First Taste of Aachen

We went to Aachen twice this week to look at apartments. The first apartment we saw was crappy. The second was lovely, but there were about 40 other people at the viewing, so we're not holding our collective breath.

Although apartment-hunting is stressful, we're feeling very excited about Aachen itself. There are lots of beautiful buildings and it seems like a lively town. The restaurant scene seems to be more varied than Bonn's, for which we are very grateful. Aachen is also much older than Bonn. This is the famous cathedral. The middle section ("The Octagon") was built for Charlemagne circa 800 AD.


In this model of the cathedral it's easier to see the shape of silhouette, which is a symbol of Aachen.


Yes, we did go inside the cathedral, and yes, it is extremely cool. Charlemagne's bones are in there (in a big golden box). But we took no pictures of the inside. We're going to save that for another time, when we go on the guided tour and can tell you more about the cathedral's history.

Charlemagne also built Aachen's town hall. The first twenty meters of the tower on the right are from the original 9th-century structure. From peeking through the door I know that the building is beautiful inside, but there's an entrance fee, so we're saving that, too.



Here's another building on the town hall square that I liked. It was built in 1344. It started out as somebody's house; now the ground floor is a bakery.


Aachen has a lot of fountains and statues. I like this one.


There is a creche on this building. It does not otherwise seem to be a religious building.


This is a chunk of the old city wall, dating from the 12th century or so. That actually is Tyler in the archway. I should post a picture of him some time in which you can see his face.


This is a beautiful church we saw on Sunday just a couple of blocks from the apartment we really liked. It's in such a great neighborhood. Oh, how I hope we get it!


We'll be living in Aachen in a few short weeks. We'll soon have an apartment (hopefully) where people can stay with us. So start planning your trips!

P.S. One thing I love about Germany is that there are pieces of playground equipment scattered about the cities. Not full-blown parks, but slides, or climbing structures, or sandboxes set among the churches and sidewalk cafes. We found this slide just up the hill from the cathedral. It's really quite fast. I shall be going back.