Cathedral - the site that contains the remains of Charlemagne. If you want to take the tour with me, come along! Imagine yourself walking counterclockwise around the cathedral passing through very narrow streets, and small, odd-shaped squares.

	The large building on the left is the Aachen Cathedral. The one to the right is St. Foillan's church. The foundation of the cathedral was laid after 768. Pope Leo III consecrated the palace chapel, as it was called, in 805. St. Foillan's church was erected in 1482. Our walk starts here, at this beautiful park. From here we walk to the right through a narrow, Medieval street, to a small cobblestone square.
	As we enter the square, we see a Bahkauv sitting on a tree stump. A Bahkauv, according to legend, used to jump on the shoulders of men returning home from the pubs late at night and forced them to carry him right to their front door. The building behind the Bahkauv is new, but it sits on top of a thermal mineral spring. Adjacent to the spring is where Charlemagne erected his palace with a chapel - today's cathedral. Let's continue on the the right up the street.
	On this corner, where we will turn left, is the Leo van den Cafe. The bronze figure you see here shows a girl with a large piece of gingerbread - a delicacy typical of Aachen. Now, let's go on past the girl to the next stop.
	We walked into this square - the Hof - through the narrow street to the left of the building in front of you. Normally this square would be filled with tables and chairs belonging to restaurants that encircle it. But, it is January, so it is still a bit cold. Now we will swing the camera a little to the right.
	This is the Roman Portikus, a replica based on fragments of a Roman columnar hall discovered during excavations. Now we will turn around, then turn right up another narrow street, called Romaney Lane, to our next stop.
	Can you see the narrow streets? We walked through one to the right of the fountain. This is called the "Huhnermarkt - chicken market" square. The fountain is called "Huhnerdieb." We now will walk away from the fountain and enter a much larger square called the "Market Place."
	We walked into this square at the left side of this huge building - the Town Hall. The square is called the "Market Place." To our left is a McDonalds. It was definitely out of place! If you look very carefully you can see a statue on a round pedestal. That is "papa" Charlemagne. The next picture shows his silhouette.
	The sun was in a poor position for me to take a really good photo of Charlemagne, but is an interesting picture anyway. We are now going to leave Charlemagne and walk around the right side of the Town Hall. We will pass a small garden called the Kitchen Garden of Charlemagne (dating back to 812), then through a large square with the cathedral directly in front of us, then we will stop just before we get to the cathedral courtyard.
	We now have reached the Domschatzkammer - the Cathedral Treasury. You can see the cathedral in the upper right. We have walked around to the front of the building. From the treasury, one can take guided tours of the cathedral area. They were all in German, so I didn't take a tour. From this position, we now move to the right a short distance so we can enter the cathedral courtyard - the Domhof.
	This is looking at the front of the cathedral. You can see that some restoration work is going on. Can you see that dark door of the cathedral at its base? I will show you a close-up picture of the door so you can see what it looks like. First, right behind us is the first Town Hall. The next photograph shows what it looks like.
	This is first Town Hall, built in 1267. It now houses the city's archives. Now let's turn around and walk into the cathedral courtyard and go down to the front doors.
	These two doors (only partially shown in this photo) are referred to as the great bronze portal. According to legend, you can still feel the devil's thumb in the right lion's mouth. I stuck my finger in the mouth but I couldn't feel the devil's thumb. Because of this legend, the doorway is known as the Wolfstur (wolf's door). Ok, now let's go inside the cathedral.
	It was really dark in the cathedral, so my pictures did not turn out very well. I did, however; want to include this one. If you look very carefully, you can make out an ornate, golden house-shaped shrine enclosed in a glass case. This shrine contains the bones of Charlemagne. The cathedral also contains his marble throne. Now we are going to exit the cathedral and walk around to its right side.
	Here we are, in another beautiful square. This one is known as Munsterplatz - Minister Square. The rather tall and ornate fountain in the square is the Spatzenbrunnen - sparrow fountain. Here also we see a nice view of St. Foillan's church. Now were are going to walk up to the front of St. Foillan's church for the last two stops on this walking tour.
	Look at this narrow street. It begins in a square in front of St. Foillan's church and ends in another square. This street is Aachen's oldest commercial street, the Kramerstratte. We will now walk up this street to the next square to end our tour.
	We walked up the street behind this fountain. This is the Puppenbrunnen - Puppet Fountain - which has movable bronze marionettes. Well, that is the end of our tour of OLD Aachen. I hope you have enjoyed it!!