Rockin' Aachen

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We slept like the dead in our room in Cologne, windows ajar from the top. Although the air was fresh, it was also cool … but we were snug under our down duvets. A bird in the courtyard woke us, singing a beautiful and varied song, almost like a conversation. After a shower and breakfast in the lobby restaurant (I had a fresh poppy seed roll, cucumber and tomato, lox and prosciutto, a Nuremburg sausage and scrambled eggs, a little pot of Earl Grey tea and a glass of grapefruit juice), we walked to the hauptbohnhof (main train station).

Breakfast observations:
· The staff had set out four types of real sugar in a divided Lucite box (white and natural granulated, and white and brown rock sugar)
· Every man in the restaurant (except my sweetheart) had on a white dress shirt and tie
· The cappuccino maker was so complicated that we didn’t know how to work it (the waiter brought us a pot of coffee)
· There were six types of yogurt and beautiful muesli as the cereal selection
· Juices: orange, cranberry, grapefruit, passion fruit and mixed fruit
· There was a tray full of little teapots and a dizzying array of teas from which to select
· One could choose from several different types of meats including varieties of sausages, smoked salmon, prosciutto, ground pork, and little individual liverwursts.

The fast train to Aachen took only 30 minutes. We stopped to ask for walking directions to the Aachen Dom (the cathedral), but ended up wandering around a bit before we found it in the center of town. The streets were nearly all cobblestone; it is heartbreakingly picturesque. Aachen is a hot-sulphur-springs town, which is, evidently, what attracted Charles the Great – Charlemagne – to make it his permanent home in the 8th century. He declared Aachen a palatinate (an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire) and built a palace complex in the Carolingian style. Today, the Aachen Dom is composed of the remains of Charlemagne’s palatine chapel and multiple medieval additions.

Charlemagne was crowned King of Franconia in 768 and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Christmas Day, 800. He was a passionate champion and defender of the Church and brought significant relics to Aachen from Constantinople, which have inspired pilgrimages for centuries and remain enshrined in the Dom today. Four holy relics (which are displayed to the faithful every seven years) rest in the elaborate Shrine of St. Mary: “the nappy and loin cloth of Jesus Christ, the dress of St. Mary and burial shroud of John the Baptist.”

Why St. Mary and the not the Blessed Virgin Mary? The Dom is now an Episcopal Church, not Catholic.

Charlemagne himself is also buried within the Dom; his remains are contained in the magnificent Shrine of Charles the Great (completed 1215), to which they were transferred after he was canonized in 1165 by Antipope Pascal III.

Hanging nearby is a gigantic bejeweled chandelier donated that same year by Frederick I Barbarossa.

We took a guided tour in German simply so we could pass through the velvet ropes and ascend the winding stairs to the upper gallery. There, we were able to stand right next to the Throne of Charlemagne, a surprisingly simple stone chair where the greatest emperor of Christendom sat in state. Thirty other Germanic kings and queens of the Holy Roman Empire were crowned in the Dom over the ensuing years, reigning from the same elegantly evocative throne.

With reluctance, we left Aachen and returned to Cologne. I am experiencing some rather startlingly significant foot pain … a result, I think, of the years I spent binding my feet in pointed stiletto heels. Thankfully, Bill is patient about it and so we limped our way off the train and back into the Cologne Cathedral for a second look.

This particular religious site has a long history. Excavations revealed artifacts from the tomb of a Frankish woman and her child dated to 540 CE, and the old cathedral was consecrated here in 870 CE. However, Rainald von Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne changed the fortunes of the bishopric and the town when he brought the relics of the Three Wise Men to Cologne in 1164. (All important medieval Christian churches had relics. Either they were acquired legitimately or they were stolen. Want to know more? Ask an historian for reading suggestions!)

Cutting to the chase … beginning in 1248, it took 632 years to build the present cathedral in Cologne. They weren’t actually working on it all that time because there were long periods when Cologne had no money. Hard to imagine when one wanders through the Treasury in the basement of the edifice and sees the sumptuous personal jewels of the various archbishops of Cologne, but I digress.

Each year on Epiphany … January 6 … the end section of the Shrine of the Three Magi is removed so worshippers can see the skulls of the three kings who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. And the skulls have crowns. I would LOVE to check that out. Remember that it matters not whether these relics are authentic … what matters is that medieval Christians (and modern ones, I suppose) believed the relics were authentic.

As much as we would like to deny it, Bill and I are jet-lagged. We came back to the hotel after our church tours and collapsed (okay, we did manage to stop at a little wine shop where we bought a bottle of Krettnacher Altenberg and a bottle of sparking Riesling for €11 … wow!). Now we’re hungry, so after posting this, we’re going to venture out to find something to eat.

I love you all, my family and friends. In particular, I want to blow grateful kisses to Mom, Susan, Laura, Deanne, Ashleigh, Colleen, Leslie, Bonnie, Tim and Linda, Richard and Don … thank you for following and reading and commenting. It means so much to me, and it makes it seem as if we are not so far apart after all.