Day 24: Aachen

Where I become an accidental pilgrim, and walk a lot.

Woke still quite tired, but with my hotel room facing east the morning sun was warming it up (there is an aircon in the room, but it is more noise than cool) so it was time to go walking.

Found an interesting and popular place, Leni Loves Coffee I think it translated to (or Leni Lives Coffee, my German isn’t too good), probably the first cafe in Germany I’ve seen that does an iced coffee, so after one of those and a breakfast of smoked salmon, poached eggs, avocado, and hollandaise sauce on bread (not toasted, strangely) I felt a little more human.

Today I had two things on my to do list, being “big cathedral” and “Charlemagne stuff”, as that’s basically what Aachen is really about.

Reminder to self: don’t ever plan museum-type activities for Mondays in Germany. If there is going to be a day when they aren’t open, it’ll be a Monday. I missed a couple of things in Frankfurt because of this, and Aachen was the same, the big Charlemagne centre was closed.

I thought I’d scored a double when I found the cathedral doors closed. After talking to a nice informative gent in a mix of English and German, and saying hello to his dog, I got to understanding that the cathedral would be open at 1pm. So I figured this meant time to go shopping for last last last minute gifts for anyone I may have forgotten to get something totally random for. Also checked out the Rathaus, which had a view to the back of the cathedral where some sort of service was going on, with the bulk of the gathered wearing green scarves.

The Rathaus in Aachen had a bunch of interesting old artworks, generally government/governor portraits in the indigestion pose. On the top level is a large hall, that has seen a lot of history over the years, but I couldn’t help thinking with the wonderful polished stone floors it’d make a great rollerskating rink (with some barriers in front of the large windows, probably).

I found myself back at the cathedral just before 1pm, and noticed a fair crowd of people gathered waiting for the doors to open. All with the green scarves, that were being given away free. After another chat with the dog, I asked the information people what were the scarves about, and apparently it was a showing of togetherness and some other concept that is a single German word but needs a paragraph to translate into English.

I’d noticed there were signs around for Pilgrimage, Daily Schedule, saying that at 1pm there was “Possibility of a tour of the Cathedral to venerate the relics”, which made no sense to me in English, but if it meant the Cathedral was open to wander that sounded good.

I joined the folks and the doors soon opened, and we filed in. Inside, the Aachen Cathedral is old and pretty the way such buildings usually are. Lots of stone pillars, stained glass, that kind of thing. At the other end were a number of items in glass cases, including the Swaddling Clothes of Infant Jesus, and Jesus’s Loincloth, and a couple of others. They appeared all wrapped up in ribbons, but I did notice that there were priests at each, who were taking items from people and briefly placing these in fromt of the relics. I thought that was an interesting thing.

Wandered around, looked in all the rooms, and left quietly. Side note: in the past I’ve been critical of German tourists, who always seem to be the loudest group anywhere that has signs asking for quiet. I can now conclude they are also generally incapable of staying silent when visiting places within their own country. I wonder if this is why Duolingo teaches the German word for loud before it teaches the word for quiet.

Anyway, I can talk, being obviously the world’s most clued in traveller. After heading back to the hotel for a rest and unload, I did some googling, and only then discovered that I was in Aachen at the same time as a BIG THING, a 10-day pilgrimage, where all of the things I’d seen and taken for granted, were on display for the first time since 2014 (normally it’s every seven years, but I’m guessing Covid pushed it back.

I’d held a hope that I might make it out to a spot just outside of Aachen, a point where Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium meet, but I’ve read that it’s up a bit of a hill, is a 4km walk round trip, and my feet were sore from blisters, so I shelved that plan for a quick walk back into town for dinner. I found a place called the Golden Schwein, and as such had the local pork specialty, done in a bitter sweet sauce, and paired it with an altbier that was quite delicious.

Once I got back to the hotel I basically crashed out, all attempts by my brain to nudge my body to move failed. I think the message that the trip is almost over, so my body is starting to wind down. Tomorrow is the final final pack, before hopping on a train to Frankfurt, via a stopover in Cologne (given the train goes through, and my flight isnt until 10pm, I might as well stop for a bit).