Distance: 16.2 miles (26.1 km)
We went to Cologne and Aachen today. Cologne is just a 30 minute train ride south of Dusseldorf. This was actually my second time in Cologne; I was there with my parents and sister when we toured Germany for ten days in 2010. Thus, I had already seen the Cathedral, but it was no less impressive the second time. Shortly after getting to Cologne, I found a bathroom, changed into my running clothes, and went for a 5 mile run. I stuck close to the Rhine, running on both banks. While I did that, Curtis climbed to the top of the bellfry. Since I'd done that four years ago, I decided my legs could do without climbing the 533 steps to the top.
When I finished running, we went and got some Wiener Schnitzel and beer, then went back to the cathedral to walk around the inside. We spent quite a bit of time in there because... well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Cologne Cathedral will forever remain one of my most favorite buildings in the world.
After that, we went to catch a train to Aachen. We boarded a train, but they then announced that it would be delayed indefinitely because there was some sort of mechanical problem, so we got off and decided we would go to Bonn instead. While we were waiting for the Bonn train, though, we noticed another Aachen train and decided to take that. So we wasted a little time at the train station, but oh well, we've got up to 80 days to waste.
As the train pulled into Aachen, I could tell it would be a good place to run. The city was peppered with gothic church spires and surrounded by lush forested hills. Aachen was formerly the capital of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire, which covered most of modern-day Germany as well as France and nothern Italy. Today, Aachen is a lovely city with a nice historic center that is hard to navigate, at least for me apparently (I just had a little issue with finding the place I told Curtis to meet me at when I finished my run, but we eventually found each other... after I ran 3 more miles than planned). My run also took me to one of the big hills overlooking the city, along with plenty of forest trails crisscrossing its slopes.
After my run, we went to see if the cathedral was open. Unfortunately it wasn't, so I"ll have to wait until another day to see the place where Charlemagne was crowned. We then got some wurst and beer, and then took the train back to Dusseldorf. A long, tiring, but good day.
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| It's so big I had to use the panorama feature on my phone to get the whole thing! |
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| Take a good look at how big this statue thing is and then look at the top of the steeples in the next picture... |
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| It's an exact replica of the flower things on the tips of the steeples! |
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| South facade |
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| Across the bridge on my run |
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| Cologne skyline |
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| Back of the cathedral |
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| Marina and cool apartments along the river |
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| Cologne Rathaus (town hall) |
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| Wiener Schnitzel for lunch |
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| Fountain by the cathedral |
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| Holy dudes by the main portal (entrance) |
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| A taste of the huge stained glass windows inside |
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| Those pillars are even bigger than they look |
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| Floor to ceiling panorama |
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| Main altar in the middle of the cathedral |
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| Just a random gold altarpiece in a side chapel |
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| Looking down central nave from the main altar |
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| A bishop's grave |
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| Pretty neat eh? |
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| Pillar forest |
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| Ceiling panorama |
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| Aachen Hauptbahnhof (Central station) |
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| Aachen |
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| Aachen Cathedral - the old section (where Charlemagne was crowned in 800) is on the left and the new (built in 1800s) is on the right |
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| Old city gate |
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| View on Aachen from the hill I ran on |
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| Forest run |
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| Forest path |
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| Hammocks on a hill |
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| Aachen Rathaus (town hall) |
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