In May 2015 the annual VirtualTourist EuroMeet took place in Aachen (Germany), with excursions to nearby Maastricht (Netherlands), and Liège (Belgium). For VT member and local resident Valentina, who did a great job of organizing the entire meeting, it was not easy to find restaurants that could accommodate a large Read More …
This museum shows how wealthy bourgeois families lived in Aachen in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is named after Johann Joseph Couven (1701–1763) and his son Jakob Couven (1735-1812), both of whom were prominent architects in Aachen. Those who have read my post On the Wings of Song might Read More …
The building now known as the Old Kurhaus was built in 1782 as a casino, since Aachen was a fashionable spa at that time and gambling was a major pastime for the rich but bored people who came here to take the waters. The ballroom is now often used for Read More …
Around 792 A.D. Charlemagne ordered the building of the Palatine Chapel on this site, and the rest of the cathedral was gradually built up around it. On Christmas Day of the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III. This did not happen in Aachen, Read More …
No, this is not the kind of fountain where you throw in a coin and make a wish. It is a fountain which symbolizes ‘The Circulation of Money’ (in German ‘Der Kreislauf des Geldes). I suppose the message might be that money isn’t of much use unless it’s circulating. The Read More …
In Aachen and vicinity there are numerous hot mineral springs which have been crucial to the city’s development for the past two thousand years. The ancient Romans built bathhouses and used Aachen as a sort of R&R station for their troops starting in the first century A.D. In the eighth Read More …
All over Aachen there are bicycle route signs pointing to Dreiländereck, meaning Three Countries Corner, where the borders of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands all come together. The distances are of course in kilometers, so on this sign it’s only 5.2 kilometers away (just over three miles). The same sign Read More …
Aachen is a border city just six kilometers away from the Three Countries’ Corner, which is a place up in the woods where the borders of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium all come together. As in most border towns, the people tend to be monolingual and not very interested in Read More …