This was one of the longest days of our journey, moving 600 km by train from the Belgian coast to Southwest Germany and making intermediate stops at two of Europe’s great cathedrals. Both Aachen and Cologne appeared interesting in their own ways, though not enough for me to justify staying overnight with limited time. So we started out from Bruges in the morning, arrived at Aachen in the late morning for lunch and a tour of the cathedral, moved to Cologne mid-afternoon for its cathedral and an early dinner, then onward to Heidelberg for the night.
We arrived to catch Aachen in a festive mood -- the open-air music festival (Aachen September Special) was on, the sausage stands started sizzling and amusement rides were in full swing in front of the Rathaus. It’s a pleasant day for a stroll past the charmingly neo-classical Elisenbrunnen, through the mainly baroque city centre en route to the city’s grand 1200-year-old cathedral.
But first, a quick, cheap and deliciously local meal of Wurst and Kartoffelspalten. Hanswurst on Muensterplatz has a take-out window literally in the shadow of the majestic cathedral, and a few shaded picnic tables to enjoy your Bratwurst and beer with a view. Prices were very reasonable for its prime location -- 3.6 Euros for a wurst on bread and 2.5 Euros for the local brew.
My favorite item was their excellent Currywurst -- fresh local sausages, a dollop of the thick and tangy sauce, and of course, extra heavy on the curry powder. This may be fastfood, but we have absolutely no complaints for such a tasty and quick lunch for two, at the heart of the tourist district, for 11 Euros.
Bill for Two Persons
| Currywurst + Kartoffelspalten | 4.9 Euros |
| Bratwurst with Bread | 3.6 Euros |
| Beer on Tap | 2.5 Euros |
| TOTAL before tips | 11 Euros (CAD$15.4) |
Walking through the midsized city one may not immediately recognize its influence in the Middle Ages, when the Kaiserdom effectively served as Germany's imperial cathedral for 600 years, crowning Emperors and Queens and sporting all kinds of mystical relics. Today it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though arguably one of the lesser-known in Germany among foreigner visitors.
But this is much more than just a cathedral -- this was once the palace of the legendary Charlemagne, and the only section of the medieval palace to survive 12 centuries of warfare at this crossroad of Western Europe, just 5 kilometres from the modern Dutch-Belgian-German border. The octagonal dome is a 6th Century Byzantine design based upon the San Vitale of Ravenna (I'd love to visit that in a future trip!), and much of the marble arches apparently came from recycled ancient buildings in the former Roman Empire. The history here is just mind boggling, especially considering how far north of Rome this is.
Charlemagne's shadow still looms large wherever you look. His casket of gold has been enshrined at a dedicated corner, his royal throne in the gallery, and his skull and forearm inside reliquaries at the Schatzkammer adjoining the cathedral. There are other important relics such as two pieces of clothing purported belonging to Christ, though for me the tranquility and sanctity of cathedral itself was the most enjoyable part of our visit.
Not sure how accurately Charlemagne's reliquary bust represents his actual appearances, but scientists did take his shin bone and measured him half a head taller than his peers in the Middle Ages. Coming face to face with Charles certainly put a face to one of the greatest names in Western history for me. With one cathedral down, we took the local bus back to the train station, retrieved our luggages from the coin locker and took the mid-afternoon train towards Köln Hauptbahnhof ...
... which is practically located about 100m from Germany's most visited landmark, the great Cathedral of Cologne. No visitor could ask for a higher degree of convenience -- I cannot think of any other major train station in the world that is built closer to its city's top tourist attraction. And coupled with the automated luggage deposit machines inside the Hauptbahnhof, it's perfect for a day trip.
Frankly I had two main reasons to visit Cologne: Kölner Dom and Kölsch, both world-famous in their own unique ways. The Cologne Cathedral is of course celebrated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a symbol of German resilience. We're talking about a storied building that founded in the 13th Century, before money ran out and construction was largely abandoned for centuries, leaving an eyesore of a medieval crane perched at the top of its unfinished Gothic towers. Even it's eventual completion, some 600 years after the laying of its foundation, didn't prevent it from being bombed a dozen times during WWII. Just the fact that it survived to this day is nothing short of miraculous.
The magnificent cathedral of Aachen would be a mere midget compared to the enormity of the Kölner Dom, a cavernous worshiping space for a congregation of 20,000 and one of the tallest Gothic architectures in the world. I grossly underestimated the time we needed to explore this ginormous cathedral, in particular the time and thigh-burning effort (not to mention willpower!) it took to climb some 500 steps to its very top.
But it's all worth it for this view, a 360-degree panorama of central Cologne and the Hohenzollern Bridge across the Rhine, albeit through a wire fence. I didn't realize it at the time, but my photo timestamps indicated that it took about 30 minutes to climb up and another 15 to walk down, not to mention sightseeing time. It was already 18:00 when we made it back down, with merely 2 hours left to find a good place for Kölsch and dinner and to make it back to the Hauptbahnhof for our ICE train reservation.
We walked by the extremely packed Peters and Früh am Dom, and decided to try our luck further away in the direction of Heumarkt. At the end we settled in a little brauhaus packed with locals, inside a little alley just steps from the Rhine, known as as Sünner im Walfisch.
Our main focus wasn't the food of course, but to enjoy a couple of Kölsch in the local tradition. The Sünner served here was a little light-tasting for my tastebuds, though I understand that's probably representative of the genre. As far as food went, my wife was smart enough to stop me from ordering another main dish after the Pork Knuckle, which certainly kept both of us well fed. Sadly this might have been the worst pork knuckle I've ever had in Europe -- the crackling was so tough that my steak knife couldn't cut through half of it. We probably finished only about three quarters of the knuckle, as the rest was simply too charred and dry.
Our only non-Kölner item of the night actually turned out to be the best dish. The flavors of this rich and creamy Krabbensuppe was robust enough to satisfy even the picky seafood bisque lover in my wife. I don't think we can complain about 25 Euros for a dinner for two in central Cologne, though next time we'll probably stick with Peters Brauhaus or perhaps Päffgen.
Bill for Two Persons
| Krabbensuppe | 5.8 Euros |
| Pork Knuckle | 16.3 Euros |
| Koelsch x 2 | 3.5 Euros |
| TOTAL before tips | 25.6 Euros (CAD$35.8) |
After some post-dinner window shopping on Hohe Straße, we walked back to Hauptbahnhof to retrieve our luggages from the automatic luggage storage. Our 19:57 ICE train would take us to Mannheim, before transferring to the local S-Bahn to our final destination of Heidelberg. It would be nearly 22:15 when we finally checked into our hotel. This was one long day.
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