Yesterday, we drove to an university student-city, Aachen, at the conjunction of the Belgian, German, and Dutch borders. With a population of around 250,000 people, it is considered a small city, but an extremely gorgeous and old one!! Aachen was founded in the late 700s by Charlemagne, due to the hot (but stinky!!) springs that lie under the city. The Old City is absolutely breathtaking, with numerous brick buildings built in the 1600s, cute courtyards, and fountains inspired by village people throughout the centurys. The Cathedral/Dom is a gigantic structure, and served as the coronation church for 30 Roman Emperors starting in 936. Inside, Charlemagne built an amazing chapel with sparkling mosiacs of nature and people. We also enjoyed a typical German market, filled with flowers, meat, cheese, and bread stands.
A street in the Old City with the oldest bar in town (dating from the mid-1600s); in the background you can see the Dom.
Beautiful mosiac inside the Dom.
Today, we visited Düsseldorf, NRW's state capital. It's population is a bit smaller than Winnipeg, but I find the majority of the city is devoted to huge company buildings. Although the AltStadt through which we toured today had gorgeous old buildings and the Rhein river showed a beautiful city skyline, I find Düsseldorf to have little character. Yes, the shopping area is absolutely great, but I think that I like Köln better as a city (sorry to all my Düsseldorf friends!).
The Rheinturm, a revolving restaurant with (supposedly) a great view of the city.
A coal barge on the Rhein. Yes, even barge captains need to do laundry!
The AltStadt along the Rhein.
Hmmm...what city to visit tomorrow??
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