Aachen

Aachen, Germany. On the border of the Netherlands-Belgium-Germany. Sorta like Texarkana. Guess it could have been named Belgermnet?

It is a city of 259,000, but it felt much more quaint than that.

It is also a spa city and there are currently two places where you can visit the hot springs and less than an hour from our house, we may venture back soon.

There is evidence of a settlement in Aachen indicating it has been around since at least the Stone Age (2700 to 1900 BC). Kinda makes the Middle Ages (5th to 15th century) seem like recent history.

For 600 years (936-1531) Aachen was the place for the coronation of Kings of Germany. The Aachen Cathedral was the site of the coronation of 30 kings and 12 queens. The last was Ferdinand I in 1531.

Aachen was also the favored residence of Charlemagne. He was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He is called the Father of Europe because his empire united most of Western Europe.

The Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of Charlemagne in 786 AD.

On his death, his remains were interred in the Aachen Cathedral and are still there today.

Charlemagne collected quite a few relics in his lifetime and they are also kept at the Aachen Cathedral. The four most important and indeed impressive are:

• the cloak of the Virgin Mary
• the swaddling clothes of the Infant Jesus
• the loin cloth worn by Christ on the Cross
• the cloth on which lay the head of John the Baptist after his beheading

The first German city to be captured, Aachen was heavily damaged in WWII.

Aachen 1944

Incidentally, in 1372 Aachen became the first place in the world to place an anno domino date on minted coins.

Also, the annual CHIO (Concours Hippique International Officiel) is held in Aachen and is the biggest equestrian meeting of the world and among horsemen considered to be as prestigious as Wimbledon is for tennis.

The city is also famous for its aachener printen cookies.

They look delicious, but after our first bite we both said "Ew, licorice". They had the distinct taste of licorice and my daddy is the only person I've ever known who actually liked licorice.

The store was packed with people and everything was displayed beautifully. Fortunately we only bought two of those cookies.

I took this picture as we were eating lunch to show how crazy the weather is around here. You can see it's pouring rain and the sun is shining. I believe I've seen more rainbows in this year than I'd seen in the first 40+ years added together.

And for a bit of trivia . . . Paul Julius Reuter noticed with the electric telegraph news could travel long distances quickly. In 1850, Reuter was based in Aachen. He began the Berlin-Aachen telegraph line. However, there was a 76-mile gap in the line between Aachen and Brussels (Belgium's capital) so he sped up service by using homing pigeons. You have heard of Reuters News Agency.

And . . . I took this picture 'cause there was a crowd gathered, but I've yet to figure out what it is and the significance, if any.