The streets of Aachen
Apr. 15th, 2018 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustOne more post from Aachen last Easter: from the sublime - the cathedral - down to street level. Aachen wasn't full of beautiful buildings, the way Bruges, Ghent, Trier all were; but there was plenty going on in the streets. It has been a spa town since Roman times, and there are fountains everywhere; there is an enormous quantity of sculpture; sometimes you find both together:
These are just some of the grotesques illustrating how money passes from hand to hand around the edge of a pool.
There are people, too:
THe pipe organ was playing Ring of Fire as we passed. I can't tell you what I would have expected it to be playing, but not that.
I don't have a photograph of the wedding preparations spilling into the streets. I suppose you only get so much time in the public building of your choice, so people were setting up tables outside, complete with floral decorations. The one by the door of the Rathaus was dedicated to the distribution of confetti - much confetti - but in the square behind the cathedral, there was an altogether grander affair, with white doves. (Perhaps, say my notes, this isn't as extraordinary as I think, there seems to be no limit to what is expected of a wedding...)
And now for something completely different, the asparagus peeling machine:
Despite the recurrence of asparagus as a motif of this holiday (even the Nordsee fish and chip shop advertises its asparagus menu), I may not have mentioned that, this being continental Europe, we are of course talking about white asparagus, not the thin green English 'grass' (which I prefer). You buy your fat white fingers, and one of the vendors feeds them into the machine for you, while the other retrieves them at the other end. Nothing is wasted: you can buy a big bag of shavings, which looks like bedding for a pet rabbit, but presumably can be made into soup.
Another fountain with accompanying statue - this one is outside the big bookshop. I didn't actually buy any books, but I made up for that at the organic supermarket, where I stocked up on goodies of all kinds.
After two days of intensive sightseeing, sensory overload of medieval treasures and walking around the streets, having returned to our hotel I was reluctant to leave it again. We compromised, and went out to eat at the Turkish restaurant on the corner (Öz Urfa, and despite its alarming green neon exterior, it was very welcoming and pleasant). The walk there took us past this mystifying shop window display (apologies for low light):
And that was Aachen, The next morning, we set off for Utrecht.
These are just some of the grotesques illustrating how money passes from hand to hand around the edge of a pool.
There are people, too:
THe pipe organ was playing Ring of Fire as we passed. I can't tell you what I would have expected it to be playing, but not that.
I don't have a photograph of the wedding preparations spilling into the streets. I suppose you only get so much time in the public building of your choice, so people were setting up tables outside, complete with floral decorations. The one by the door of the Rathaus was dedicated to the distribution of confetti - much confetti - but in the square behind the cathedral, there was an altogether grander affair, with white doves. (Perhaps, say my notes, this isn't as extraordinary as I think, there seems to be no limit to what is expected of a wedding...)
And now for something completely different, the asparagus peeling machine:
Despite the recurrence of asparagus as a motif of this holiday (even the Nordsee fish and chip shop advertises its asparagus menu), I may not have mentioned that, this being continental Europe, we are of course talking about white asparagus, not the thin green English 'grass' (which I prefer). You buy your fat white fingers, and one of the vendors feeds them into the machine for you, while the other retrieves them at the other end. Nothing is wasted: you can buy a big bag of shavings, which looks like bedding for a pet rabbit, but presumably can be made into soup.
Another fountain with accompanying statue - this one is outside the big bookshop. I didn't actually buy any books, but I made up for that at the organic supermarket, where I stocked up on goodies of all kinds.
After two days of intensive sightseeing, sensory overload of medieval treasures and walking around the streets, having returned to our hotel I was reluctant to leave it again. We compromised, and went out to eat at the Turkish restaurant on the corner (Öz Urfa, and despite its alarming green neon exterior, it was very welcoming and pleasant). The walk there took us past this mystifying shop window display (apologies for low light):
And that was Aachen, The next morning, we set off for Utrecht.
