Aachen (Gesundheit!)

From Cologne, we grabbed a train to Aachen - a small city where Jason lived for many years, near the Germany/Belgium/Netherlands border.  Not many people know about Aachen, but it's a very cute, comfy town with extremely important history.  (i.e. it was Charlemagne's seat of power and the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.)

We grabbed Jason and Anna's car (parked in Aachen), and headed next door to the Netherlands.  We went to the hilltop restaurant where Jason and Anna got married, and I had a great dutch apple pancake.  (Sorry, DeDutch Pannekoek House, you're just not as good.)  This was just a couple of minutes walk from two attractions we had to see: the highest point in the Netherlands (a little over 300m...), and right next to it, the point where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet (you can straddle all three countries).

This might be the pancake that finally loosened the grip of my head cold.  Thank you, mighty pancake

Highest point in the Netherlands - apart from that tower in the background anyway

Chad standing on Germany and Belgium, and in the Netherlands' airspace

Our old friend the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man has regained weight since Munich, and is looking hostile

We stopped off at an Aldi (cheap supermarket) in the Netherlands on the way back because 1) it's inexpensive, and 2) most things are still closed in Germany on Sundays. Then Jason took us on a sophisticated, in-depth tour of historic old Aachen - completely professional.  Again, he lived here for many years, so his knowledge was impressive.  Aachen was a medieval town, and was even occupied by Romans before that because it sits on hot springs, the hot water of which still flows into certain basins in the downtown area.  It was circular, having an inner wall and an outer wall and moats - most of this is gone except for the circular nature of the streets.  But one of the main entrance gates/towers still stands, and it must have been a daunting sight to those seeking entry back in the middle ages.

Not part of the tour - just interesting that the "Holy Hand Grenade" continues to feature prominently in public art

Aachen Cathedral in the background

 Behind the gang is the Aachen Cathedral.  The oldest part is the central tower, which is octagonal and domed - the other parts were added on piecemeal at later dates.  The central tower was completed around 800 AD (!).  Charlemagne's throne is upstairs on a balcony - during 936-1531 AD, thirty kings and twelve queens were anointed and crowned in the church, and enthroned on that throne. Charlemagne's remains (he died in 814) have been held in a golden shrine in the church since 1215.  Plus it contains 4 important religious artifacts (though of course none of these is provable): the apparel of the Virgin Mary, the swaddling clothes and loincloth of Christ, and the decapitation cloth of St. John the Baptist.  But you had to have artifacts to make yourself an important pilgrimage stop (with all the attendant economic benefits of many visiting pilgrims) - and this was and still is an important pilgrimage stopping place, though the big pilgrimages here are every 7 years (next one in 2014 - mark your calendars!).

The inside of the cathedral is COATED with lovely gold-accented mosaics and marble paneling/flooring, but apparently this wasn't installed until 1880-1913.  Jason recommends the "Pillars of the Earth" mini-series for an interesting glimpse of everything that would have been involved in erecting a cathedral.

I swear passers-by thought we were on a paid-for tour hosted by Jason

 The above fountain is replete with meaning that I would have missed but for Jason.  All the figures have articular joints that you can move.  Starting in the lower left is the crazy, simple but crafty old lady of legend - apparently the devil came to town one day with two huge bags of dirt, and he meant to bury the town of Aachen. He asked the lady where Aachen was (the devil wasn't very bright back then, and this was pre-GPS).  Being no dummy, the lady sent the devil the wrong way - he couldn't find the town, finally got fed up and dropped his bags of dirt in disgust, which created two small hills near to Aachen.

Next to the old lady, the guy in the chair is a king, symbolizing all of the German/Roman kings who were crowned here.  Above the king is a horse and rider, symbolizing the long tradition of horse racing here - there are still well-known races held in town each year.  In the bottom right is a seamstress, symbolizing the textile industry in Aachen (in particular needle making - more on that later).  Not captured in the photo is a professor, symbolizing academics in the town (there is still a university there) - though they put opaque glasses on the professor, suggesting that he might be too self-involved or narrowly-focused to see clearly.

The fountain above is all about money.  A beggar on the left, next to a young boy.  Dishonest people on the right, taking money from some, and passing it behind the back to others.  The water circulates in a vortex to the center, symbolizing taxes - eventually, everything ends up with the tax man.

This statue shows some young dudes giving the traditional pinky-finger greeting Aachen-ers used to give each other.  Aachen was a center of sewing needle manufacturing.  Workers would sort the tiny needles by sliding them into small piles using their pinky finger.  So the pinky salute is a way of knowing and acknowledging the other needle-sorters.

This photo, above, is in the window of a very large bookstore downtown.  Plans were in place, they started tearing down the old building and excavating for the new store - and they found the ruins of an ancient Roman bath below the old building.  So everything came to a grinding halt while they studied it, etc. etc.  Apparently ancient Roman baths aren't all that uncommon in Europe, though - they took detailed photos and surveys, made the book store keep a section of old building wall that was on top of the ruin, cut out a few pieces of the ruin for museums, then said go ahead and dig up the rest!  The chunk of brick in the photo is a section of the old roman bath that used to be below the bookstore.

Aachen's specialty, food-wise, is printen.  It's essentially hard gingerbread, which is compressed by a press before baking, and often covered with nuts or chocolate, etc.  This is one of the least attractive printen displays - good looking stuff!

We met up with a couple of Jason's ex-roommates from Aachen, and went for a beer in a very old pub downtown.  I believe it was the "Dom" - named after the Aachen Cathedral.

If you're outside, the pub has a nice view

Sarah and I had a local-ish German Pils which was quite decent (though my sense of smell had only partially returned).  Unfortunately, this pub was filled with smokers - it's illegal in Germany, but some places have gotten around it by declaring themselves members-only clubs & making people sign up to be members before entering (like bars in Utah that serve hard alcohol).  No one made us sign up for anything at this place, but it did fill up with smoke, which didn't help the sore throat.

Prost!

Before driving back to Dusseldorf for the night, we dropped by Jason's old apartment.  It was a pretty sweet setup for Germany - 4 bedrooms on one floor, then on the floor above a huge common area and kitchen with lofted wooden ceilings, fireplace, big patio & bbq, etc.  I can see why he enjoyed living there so much!

Jason and Anna, in front of Jason's old apartment on floors 2 and 3

Common room in Jason's old apartment