Aachen, Germany

 Hello from Aachen!

We arrived into Hamburg on Friday, staying with Carsten's parents, Ulf and Heike, over the weekend.  The four of us made a trip into the city on Saturday, checking out a new subway line into the harbor and the cool new buildings there and enjoying a tasty Portuguese meal in the Portuguese quarter.  On Sunday we caught up with our friends Inga, Kay and Katrin over dinner at the local Italian restaurant.

Then on Monday, we set off for Aachen with Ulf and Heike via rail.  We have had a nice couple of days here - Tuesday was sunny and warm (unexpected!) and today was sunny with some clouds and rain here and there.  

The Aachen Cathedral is the main attraction here in the city.  The Aachen Cathedral's present appearance has evolved over 1200 years of history. Around 800, the octagon with the cupola - the core building of the Palace Chapel was completed.  In the 14th and 15th centuries, the gothic choir and the north and south chapels were erected.

The ceiling mosaic is what I like most of all, the details are amazing.

This is on the door to the Cathedral, called the "Wolf's Doors". The devil's thumb is inside the wolf's mouth on the right-hand door. Of course we stuck our thumbs in there too!

The cupola with the 24 apostles of Revelation bringing their crowns to Jesus.

Charlemagne's throne (below) is a modest marble seat made from re-used ancient materials.  For nearly 600 years, from 936 to 1531, kings were enthroned here, after having been anointed and crowned at the main altar. This is not that impressive and honestly, I am sure I could not sit there very long - cold, hard marble! ugh!

Aachen is known for its many fountains - here are few we found:

the arms on the dolls at the Puppet fountain are movable - 

of course, like everyone else, the statues on the fountain had their mask on...

except for this dude...

this little boy with the fish reminds me of Peter Dinklage:

Statue of Charlemagne fountain with Aachen city hall in background

are they playing nice here or is this bullying?

birds

As part of the Cathedral we went to the Treasury.  Here are some of the treasures:

This is The Arm Reliquary of Charlemagne, it contains the ulna and radius from the right arm of Charlemagne. [no, this is not weird or creepy....]

Cross of Lothair, 10th Century.

Pouring vessel in the shape of a lion - 1170-1180.

Some chalice.  Reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail.  "... he chose poorly..."

Finally, Carsten and I wandered out last night to see what the town looked like at night, lit up.  It was pretty dead but we took some interesting pictures:

Tower (part of Cathedral):

Rathaus (City Hall):

Elisabethhalle. This was once a spa.  What put Aachen on the map hundreds of years ago were the thermal baths.  Inside the space in the circle here are two fountains with HOT water from those Thermal waters.

The Theatre of Aachen - also our landmark to our place at Theatrestrasse 42.

That's all I have for now, tomorrow we jump on the train for Brugge (which is NOT the capital of Belgium ... LOL).

Sheri & Carsten