Monday, July 25, 2011

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.

5 comments:

  1. Hmm. The video doesn't seem to be working. It's of me going down a slide, as I'm sure you gathered. Nothing terribly exciting.

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  2. Video works for me. Looks like a beautiful place to live! Good luck with the apartment hunting. We are loving the photos and updates, keep em coming!

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  3. That stinks you guys are having a difficult time finding an apartment. It was hard for us too. It's all Tim did for a week or two--I think he saw like 20 apartments. Good luck! Hope you find something soon!

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  4. Those gals with the parasols are huge! That guy under the arch is tiny. Love the slide. T, I can only assume you slid down, too. Good luck with the apt hunt. Ugh, no fun.

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  5. I think we're going to end up living in temporary housing in Aachen for the month of September and looking for apartments full time. Trying to do it from Bonn is expensive and kind of a wild goose chase. (Although I image it'll feel like a wild goose chase while we're living there, too.)

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