Entschuldigung is the theme of the day. This means pardon or excuse me in German. Today, not once, not twice but three separate times Germans turned to us and asked us directions to somewhere. Unfortunately, our German was not good enough to help. Jacob the first two times politely replied in German that his German was not very good, however, when I got cornered I panicked and just said, “Uh! Sorry, no German!” I don’t know what has changed since the last time we visited, do we really look like Germans? Or that we know what we are doing… I’m not so sure.

We started our morning in Paris which now feels like days ago. We woke up shortly after 5 a.m. and were across the street to the train station by 5:45 a.m. and boarding our train to Aachen (Aw-khen). Jacob found this little border town and suggested we go there. He showed me some of the things we’d see and I agreed we should check it out. Little did I know he was inspired to visit this place because its a town in the computer game he plays…

We arrived in Aachen just after 9:30 a.m. and locked up our luggage in a locker at the train station. Even though I had breakfast on the train I was still hungry so we stopped by a bakery and I bought a cinnamon-twist-apple-pastry of some sort. It was amazing!

From there we continued a short walk to visit the Aachen Cathedral. Visiting hours didn’t begin until 11 a.m. so we walked through a park to a viewing point of the city. Photo below.

From there we headed back to the Aachen Cathedral which was free to enter and no line. Do you know why this cathedral is so amazing? No? I’ll tell you why.. This cathedral was constructed by order of emperor Charlemagne who was buried there after his death in 814! Yes, 814! From 936 to 1531, this was the coronation church for 31 German kings and 12 queens. The cathedral has been damaged over the years by vikings and by airstrikes in World War II, but it has always been restored.

It was incredible. Photos below.

 

After touring the cathedral we walked to Hanswurst to have lunch. Jacob had a bratwurst with potatoes and I had a currywurst with potatoes. It was delicious. While eating we visited with a couple from Houston, Texas. They were very friendly and gave us some tips about places we are traveling next.

After lunch our time in Aachen was almost up so we headed back to the train station to catch our next train to Frankfurt. This was another high speed train and at one point we were going 300 km/h or 186 mph. The ride was so smooth that I dozed off for a bit and Jacob made a point to photograph me sleeping so he could show me later. Thanks, Jacob!

We arrived in Frankfurt at the main train station just after 3:30 p.m. and made the half-mile trek to our hotel. Normally, that walk would be fine but we had all our luggage and it was 70 degrees! We were sweating and tired once we arrived and had a quick break before putting our shoes back on and heading out to the city.

 

We walked all over Frankfurt. I particularly enjoyed walking along the Main River. Frankfurt is different from the other cities we have visited because it has big skyscrapers and is pretty modern. It felt a lot like a city in the US. We checked out some historical sites, walked on a pedestrian bridge, visited an outdoor market and walked by the Frankfurt stock exchange.

By this point our feet were tired and our bellies empty so we started heading back to the hotel. We picked up some food – Jacob enjoyed his second bratwurst for the day and I got a salami sandwich. I also picked up a pretzel for Jacob to enjoy later and a Frankfurter Apfelwein for myself. Apparently, this is a local treat! It tastes… interesting.

We are back at the hotel now. Tomorrow morning we pick up our rental car and head off for Strasbourg, France. We stayed in Strasbourg when we visited in 2016, but we missed all the great sights so we decided we needed to go back. On our way to Strasbourg we are going drive through Luxembourg. Until then…