The last full day we had in Germany was a John's Pick Day, since he had come with us to the Steiff factory. He picked the city of Aachen, which is very historically significant because it was not only a favorite of Charlamagne's, but it was also the coronation city of kings of Germany. In Roman times people took advantages of the springs there, and in the middle ages Aachen became a royal city. The main attraction is a huge cathedral, which has been built over many centuries and therefore looks like a hodgepodge of architectural ideas. It also houses the remains of Charlemagne and his throne. The rest of the city has some interesting history too, but we didn't get to see much of it, as I shall explain later.
It was nice to not get up at the crack of dawn for once. Previously I had been up early either on planes, getting ready to go on planes, or to board some trains. We did indeed board a train this day, but the morning had a much more leisurly feel. Although Aachen was not the city I immediately thought of when thinking about "cool cities to visit!" after learning a bit about the history I was excited to see this big important cathedral and the ancient city. Plus, you know, Charlamagne's an important guy so it's cool to see his stuff. When we got to Aachen the weather was quite nasty; cold, sleeting, and grey. We had to find our way around the city somewhat blindly. None of us had ever been there before, but luckily there are a lot of tourists and also a lot of tourist information. When we did find the cathedral it was very large, Gothic, and impressive. Around the outside was another Weinachtmarkt, the Christmas market, and so I headed for some gluwein to warm me up. I was also quite hungry, so I feasted on a potato pancake (which came with applesauce, oddly enough) and gluwein. I paid a few extra euro for a deposit on the mug. It began to sleet and rain in earnest, so I downed my potato pancake and ran with Dad and John for the inside of the cathedral. I rather forgot that I had the mug still and when I got inside Dad advised me to down the drink so that I wouldn't get in trouble for having it inside. I did, and stashed the mug safely in the bag. We milled around the inside of the cathedral's entrance and main hall area for a while, admiring the colorful mosaics and ornate saint boxes. John went to see if he could find information about getting a tour. It turns out that tours can only be booked several days in advance (especially English ones) and there is a minimum number of 10 people per tour. Uh oh. So we didn't get the tour, but later we saw a photo of the throne of Charlemagne and...it was a wooden chair that looked like an ancient toilet.
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After we left the cathedral we browsed the Christmas market a bit and then headed back through the city towards the train station. The sleet had stopped, but it was still pretty cold. Especially for someone who had been acclimated to Africa for the past four and half months! We passed a lot of gorgeous shop window displays with holiday themes, exciting fountains, and big posters for Steiff bears. We also got a little lost in the dark. When we did make it back to the station I was very, very grateful to get on the warm train back to our apartment in Dusseldorf.
A few days earlier we had seen a wooden music box nativity at one of the Dusseldorf Weinachtmarkts that we thought would be just perfect as a Christmas gift for mumsey. Now we were determined to try and find it again because we wouldn't have another chance before leaving for the US. The entailed the three of us running around Dusseldorf at night, in the frigid weather, getting more and more frustrated. Eventually Dad's German insticts lead us to the right place and we were so relieved! Music box, purchased! Then it was time for a celebratory last dinner in the Altstadt, and Dad took us to one of his favorite haunts. Unfortunately our friend Ollie was locked up in a business meeting and couldn't join us :( But we did have a great dinner and some quality drinks! I was quite tired by this point, and ready to sink into my comfy bed. It was going to be another extremely early morning.
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