Parent's Guide to Pets: A King for Aachen

All great journeys start from London. (Well- the ones from London do.)

One day, a long time ago, I took found myself in a train carriage traveling to Vienna with a certain Mrs Christie. I recall being impressed by steep wooded gorges through the Ardennes, to Liege, and beyond to Aachen. As we slowly circled the city I remember wondering what secrets where held in this, our closest German neighbour. From Dad's papers, I also acquired a small booklet on the Cathedral. The intrigue grew.

This summer, I picked up the book and put it in my back pocket and set off with my family.

At Bruxelles Midi, or was it Sud?

This is the world of swirling languages. Bruxelles Midi or Zuid? do we get out here? One false move and you've missed your connection. Then on across the invisible border into Wollonia, where announcements change irreconcilably into French; so now we are heading towards Aix la Chepelle. Aachen has disappeared. The train doesn't even go to Aachen, it heads for the diminutive Eupen. So at a junction station, the passengers from 8 carriages step out onto a sleepy hot platform and run (we're late and we feel it) to one end when the 2 carriage banger waits to escort us across the border. We are not hanging around in Belgium. I think of the many people stuck at European borders at this time. "Borders are the prison we choose to live behind" said Yehudi Menuhin,,, once.

We roll into Aachen. Instantly we are in a bustling, multi-cultural metropolis, about the size of Leicester. From the roof of our apartment we can see the Rathaus, and the Cathedral, Our first trip is the Cathedral. It is magnificent, a wonderful eclectic mix of ages.

Our view from 'Domapartment

The original church is based on Byzantine ideas. Karlgross, or Charlemagne, saw himself as taking up the mantel of Constantine in being the Pope's ruler. The main body of the church, though large, is a small copy of the Hagia Sophia. In the 14th century a Gothic Chancel was added with windows to compete with the St Chapelle in Paris. Today it has very distinctive modern glass which I think are masterful.

The Cathedral also has a barque Chapel and the St Nicholas chapel where thousands of hands have worn a deep gouge into the holy water font on a pillar. It reminded me that visiting Cathedrals is what it has been about for many centuries. On a special tour of the treasures, we were also able to go upstairs and see the throne of the kings of Germany. The pillars we see have also traveled far. The Porphyry columns in the arches were decorative. Taken on 800 AD from roman sites, they were then removed my Napoleonic forces and sent to Paris, only to be restored by the Prussians, who went on the re-mosaic the whole Cathedral. they did it very well (a very good fake.)

Karlgross by the Rathaus, once his palace.

Our roof top apartment

A beautiful reliquary- Lift the lid and you
can see Charlemagne's brain!

After a number of trips to the Bike hire place, one place in Aachen when I really needed some German. "Would I like a Schloss?" Bit tricky to carry a castle on a bike. Ah "a lock" (even here there was some English.) "Yes please" but we still needed to return to our flat to pick up passports for ID. We forgot that ID is an important part of European identity. We set off on our bikes for the Dutch border. I noted that after 3 km of Aachen suburbs, we hit German Vaal, and then the old toll booths, and we were into Dutch Vaal. Soon we were climbing the long windy road to the top of Holland. 'Drilandenpunt' where Belgium, The Netherlands and German meet, is a pleasant version of 'Lands End'. A bit of Europe that was designed for Schengan and the Euro. Without these it would be a nightmare. It was good to meet a cheery Dutch waiter and waitress who told us about Limberg, the land, like Kurdistan, that exists despite national borders. We climber the viewing platform and gazed down on Aachen, to the rooftop penthouse in the distance which provided us with the opposite view.