Aachen, Germany

Steve and I were really looking forward to going to Aachen, Germany.  Before leaving on our trip, Steve had made friends with Nico who had invited us into his home while we were going to be in Germany.  We had no idea what was in Aachen but we knew we wanted to meet Nico so we went.  :) we arrived on Friday and Nico took the say off so he and his girlfriend, Natalie, could spend the day with us.  It was very sweet.  When we arrived at the train station, They met us and drove us back to their place.  It felt like we already knew each other and it was good to meet them in person.

When we got to their place we got to meet their two cats Max and Amy. Max was a talkative (once he gets to know you) big husky white kitty and Amy is a little hyper and playful orange kitty. Steve and I loved being able to play with them for a few days. :) 

In the afternoon we they showed us around Aachen.  Our first stop was at a natural hot spring.  There was a big hot spring under ground and it was pumped up into a few fountains for people to drink.  It was once believed to have healing properties.  The problem is it smelled sooooooo bad!!!  Like really rotten eggs. Yuck!  I would never drink that. lol. 

After experiencing the best smelling water ever, we went to the city center.  It was a really cute town.  We went into a church that used to be a castle. It was a really cool hybrid of the two.  The inside was exquisite. Both of us loved it!  It was so colorful and detailed.  I guess it is a Roman style church. It was here that Steve decided he likes the Roman architecture better than the Gothic. It is softer and curvy than the sharp pointed style of the Gothic period.  

When we were done exploring the castle-church, Nico said two words that are always music to Steve's hears. . . Ice cream!  Steve instantly got a huge cheesy smile on his face and Nico became his new best friend (nothing personal Seanald.  You can take him to ice cream when we get back and I am sure all bonds will be restored).  They took us to the best ice cream place in town.  It was really really good.  After tasting some of the other ice cream shops during out stay in Aachen, I can testify to the fact Nico was telling the truth. It was the best in the area.  Steve got cherry vanilla that was jam packed full of flavor and I got hazelnut (tasted just like Nutella) and After eight (mint with chocolate pieces.  It was supper smooth and creamy. I am so glad we don't have this place I the states or we would be in big trouble. 

In the evening we got to meet the rest of Nico's family at a birthday celebration for his mother. We stopped on the way and picked some flowers for her. The whole family was so nice and welcoming.  The grandma and grandpa seemed a little confused on why there were strangers at the party but they too were very nice.  It was funny for us because we don't speak German, so when we were being introduced all we could understand was "couch surfers".  So for better or for worse, but hopefully better, if they think of us we will be the "couch surfers."
We all went to this cute little restaurant and had a traditional German dinner.  It was very good.  Steve loved the potato pancakes with apple sauce.  By the end of dinner, and a few drinks into it (everyone started speaking better English too. Liquid courage as Steve would call it), we were all long lost friends finally reunited.  We laughed practically the whole night and had our own inside jokes.  We even danced a little because they were playing some good music.  When that happens Steve's feet can not sit still.  ;-)  It definitely didn't feel like this was our first day in Germany.  It felt so natural and comfortable being there with Nico and his family.  They are such good people, we feel blessed to have met them. I was definitely glad we were there and had more time to spend with them.

hot spring house

Steve enjoying the fresh air.

 

cute little city

Isn't this a charming town?

 

The old king

I could not get the whole church in to the picture so I took a picture of the model.  This is the castle/church I mentioned above.

   

This was the inside.  The mosaic artwork on the walls was breath taking-  I believe that work was part of the castle and the stained glass was the added part when it became a church. 

Things around town:

Although it may look like it, this person did not get T.P-ed.  This is actually, for lack of better word or proper word, a love tree. This tradition is called Maibäume. (bäume means tree and Mai is May)  Every year on the first of May, male suitors will bring a decorated tree (or heart) to the woman he is interested in and put it outside their house.  These trees say up for the whole month as a sign of their love and hopefully, if her affections are reciprocated, their budding romance.  It was a really sweet tradition.  It was already June when we where there but I guess not everyone wants to take down their trees so soon.       

This was a gingerbread shop.  They had several different types of gingerbread.  Plain gingerbread, and chocolate (dark, milk, and white) covered gingerbread and either with and with out nuts.  It was pretty darn yummy!  The funny thing is that usually if gingerbread is exposed to the air it dries out and becomes hard.  Some of their bread comes in a package already hard and when it is exposed to the air it be comes soft and fresh.  We may have bought a bag to enjoy on the road :)  I mean, how could you not if you are a gingerbread fan. . . and I definitely am.  :)

Last wooden building in town

This was a cool little fountain.  Each piece has movable parts.  This little Boy's hands, feet, legs and arms all moved so you could position the characters any way you wanted.  The kids loved it!

Ice cream besties!  Look how happy they both look now that they know they are going to get a treat.

Natalie likes her ice cream too :)  ok, ok. . .these aren't both hers, calm down! One is for Nico

Steve and I got our ice cream in a sugar bowl.  I like that idea.  We both like cones but don't want to chance our ice cream falling off so we got the bowl.  why don't more places serve it like this?

Trying my first beer in Germany!  Not too bad.  I can see why people enjoy drinking beer here.  It is way better in Germany than it is in the States.  But honestly, I only sampled this beer because this one was Natalie's.  I stuck with sparkling wine :)

On to the food:

Before we started dinner the chef made us a starter salad.  When we looked into the little glass we didn't expect to see this.  When I think salad, I think green leaves.  This was a type of potato salad with steak, potatoes and pickles.  It was really good!  I was pleasantly surprised.. . . and so was Steve.  Look at him enjoying the salad.  So cute!

And here was our main course.  On the left we have the potato pancakes with apple sauce and jam, on the top right is toast with dried meat, and on the bottom right we have the schnitzel.  It was all amazing!  The pancakes were all you could eat and Steve started counting as if they were knoodles (family tradition potato dish).  I don't know what the final count was for him.  I think I had 4. 

I believe this is a warm rhubarb pie filling topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.  It was pretty good :)  Tart and sweet. As a side note: never have I been in a place that eats so much rhubarb!  I mean, we have strawberry rhubarb pie which is super good and my friend Loopy made me a straight rhubarb pie once (a Wisconsin treat), but here it is everywhere! They even put the flavor into soda!  That was a unique experience for sure, but it is all the rage here.  It was funny because Natalie could not pronounce rhubarb in English so it became Rhubarbraba bar ba bar ba ba...... lol  The rest of our time with them we all kept saying this and laughing.  It was great!  She was such a good sport about it. 

Where there is music, Steven and I must dance :)

Natalie and Steven cutting a rug

The girls enjoying bubble wrap.  No matter how old you are, popping the bubbles never gets old.  lol (Elena, Teresa, Natalie, and Jennifer)

The next day we woke up to an amazing breakfast.  All sorts of yummy cheeses, meats, veggies, jam, Nutella and bread.  When we started planning our trip, I was looking forward to the bakeries in France but as I read about Germany I learned they are also known for their bread.  Let me tell you now that I have experienced both, Germany's bread blows France and all the other countries we have been to, out of the water!!!  I LOVED their bread!  Natalie was so nice and made sure to get us a wide variety of bread to sample while we were at her house.  I thought I like bread before but man, if I lived here I think that would be all I would eat.  lol  Well, maybe that and the Nutella.  Believe it or not, the Nutella in Germany is different (and better) than what we get in the States. Nico explained why.  He says there is a winter Nutella and a summer Nutella.  The Nutella in Germany is thicker, darker brown, and a little richer in flavor.  It also comes in a glass jar which is nice because after a while in the plastic jar the Nutella starts to taste like plastic.  The only down side to having their Nutella come in a glass jar is that i is too heavy for us to ship it back to the US because it would cost us a small fortune.  lol
After breakfast we headed to Vaalserberg ("Mount Vaals").  It is the location where the borders of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands all meet.  It is called Drielandenpunt ("Three-Country Point") in Dutch, or Dreiländereck ("Three-Country Corner") in German, or Trois Frontières ("Three Borders") in French.  To get here we had to go on a small and beautiful hike and on the top of this summit there is a maze.  We all went in the maze and got lost several times. It took us about an hour or more before we FINALLY found it! We had so much fun we decided to do it again but this time it was a race to the center.  :)  Nico and Natalie cheated and stayed together (just kidding) and ended up winning.  It took me a while longer but I found it and Steven really did cheat as he hopped a fence and still came in last.  lol  Cheaters never prosper!  Nah-nah-na-nah-nah! ;-p   lol
After our adventure at the three borders, we headed back home to make homemade pasta for dinner! Natalie loves to cook and she spoiled us by making us (with all of our help) this pasta and pork with a white wine sauce for dinner. We didn't get back from the maze until late so we didn' actually start eating dinner until 10:30pm.  lol   Nico's sisters and their boyfriends came over for dinner too and then we were all going to go dancing a a local club. Unfortunately I was not feeling well so I went to bed while the others went out dancing.  They left the apartment at midnight and didn't get back until 4am!  I was dead asleep but Steve woke me when he came in and told me he loved me.  :)  So sweet <3  I guess they missed their first bus and had to wait an hour until the next bus came to get them. The next morning he told me they had a good time. He realized why he liked clubbing when he was younger but now that he is older it is not as much fun as it used to be.  It was funny because I asked Nico how the night was and he agreed with Steve, it was just okay, but his youngest sister and her boyfriend loved it.  lol        

All the yummy bread I told you about.  :)  The dark one on top was my favorite.

This is Max.  He was a shy kitty but eventually warmed up.  He and Steve became good buddies by the time we left.  They had conversations.  Steve would say "Max-Ab " and Max would reply "meow".  They would continue like this for quite a while.  lol  It was so funny.

This is Amy.  She was a younger, more hyper kitty and totally adorable.  We liked playing with her.  Steve kept trying to call her Sarah.  I think his brain was trying to connect the cat's name with my old roommate Amy but he would think about Sarah and Amy and then call her Sarah.  lol  it was cute. 

Nico introduced us to a plant that would stick to your clothes.  It was kinda like Velcro.  So the whole time we were throwing these plants at each other or trying to slyly stick it on when the other isn't paying attention.  It was great!  Why don't we have this plant in the US?

 

More sticky plants :)

On our way to Vaalserberg.

On the trail we came across a trampoline type contraption.  It was a wooden board with springs underneath and tires to cushion the impact.  It was a lot of fun!  I love being a big kid! lol

All of us at the exact meeting point for France, Holland, and Germany.

Look at us excited to go into the maze :)

Inside the maze there where water fountains you had to cross to continue.  We weren't expecting or prepared for that.  It definitely made things interesting. 

Everyone made it over the fountain with out getting wet except for me.  :)  Later we realized these fountains were would stop once the pool underneath the grate was full.  Then once it was drained it would start again.  Kind of like a toilet.  lol

Goal destination, the center hut. 

Happy we finally made it to the center! YAY!!!

I wasn't joking abut the Rhubarb soda.  Here is proof.

 

Their grocery store had a whole isle of chocolate!  This is only one isle.  They have a few.  :)

While we were at the grocery store we bought marshmallows and rice crispys so we could make them rice crispy treats.  They had never had them!  Apparently this is an American thing.  Steve was appalled Germany doesn't have them so he insisted on making them  It is something everyone should have, so we had Italian food for dinner and American for dessert, while in Germany.  A very multi-cultural meal.  lol

Natalie making the dough for the pasta

Nico and Jennifer rolling out the first of the linguini.

Johannes and Teresa joining in the fun.

Ta-dah!

Pork with white wine sauce.  Very good :)

Family meal :)  unfortunately Elena's Boyfriend, Dominik, was not able to stay for the meal, but it was very nice for him to drop in and meet us. 

A little Karaoke :)

Max hiding in the closet all snuggled up with Nico's clothes.  He was very excited about this.  lol

Sweet Amy sleeping in her little perch under the desk. 

The Club

The next morning we all got up around 11am.  Everyone was pretty exhausted after the last night's adventures.  I felt awesome though, plenty of sleep for me.  :) After saying our goodbyes to Teresa and Johannes, we picked up Alena and all headed off to Cologne.  We drove half way and took the train the other half.  In the train station we got our first German sausage and Alena treated us to a fresh pretzel.  They both were insanely tasty.  Once we walked out the station, we could not help but see the Colonge Dom.  It's the largest Gothic cathedral in Germany and it  is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe.  It was pretty impressive.  There were many tombs inside this place.  One of the caskets looked like a castle (maybe a king?) and Steve says he would like his casket to be a castle someday too.  lol  After we were done gauking at the cathedral, we headed over to the Chocolate Museum  :)  That's right, I just said Chocolate Musium.  We did not make it to the on in Belgium before it closed so Nico and Natalie were kind enough to take us to this one.  We spent forever inside!  It was mostly my fault.  I was fascinated by all the history of chocolate and getting to see how it was made.  They also had a lot of cool "artifacts":  old candy machines, wrappers, pictures, ect. It was pretty awesome to go there.  After that we walked around the city for a little bit. The old part of town was really cool.  They also pointed out where Michael Jackson and Tina Turner had homes in Cologne.  Then we finished with a refreshing bowl of ice cream before returning to Aachen. :).  We dropped off Alena and got to spend a little time at her place with Dominik, before heading back to Nico and Natalie's apartment.  We had leftover pasta for dinner and played Carcassonne until the wee hours of the morning and poor Nico had to work the next day.  We felt bad we kept him up so late but he basically said, 'you can sleep when you are dead,' so he stayed up with us. :) We really enjoyed this game and would like to get it when we return to the States.  Basically you build castles all over the land and whoever has the most points (buy owning castles, churches, roads and land) wins.  It sounds kinda lame how I described it but it really was a lot of fun.  I don't do it justice.  lol  It is a strategy game.  I think Bobert and my Christensen family would like it.  It was hard to say goodnight because we knew we would be leaving the next day and we didn't want this part of our trip to end.  We had such a wonderful time with them!

    

Sarah and Amy, this one is for you.  :) Random work out while on the train! lol

Yummy sausage!!!! (I have since tried sausages all over Germany and this is still the best one.  I don't know if it is because it was the first or because it really was the best.  Either way it was delicious.)

The HUGE cathedral!  It was hard to get a good picture of it because there were so many other buildings around and I would have had to walk far away to fit it all in the camera screen. 

We love all the pipe organs in the churches  It would be amazing to hear them.

The stained glass work is amazing!  It was huge too!

Natalie climbing a random wall.  She had he feet shoes on and was like a cute little monkey :) ( Cari, remember you did something similar in a dress.)

The old part of town.  So quaint.  I loved it!

This is the modern side of town.  It is still really pretty.  (Michael Jackson lived over there)

Yay Chocolate museum!

Nico and Natalie.  They are so sweet.

Steve eating the chocolate bunny and me eating Steven.

This was an old candy machine.  I am just saying, I would never buy candy from a Hansel and Gretel machine  knowing how the story goes.  Anyone else thing the same?

More candy machines.  Look at the gnome guy.  He looks like he is going to the bathroom.  No way I would buy chocolate from his machine!

As a treat for going through the museum, they pass out wafers dipped in chocolate from the chocolate fountain behind us.  Thank you!

Nico and Natalie, thank you for letting us join your family for the weekend and showing us the best things in Germany!  Being there with you made us want to stay and look forward to seeing other things in Germany at the same time.  My heart was pulled.  I am so glad we will keep in touch and hopefully some day we can return the favor and have you in CA.