During the Christmas holidays we spend a couple of day with the family in our own country (The Netherlands) in a place called Vaals. Vaals is a small town near the German border. From there we wanted to make some nice city trips and since it was just a 20 minute drive to the city of Aachen (Germany), we planned a visit.
The city of Aachen
Aachen is located in western Germany, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It's quite a large city with 250,000 inhabitants.
We found a parking garage quite close to the old center of the city and walked the last part through the narrow cobble stone streets. As you can see it was a bit of an overcast day, but we didn't let that spoil the fun.
When walking through the old town you can really feel the history. There is a great diversity of old buildings that all have different facades. And most of them are so well maintained. The buildings all have a lot of windows which, I thought indicated that the inhabitants in the time were wealthy.
Aachen has a lot of nice shops that are spread out across the center which is marked by the giant cathedral. Across the cathedral I noticed this interesting building. The building had quite a lot of decorations on the outside. It has a somewhat fairy-tale-like appearance with a knight's armor and some kind of fairy above the entrance. The shop seemed to be a jewelry shop.
We walked around the cathedrag and noticed these large bright blue doors on the backside of it. The blue doors are part of the Palatine Chapel, which is located within the cathedral complex. It's not a colour you see being used a lot for catholic churches.
After we had made a walk around the cathedral we wanted to grab a cup of coffee (at least, I did). When we walked a bit we came across a the big square in front of the the Town Hall (Rathaus). In the middle of the square is a fountain with the statue of Charles the Great. He was an influential medieval emperor who had his residence in Aachen during his reign as King of the Franks and later as Holy Roman Emperor.
One of his most iconic contributions to Aachen is the Aachen Cathedral, which he commissioned around 796 AD.
The statue was placed as a tribute to his historical significance for the city and Europe.
The square seen from the stairs of the Town Hall. In front you see the status of Charles the Great. In the back you see a lot of historic buildings. One of these buildings was a Starbucks. I don't necessarily like Starbucks, but the kids do (influenced by tiktokkers to order Caramel Frappuccino without coffee 😂). But my cappuccino was fine. The building right behind the statue is Haus Löwenstein.
Haus Löwenstein is one of Aachen’s oldest surviving buildings. It was built in the late 14th century. On the corner of the building is a beautiful golden statue of Saint John of Nepomuk. He was a Bohemian saint who lived in the 14th century. He is considered a martyr for the Catholic faith and known as the protector against floods and drowning. Statues of him are often placed on bridges, so this placement shows he was very special for the city Aachen.
Aachen cathedral
After our coffee break we went to the highlight of the day (at least, for me); the Aachen cathedral. It was quite difficult to capture it in total. I had to use the wide angle mode on my phone to capture it completely. This is the best I could do with some trees and a building in front of it.
It's hard to convey how big something really is on a photo. In real life these buildings are often much more impressive than they appear in a photo.
To give you more of an idea I have some figures for you:
Length: 71 meters
Width: 49 meters
Height: 76 meters
Surface area: 2000 m2
The cathedral is one of the largest in Europe and a UNESCO world heritage site. The inside of the cathedral maybe even more impressive than the outside. The cathedral is in a gothic style. Compared to other big churhes i found it very light inside the cathedral. And the inside is beautifully decorated with pictures. The use of 'gold' on the inside of the dome makes it even more bright. And it's really beautiful too.
The decorations on inside ceiling of the dome, but also the surrounding areas are made out of mosaic. And these aren't simple patterns as you can see below. The inside of the cathedral has a total of 2500 m2 mosaic. It really amazes me how long would it have taken to glue all these little pieces onto the ceiling.
And then there are the stained glass windows. I have visited quite a lot of cathedrals, but I can't remember that I've seen stained glass windows this high. They let in an enormous amount of light. In total the cathedral has 1000 m2 of stained glass windows.
As I said before in this blog, I've visited quite a lot of cathedrals, but this one is certainly in the top 3. What a beautiful building.
Despite the overcast day we had a lovely time in Aachen. The atmosphere is relaxed and you can feel the history of this old city when you walk through the narrow cobble stone streets.
I can really recommend visiting Aachen when you are around.
Thanks for reading my blog!
About FriendlyMoose
I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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