Aachen City Center

Aachen is a city of water.  It is famous for the hot Springs that originally brought the Romans here.  The Springs are believed to be very healthy both to drink and to bath in.  Because of this, the city center has 70 fountains in it!  Many of them were built in the 70's, when the city had a lot of money.  These two are favorites.

The Dom is the big attraction.  It is a huge cathedral with beautiful stained glass, and is famous for housing the remains of Charlemagne and also his original throne.  It also has some relics, which are believed by many to be the dress of Mary the mother of Jesus, the loin cloth that Christ was crucified in and the burial garments.  (At least this is what I understood from our tour)  These go on display every 7 years....in 2014 next.

This is a beautiful view of the Dom from the outside

This the Aachen Rathaus, the location where they used to coronate the Kings, but then when they lost that privilege to Frankfurt, they kept up the building anyway.  Now they present an important award here and it is open to tour as a museum.

Coincidentally our friend Christian was coming to Aachen on the very same day!  He had an interview there.  So, he stayed with us, which worked out very well because we could go and view Aachen together the next day.  He was a great help to me, as he helped me with the groceries and pushing these two monkeys all over town.  We wish he could have stayed longer!  Seriously....the boys were yelling his name and following him down the stairs when he left. :)