Day trip to Aachen

On the recco of my colleagues I did a day trip to Aachen with Megan on Sunday. It's the most western town in germany and 1 hour 20 minute train ride from DD. only $46 USD. It's famous for its cathedral and thermal bath house. The bath house was off the list since Megan did not have her swimsuit.

We bought tickets for the 8:40 train and thought that leaving our guesthouse at 8 would be plently of time to take the tram that will get us to DD train station. Well, as we were walking to the tram stop we saw it go right by us. Ok, we'll catch the next one. When we got to the stop it said the next tram was 25 minutes away! Note to self, trams on the weekends run less frequently than weekdays. Then Megan saw tram #701 and thought that we should just hop on. We did and about 5 minutes later realize it might not take us to the train station. We decided to hop off and take a taxi. OK, second note to self - there are hardly any taxis on Sunday. Any taxi we saw had a passenger in it. I quickly concluded that any taxis on the road is only there if they have been called. Crap, it was now 8:30 and there was no way in hell we are going to make it. We ended up wating for the next tram to come along. It was 8:50 by the time we got to the train station which meant we had to figure out how to get on the next train which according to Megan was not so easy. I asked Megan if there's any chance the 8:40 train might be late and she said there's zero chance. The german trains are always on time, to the minute. Well, wouldn't you know it, we happened to look and our train was running late!! Megan was flaberghasted saying that this has never happened. I was feeling a little smug myself.

It was forecasted to rain on Sunday and I was hoping our luck would continue. Nope. It was drizzling lightly when we got to Aachen. It was such a cute town. We walked the whole day. We booked the english speaking tour of the cathedral. Meanwhile we walked around the small cobblestone streets, ducked into cafes to buy sweets and to eat lunch. I love the sandwiches here, the bread is fresh baked. I got an open face sandwich with fresh salmon, it was so yummy. Gave some of my quiche to Megan when she discovered that her wrap had some huge slices of pineapple, not expected! After lunch we checked out the city hall. OK, just picture a typical city hall and think the opposite! The building was built in the 14th century and more of a palace. It was incredibly ornate, inside and out.

The cathedral was so pretty. It was a mix of baroque and gothic architecture. The town itself suffered a lot of damages in WWII but luckily the church was unscathed except for the windows. It was built in the year 798 during the reign of Charlemagne and the oldest cathedral in northern europe. For 600 years it was the coronation place for 30 german kings and 12 queens. On the tour we got to see Charlemagne's throne which was place high above so he could look down and see the church activities. The throne was also used for the coronations. The choir hall was incredible, all 3 sides in colorful stain glass windows that were 100ft high. Even my wide lense cameras couldn't quite take it all in. I was amazed that they allowed flash pictures of the frescoes since they were over 1,000 years old and fading. The cathedral also held the St.Mary treasury which contained 4 relics that included the Virgin Mary's cloak & Christ's loin cloth. It has been tradition since the 14th century that these relics are taken out of the sealed treasury every 7 years for the pilgrims to see. The last time was 2007. This was when we found it hard to believe that something that was 2000 years old could be taken out and exposed to the environment and not be damaged! Ofcourse we couldn't offend the guide by expressing our doubts. Megan is going to ask her dad the scientist if this is even possible!

By now it has been raining steadily. We had our umbrella but it still sucked! This called for a nice leisurely dinner. The old town had dozens of restaurants and we eventually chose this very charming mediteranean restaurant (called Aix Mediterano). The front had a huge green and white strip awning that covered some tables and chairs and a profusion of potted flowers. The inside was just as cute. It reminded me of a small restaurant on a greek island, stucco and ceramic tile floors and with more fresh flowers. The restaurant owner/waiter/cook was a very charming little man with a big black mustache. When we asked if he had an english menu he shook his head but asked if we spoke spanish or french. Great! Now I can converse with him in spanish and cut back on the sign language! We were able to order in spanish. The place had two stories . Downstairs where we were there was a little brick oven where he grills the tomatoes and zuchinis. After taking our order he went to his counter and pressed into an intercom on the wall, apparently to place the order with the cook! I pictured the computerized way they place our orders in the states and thought this was much more entertaining. It was really funny to see him do this throughout our time there. You can hear the cook talk back to him as well. The hummus was freshly made and the pita bread was thick and grilled, we were in heaven. Megan's main course came with fries so she asked our waiter for ketchup. He looked at us strange but brought it anyway. Finally he spoke up and said that on our plates were little saucers of ketchup that he made fresh from his tomatoes, much better than the ketchup from the bottle! We made a quick recovery and said we wanted to save his special "ketchup" for our meats!

We ended our day with some great dessert and hot chocolate at the bakery/cafe. OMG they know how to make hot chocolate here! They give you a cup of hot foamy milk and you add the chocolate powder. Both of us were moaning with delight over our desserts and hot coco, good thing we sat upstairs away from the crowd. We were SO full afterwards, even with the walk back to the train station. I made Megan walk back and forth on the train platform in the hopes of burning off some calories. Wishful thinking on my part. Great day, inspite of the rain. My memory of this place will be the beautiful cathedral and our food fest......