Aachen is a small city (about 250,000 inhabitants) in Germany near
the three-county-point of Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. It was founded by the
old Germans (celtic), lots of the old Romans took a bath in Aachen,
during the mid age it was the capital of half Europe and today there
is a big (and good) University in the city (about 30,000
students).

The name Aachen comes from Aquisgranum, Aachen's name
during the mid age.

Aachen has some points that makes it unique: the cathedral [Dom],
the city hall [Rathaus], the marketplace in front of the city hall and
hundreds of pubs and restaurants.

If you are in Aachen during the summer, visit the marketplace. In
the evening this is a meeting point of hundreds (and sometimes
thousands) of people, sitting there, chatting, drinking, playing the
guitar, singing.

If you want to visit Aachen there are some good ways: by bike, by
train, by foot. And there is one very bad one: by car. If you come
by car, you are and have lost: you will not find any parking place -
and there are some main places where you are not allowed to drive.
The only possibility is to park your car on one of the park and ride
places all around the city and come in the city by bus.

Aachen has three stations - don't get out at the wrong. The best
choose for visiting Aachen is using the main station. From there are
rails from/to: Cologne [Köln]
(about 1h), Düsseldorf
(about 1h15m), Herleen (NL) (about 45m),
Brussels (B) (about 2h) and
Paris(F) (about 5h).

If you want to get there by plane, you can use the
Maastricht-Aachen Airport (a small, regional airport) or use the
airport at Düsseldorf or Brussels. From there you can
go by train to Aachen. Do not use the Cologne-Bonn Airport, because
there is no train station there.

Also it's possible to come by bike. There are a couple of
long-distance cycle tracks. The most important is the Kaiserroute,
from Aachen over Düren, Cologne, Hagen to Paderborn. There is also
one over-regional track called Wasserburgenroute. But if you want
to go from point A to point B with a straight line distance about X km
and you use this route, you will have to ride about X*X/2 km.

Aachen is placed in the west of Nordrhein-Westphalia in Germany.
It's like Rome: a sinkhole rounded with small hills. Sometimes a
cloud get lost in this sinkhole - then it rains in Aachen. But this
is not normal rain, it's very fine water drops like fog.

To the east there is the Rheinland with cities like Cologne and Düsseldorf, to the south there
is the highlands called Eifel and Hohes Venn. In
Aachen, the only 'river' is a 30 cm wide stream, 100% concretes,
running beneath a street in the center like a drain.

Cathedral [Dom]

The central building, the octogon was build about 800 from Karl dem
Großen. It's a wonderful building with lot's of mystic measures: it's
144 feet (mid age, they were somewhat smaller than the todays feet)
height and in diameter. There are some games about the magic
numbers 8 and 16. And it's outer measures are mostly the same than
the inner ring in Stonehenge. And the cathedral is mostly in the
center of the line from the Externsteine (mystic place near Paderborn)
and Stonehenge.

The today's main nave was build in the 14th Century. And there are
also a lot of small chapels round the central octogon from the last
centuries.

If you visit the cathedral, have a look at the main candlestick in
the octogon (from Barbarossa, 1150), at the golden altar panels, at
Karl's coffin (it's golden), at Marie's shrine (it's also golden). In
this shrine there are three clothes from history: Jesus diapers,
Marie's dress and the behead-cloth from Johannes. These relics are
shown every seven years for seven days in the 7th month (hmmm, maybe
someone has miscount: it's in the second week in June not
July!). They are shown in the year 2000. It is remunerating to visit
the cathedral's second floor (it's only possible to go there with a
guide) and have a look at Karl's throne.

In the near of the cathedral, you can find the treasury with lots
of old things concerning the cathedral.

City Hall [Rathaus]

This is a no so old building (14th Century) at the place where
someday ago Karl's palace was build. There you can see some big rooms
and the emulation of Karl's crown.

Elisenbrunnen

Sometimes Aachen was famous for it's baths. The todays remainders
are two small fountains inside the Elisenbrunnen. The water is
warm (sometimes hot) and it stinks. It's because of the water's
sulphur.

Pontstraße

Aachen's main public central street. Here you can find mostly
everything.

Christmas Market

Every year from end of November to 21th December there is a famous
Christmas market [Weihnachtsmarkt]. In the central city there are
small selling cottages where you can find lots of small things like
puppets, candles, stones, clay figures, jewellery, Reibekuchen (German
snack), mulled claret, etc.

Karlspreis

Every year in May some 'important' person gets the
Karlspreis for his or her merit for Europe. Clinton get this
price in 2000, but really nobody knows why - the officials say for the
war in Yugoslavia.

CHIO

Every year to the beginning of June there is an over-regional horse
jumping tournament which is called CHIO.

Öcher Bend

It's a big parish fair, two times in a year, sometimes in spring
and in autumn.

Klenkes

In Aachen there exists a special greeting (it's a little bit as in
Mr. Bean's film): make a fist, hold it up and and lift the pinky (and
not the middle finger). This greeting comes from the last centuries,
when Aachen was a center of the needle industry. To sort out the bad
needles, the workers used the pinky to throw them away from the
assembly line.

Today there is a city magazin called Klenkes and there is
also at least one statue showing this greeting.

Lousberg

To the northeast of the center there is the Lousberg. It's
a small hill with a nice park with lots of nice trees. There exists a
myth about its creation: it should be some sand that the devil broght
to mess Aachen, but a brave woman outwitted him so he put the sand in
uninhabitated area. There is a statue at the main entrace showing the
devil and the woman.

Aachener Printen

This is a very special biscuit. It's normally eaten round
Christmas and they are made with lots of different spices. There are
some with thick sugar pieces, with chocolate. You can buy them
during the whole year. But be careful: have your dentist by hand if
you eat one: sometimes they are hard like a stone.

Because of Aachen's history, the main roads run in two nearly
circles round the cathedral. The inner, so called Grabenring, is
about 1 km in diameter, the outer (Alleenring) about 1.5 km in
diameter. In history times these two rings were city walls. And even
today, you can see remains of this old walls at some points near the
rings - mostly old city gates.

You can get a free of charge city map at the tourist information
(near Elisenbrunnen and cathedral) and at mostly every pub in the city.

Aachen has a lot of pubs. Here you can find a small list of pubs
where you sometimes can find HHGG fans. Mostly everybody knows these
pubs.

Waiting in Queues

In Aachen there are some different systems for waiting in a queue.
There is the normal way - mostly at all the supermarkets:
choose one queue, stand at their end and wait (be sure: you choosed
the one, where you have to wait longest).

But there are at least two exceptions from this: in the main and
big post offices: some bdi (brain damaged idiots) had some bdi (brain
damaged ideas). There you must push a small button to get a small
piece of paper with a number on it. Then there is a big display where
is written which number is served at which counter. It's not faster
than the normal system, but much more complex.

The most exciting thing is to wait in the city office. This is one
big room with tons of flowers, millions of pillars, kilometers of
cubicle walls, normally hundreds of people waiting and about 15
counters, placed in the way that it is impossible to look at two at
the same time. There are two possibilities to get served:

1. Bring a Hypno-Sens-O-Matic and put all waiting people in a 10
   minutes winter sleep.
2. Bring an instant camera and an lead sealed atomic clock. First,
   take a photo of yourself and the clock entering the room - so you can
   prove, when you entered the room. After this, take a photo of each
   person entering the room after you - also with the time on it. If
   somebody now jumps the queue, you can start crying at him or her and
   then proving, that you had to be served before this person. But: be
   careful, some people may try possibility one while you are
   waiting.

Wind Direction

There is an easy way to determine the wind direction: if it smells
of chocolate the wind comes from north (Lindt chocolate factory), if
it smells as cocked fruits (strawberries, plums, ...) from east
(Zentis jam factory), if it stinks the wind comes from west or there
is no wind. The wind never comes from south - there is the Eifel with
lots of fresh air and in Aachen there is never fresh air.

Driving in the Winter

In Aachen it hardly ever snows. But if it starts: run! Run for
your live. Run into the next house, hotel or church you can reach.
Stay there until the snow is melting. They don't know how to drive
with snow - they are urbanites.

Conversation

In Aachen mostly everybody speaks English. But there are some
(mostly somewhat older persons) who only speak Öcher Platt.
This is a local Aachener slang (Öcher in Öcher Platt means
Aachen, and Platt is a word for slang).

If you want to speak German with these people, be careful, Öcher
Platt is mostly not German. Example: If they want to say 'I know this
region very well' [Ich kenne mich hier aus] they say 'I know me' [Hier
kenn isch misch].