The next stop on our Christmas market tour was Aachen. We took a train from Dusseldorf to Koln and then caught another train to Aachen. The whole trip only took a little more than an hour. Our first train left Dusseldorf at 10:58. We arrived at the train station a little after 10:30thinking we had plenty of time- we should have had plenty of time. We were walking through the train station remarking on how wonderful train travel is, how easy and stress free and even though we had plenty of time we should probably find our platform. We consulted the time table closest to us and saw that the train leaving at 10:58 that went through Koln left from platform 9 3/4 (just kidding, it was platform 12) but it said it arrived in Koln at 12:06– the train we had a ticket for was supposed to arrive in Koln at 11:29 so we could catch our next train at11:43. The train number didn’t match either- we were on an R train, the timetable said S train. Hmmm, we said, that seems odd, we said. But there was no other train leaving at 10:58 so we figured that was right. As the time got closer and closer we got more and more nervous, finally we went and asked at information- it’s platforms 15 & 16 we were told. Huh? We had no idea how we could have possibly known that but we headed that way. We got to the platform, found the right timetable with the R trains on it and the correct times- sure enough, it was leaving from platform 15. So we waited and waited and the screen above platform 15 changed to a train that was leaving at 11:06 and still was not our train… we were thoroughly confused. A few minutes later a train pulled in at platform 16. It was the wrong train number, but it left at the right time and Koln was listed as one of the stops, so we hopped on, with no idea whether we were on the correct train or not.
Ok, so the following is a completely true and highly embarrassing story. We were sitting on this train, no idea whether its the right train or not so we bust out the trusty old google maps on the phone to see a) what direction we were going and b) whether or not we were headed to Koln. Well, try as we might, we could not find Koln anywhere on the map. We searched for it, and once we figured out which direction we were heading we checked out every tiny city and every tiny town along the way. However, many of the trains were headed for Koln, so we figured it must be pretty big, so why oh why couldn’t we find it? Slowly, it dawned on us- we were looking for Koln on an English map. Koln doesn’t exist on English maps. However, the very large city of Cologne does. Yup, Koln and Cologne are the same. The guy we asked at information even looked at my ticket and said “oh, you’re going to Cologne.” Why does that happen? Who decides what names are the same in English and which are different? Why do we have Koln and Cologne, but Dusseldorf stays the same? We have even called Germany by three different names on this trip- Germany, Allemania and Deutschland. Who decides this, why can’t we all call it by the same name? Sheesh!
Ok, so we catch our connection with no problems and end up in Aachen. Whoa, Aachen is amazing. Far and away, the most quaint, most decorated and most scenic old town we have been to with a Christmas market tucked away between the imposing, ornate Aachen Cathedral and the Town Hall (the town hall looks so much like Hogwarts- which is why I have Harry Potter on the brain!). Both buildings are leftover from medieval times and just awesome to look at. Nestled snuggly between them is the adorable Christmas market- resplendent with its wreaths, lights, trees and brightly lit stalls.
I really, really am loving the Christmas markets and this one blew away the competition (not that its a competition, which is good for everywhere else, Aachen is definitely the best so far!). The atmosphere is so perfectly Christmas that even when it started raining, it only dampened our coats, not our spirits!
We wandered around in the afternoon, before the market got too crowded. We walked all over the market and went into the awe inspiring cathedral and just fell in love!
That night we went back to enjoy the festive evening atmosphere and see a choral concert. It was a ton of fun, but we were very much expecting Christmas music from the choir, instead we got everything from Queen and The Beatles to Jesus Christ, Superstar and West Side Story- a very eclectic selection at best. Still, it was such a great atmosphere and so much fun we stayed until the rain drove us away.
The next day we took a bus to Maastricht in the Netherlands, it was only an hour bus ride so we figured we would go ahead and visit the Netherlands (although we could have visited The Netherlands much closer by going to a small town called Vaals which was only a 10 minute bus ride). We hopped on the city bus and went right on over. It was a beautiful town, complete with a Christmas Market and an old Dominican church from the 13th century that had been converted into a bookstore. Despite the fact that it was raining, there were tons of people riding bikes. I have never seen so many people on bikes, or parked bikes in one city, let alone in gross, rainy, cold weather. It was pretty neat to see. The architecture was pretty amazing as well, all the buildings were very tall and very skinny. We ate a delicious lunch of pizza and explored the Christmas market for a few hours before catching a return bus to Aachen. It was a really fun day trip and we got another country on our list!
The outside of the bookstore
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