Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt

Aachen (Aix-la-chapelle) is the westernmost city of Germany, and gets it name from the Roman Aquis-Granum because of the hot sulphur springs under the city. The holy roman emperor Charlemagne visited the town in the Christmas of 768 and decided to build his palace in the city so that he could enjoy the revitalising qualities of the springs. So it seemed only fitting that after the aching 2 hour long bus ride that Tatevik and I would head straight for the spa Carolus Thermen. Unlike the centuries old bath-houses you find in Budapest or Istanbul its totally modern. They have several whirpools and pools, some inside some outside where the steam rises up and makes clouds. We soak for about 2 hours taking in all the mineral-goodness and relish the heat before spending the rest of the day outside. The water's salt and minerals made us float up quite easily, including the little dress attached to Tatevik's bikini!

After the spa we were starved so we hit the market where all my favourite German treats were available. Our list of delicious goodies included reibekuchen (deep fried potato and onion cakes with applesauce), half-meter bratwurst, schweinehaxen (a roasted pig's leg), chocolate covered marzipan, and of course plenty of Gluhwein (mit rum or mit amaretto). We headed over to the famous Aachen Cathedral which was built by Charlemagne and contains a special shrine containing his bones (well, most of this bones). The most striking feature is the choir room which has glass windows rising up the entire length of the wall. The windows themselves had been destroyed numerous times because of war/fire and the current windows were installed after WW2 but are nonetheless very impressive. In order to see the choir (and the throne of Charlemagne), you have to take a tour and there is only one english tour per day. We went to buy tickets but the tour had sold out, so we had to buy tickets for a tour 2 hours later in German. Luckily I was able to sneak us into the English tour, the tourguide wasn't fooled though, we handed our tickets and she asked (these are for the 4pm tour yea? its ok just go ahead). A really lucky break since a tour at 4 would have really pressed us for time (and of course we wouldn't have understood anything). On the 2nd floor sits the very plain throne of Charlemagne, a simple chair consisting of marble slabs brought from Jerusalem where supposedly they were part of a pavement where Jesus stood.

We nearly get lost finding our way back to the bus but luckily we left a little time aside just in case, its another 2.5 hours back and despite traffic we are on time, too bad there's no warm spa bath waiting to help my back this time.