Drei Länder

Wednesday was full of adventure. We traveled to the home of Charlemagne and his empire. Needless to say, there was a lot to see. First we traveled around a bit walking the streets of Aachen and found this AMAZING ginger bread bakery. They aren't cookies, it is actual ginger bread, and it is delicious!

Afterwards, we followed the tour guide around the city.  Usually, even though the tours are in German, I can usually understand 60-75% of what is being said, but his dialect was very different. So, I really didn't learn too much on the first tour. Although, one thing to notice: the ground water stinks! Literally, it smells like rotten eggs. However, if you wash your hands with it (the fumes dissipate), the water will moisten your skin like lotion.  At first, the idea of sticking my hands in this stinky fountain was repulsing, but I got over it, and it actually worked. The water was also very warm, which was great in the cold, wet weather.

After we were done with our first tour guide, we met Pier, the guide for the church and all of its treasure. There seemed to be gold everywhere, it was just beautiful. Also, some of the gold sculptures had Charlemagne's remains inside!

This was Charlemagne's throne at church!

Besides the water, I would say that Aachen is very much a beautiful city.Ohh and I had my first currywurst, it was absolutely delicious!

After lunch we headed to Drei Länder point, where Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany meet at one point. For the last two days I have been very pumped to be in three countries at one time, but with the weather, it just wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. But, it's still pretty neat!

Once everyone took a thousand pictures we headed back home. Later that night we went to a classical music concert. Then it was party time!

Not going to lie, waking up this morning was a tad difficult, however we had made plans to go to a small town outside of Bonn so we could go see the Hangover 3 (very apropos) and go to a Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, it is a Catholic holiday- so the entire country just seems to shut down (including the Thai place!). The movie theater was still open, but they weren't going to have an English showing until 8:40. We once again, hopped back on the train and headed back to Bonn. For lunch, we went to Pizza Hut. It is exponentially nicer here than it is back in the states...its an actual restaurant.
On Saturday, we will be going on a Rhine cruise; I am definitely looking forward to that! Until then.
Tschüss!