The next day we’ll cover is our first full day in Aachen, Germany!
Our first full day didn’t begin until roughly 9:30 am…which is crazy abnormal for us to wake up so late but with all the traveling the previous day and the 9 hour time difference, we figured it was ok. We got ready and left the hotel for our first walk on Aachen streets…it was awesome! We walked down to find a quick breakfast, found a spot called Leo’s where we got a couple of little breakfast sandwich things, I have pictures of those (I’ve been taking pictures of most everything) but it was a neat little spot…there are several of these around town, seems equivalent to our Starbucks maybe.
From there we ventured over to the huge cathedral, which you can see from most places due to its height. The walk over was amazing…for us, some of these buildings looked to be 8 million years old…more out of American ignorance I think, we have nothing that is as old as what these cities have; our country is only two hundred and some years old, which puts a lot of things into perspective.
We walked all around the cathedral as well as all the surrounding streets…as we might have guessed, so very different than where we live; it was quaint, beautiful, artistic, surreal, and humbling. We kept being drawn back to the cathedral…not because we are religious…but there is a history and beauty to these buildings that simply can’t be described.
I must mention that much of day one was either raining or sprinkling, but with umbrellas that the hotel gave us, we did not let the rain keep us from exploring!! We ended up at this little beer house where we had a couple of beers each along with a big German wiener (mind out of the gutter people) with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes…simply delish!!
Ok, as I am writing this I remembered we stopped at a little wine shop/ bar in this mall kind of thing…an indoor shopping area where there were many clothing and shoe stores (they love to shop in Aachen). Stopped at this wine shop for a glass of bubbly a couple hours before our trip to the beer house for the wiener meal I described above. Great little wine bar, and the younger girl there spoke good English too, so we’ve been getting lucky. I will say though, it’s amazing how far you can get with pointing and picking up words as you hear them. And when we run across people that speak English and German we ask them what one or two words mean so we learn as we go.
We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant on our first full day, like we did on arrival day…more wonderful food and Reiner was awesome as he was on night one…great bartender and great tour guide via the map we got in the lobby. So our first full day was filled with good eats, good beer, lots of walking, and lots of amazement…as any journey should be.
Some key takeaways from day one of being out and about…the town was very busy, lots of people milling about, lots of families out together, people drinking coffee, eating, shopping, and so on. Here’s the thing…on our first full day I don’t remember anyone walking around with a cell phone in their hand, nor do I remember seeing more than one or two laptops out at a cafe. Another thing that really struck me was how couples held hands…almost all of them, arm in arm…wow! I loved that!! Older couples, young couples, people were holding hands!!
A little P.S. right here to let you know you can check out a ton of photos from our trip on my Flickr page: http://goo.gl/ntMyL
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I felt like I was walking along with you – could imagine the sense of “otherworldliness” as you poked and explored during your first day. It sounded amazingly peaceful – this is in contrast to most of my travel experiences – I tend stay a bit on edge – so glad that you enjoyed it so much – Can’t wait to hear more…
Thank you Sam, I appreciate it. I think that peaceful feeling comes from just being in awe. It’s almost like being speechless, soaking in the visual beauty as well as the non-visual history that took place in those areas…simply amazing! Cheers!!