Aachen, Germany
Trip Start
Apr 11, 2006
1
16
26
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Aachen,
Germany
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Aachen just happens to be the home of Meredith's friend Lukas, a former classmate from her time in Brussels, and his family. Along with little Aaron, about one and a half years old, Lukas picked us up at the train station and brought us back to his house in a neighboring town, but not so far away from Aachen. It was sure nice to be back in a nice house after over a week of staying in hostels, a tent, and a train. We sat down and relaxed for a while and enjoyed the pleasant weather, a change from Berlin's heat wave, and then cleaned up before Lukas' wife Judith got home from work. After getting some groceries, putting Aaron to bed, and making some tasty kebabs, we stayed outside at the table with a few beers and good conversation about the world.
Next morning, Lukas and Aaron guided us through Aachen's historic center, which has been very well preserved and is quite attractive. Since Aachen is a bit off the beaten path for international tourists, this area retains a lot of its personality even though the city gets some fair domestic tourism. Yet again, Aachen's main attraction is its dom, or cathedral. Maybe it was Lukas' great stories about the building and why certain things are the way they are, but this church was a lot more interesting than some of the others.
For instance, when the duke (I think) who had the church built was running out of steam in its construction, he is said to have made a deal with the devil that the first soul that enters the finished church would go straight to hell if Satan helped out.
01 Dom
The devil assuming that the duke would want to be the first one in, this seemed like a pretty good deal. When it came time to open the church officially, the duke sent his dog in and the devil was so mad that he kicked the church's massive metal door, leaving a large crack and dent in the bottom. A statue of the misused dog, soul-hole and all, lies just within the church's doors. Another interesting tidbit is that the original small, round church was built somewhere around the 8th or 9th century and was later amended in the popular gothic style. Also, some 30 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned here between 900 and 1600, and Charlemagne himself is buried under the church.Close to the dom is the Rathaus, or city hall - some English speakers might think this translation an appropriate coincidence. This was a very ornate building that almost resembled a small palace, and they actually charge money to see the inside. Outside and around the corner is a crazy little interactive fountain with small metal people who can be manipulated basically any which way to look like they're either working at their tasks or awkwardly contorted, depending on which child is playing with it at any moment. Further down the street a string quartet played outside the church. We also checked out one of the remaining portions of the original city wall and fortress (2nd half of the 13th century), this particular bit having served as one of the main passageways for getting into town.
After lunch and naps for Aaron, Meredith, and I, Lukas took us back out to the old town, this time on the university side (Aachen has Germany's biggest technological school).
02 Tourguides
Here we saw lots of outdoor cafés, interesting-looking bars, and many people enjoying the summer slow-down. We also strolled by a modern art exhibit inside of an old church, before ending up back in the markt (not a difficult translation to figure out) area next to the dom. Aachen is also known for its warm springs and spas (the Frankish word Ahha, the original name for the town, is said to mean "water"), and though we didn't get the full experience, we did stop by a small spigot of stinky sulfur water that Lukas said was pretty warm. Although we were reluctant to take Lukas's suggestion of tasting the water, we did run our hands under the stream, and "pretty warm" was a bit of an understatement in that it almost burned my hand.
Since Aaron was a little under the weather, Lukas did not attend the office party of Judith's that we had all planned on going to that night, so Meredith, Judith, and I took off for some fun. The party was just around the corner from the hospital at a farm complex's open gathering spot. It was interesting to be in a room full of German doctors and nurses, not knowing anyone but Judith and not knowing any German. Luckily, a few kind folks realized our situation and befriended us - again, Germans love practicing their English. One of them was a young Italian medical researcher who literally knew no more German than we did (fewer words than this sentence?), and who seemed to get steadily drunker as the night went on. It was pretty funny when they played charades with all medical-related terms, as was the presentation of awards for the annual office soccer tournament.
In the morning, Lukas brought us to the train station for our three-train journey back to Stuttgart. It was excellent to spend some time with Lukas and his family, and I definitely feel like I gained a couple of new friends and saw a very cool city. This would be a fantastic place to go to school, or to live after graduation. While it doesn't really remind me of Athens completely, it definitely has the same relaxed feel and a very nice urban form. It would be great to go back and visit, especially to see how little Aaron is coming along in his quest to be one of the big people. Thanks to Lukas and Judith for showing us around and putting us up!
