Out of the the few times I have been there, half of them profoundly changed my life.
This post is about another place that means magic for me. It will take you into another old city, into the heart of a city very meaningful for huge parts of medieval Europe.
These words are meant for crooked alleys, sculptures at every other corner, and a world that looks just like an old painting.
I personally love the city of Aachen a lot.
Its thermal baths made this city a location popular among kings and emperors of medieval times. Treasures and locations used to justify rule and sovereignty in the holy roman empire for centuries can still be seen here today. Although in the 17th century the fire started in a bakery shop spread through most of the city and big parts had to be rebuilt, it still has some of the features of its medieval period to offer.
Note to the tragic bakery: Have you ever tried „Printen“? They taste a bit like gingerbread and can be bought in all shapes and with all kinds of flavoured icing. I love them! Oh, and making those kind of burned the city down.
The first time I came here was more than 5 years ago.
I had just moved far into the west of Germany and had wanted to explore this area. Many places here I had heard of, or read of in history books, but never seen. Aachen was among them, as well as Paderborn, or even Cologne. I grew up in Hamburg, and the older parts of history had always appeared far away for me. I had always been interested in it, and used to read about emperors in Aachen, Cologne, Wittenberg and Rome, and about important discussions taking place in Paderborn and Münster, but never anywhere close to me. So, moving closer to these places seemed like a huge opportunity.
When I decided to visit Aachen, I thought of it only as the first one on a long list, but I fell in love with it.
With this post, I am taking you with me on a very personal walk through the city.
When leaving the train station and following the street on the left, the next thing in sight will be the old city gate. The wall that once surrounded the city cannot be found anymore.
As secure as medieval city walls and castles had appeared, in the early modern days they have proven useless against canons, so this is the first relic from older days. You can step through the gate, and leave the city and the shops near by behind, to enter the old heart of the city.
It was once used to connect two very important cities for a medieval reign in this region. The king, or emperor would leave Aachen out of that gate and follow a street to the city gate of cologne.
Since the old city center was built around the cathedral, my next favourite stop is right next to it. It is the Cafe Dom.
„Dom“ is the German word for these kind of old cathedrals from medieval days.
The Cafe Dom is a lovely coffee place! Sitting on colorful furniture, you can have a coffee there and observe the crooked houses and cuddling rooftops between flowers and fairy lights!
From here, let‘s go around the back of the cathedral a bit more and find a place named after Albrecht Dürer. He is the artist whose portraits and especially self-portraits are meant to be revolutionary and a symbol for the beginning of individualism. In 1520, he stayed within that building, with direct view on the cathedral. It once was an inn named after him, but is now closed. Next to it, however, is another beloved stop of mine:
A shop for jewelry, crystals and minerals. They even sell fossils and other interesting finds. It‘s always an adventure and worth a visit. Especially, if you have money, which I during most of the early times in Aachen really did not have!
From there, you definitely have to go and see the old cathedral. It is beautiful, even more on the inside. I will not show it here, since that is a project of its own.
Another place I cannot miss is this little shop.
It is a stationary store, but as most of them has all kinds of things to offer. Most of them attempt to be climate neutral. From coffee boxes to paper garlands.
In the years when I was still a full time student, I came here and bought a cat sticker from money I did not have to spare at the time. I actually bought a cat portrait split into four stickers that still decorate my folders from my university years, and looking at them whenever I had to study made me happy.
They made me so happy, I even forgot my exam fear, sometimes. And that really means something in my case!
And if you go just around the corner one more time, on the other site of the cathedral, you will a book store which sells hand painted postcards of the city! The ones I bought where from Karin Kala Kraus, and really transport the feeling of this magical city, in my opinion.
Aachen is a place that made me dream.
I always came home with a lot of new ideas.
Those lay in the old facades, in the sculptures in every corner, as well as in the flowers on windows, balconies and even lanterns. Every little detail about this place can wake up my daydreams. Even the fact trains from Aachen lead to Heinsberg or Maastricht.
Althought with the end of the medieval world, it lost its importance, it still holds the spirit of this time and this lost world.
The city lost its political meaning in the 16th century, when the reign of kings and emperors was justified elsewhere and differently. It also lost some of its industry in the 17th century, when the catholic reign caused protestand people to leave and take their beusiness with them.
For my witching visitor, I see this as an relic from an understanding of the world that had to end some day. Every ending causes a chaos, and the terrible 17th century my witch had to live in was just this chaos.
But the idea of these old days can still be found here!
It‘s the perfect place to have another cup of coffee and write some more.
In my head, it made some witching words grow.
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