Monschau and Aachen

Today was the final group excursion of the semester--a long and rainy day in Germany. In the morning we went to Monschau, a small, quaint town just across the border that has a small Christmas market set up in their main square offering little gifts and traditional German food. There's a beautiful stream that flows through the middle of town and lots of trees and hills in the surrounding area. We only spent a couple of hours there, walking around and exploring the picturesque streets. However, the fact that it was pouring rain the entire time kind of detracted from the beauty.

After Monschau, we drove about 20 minutes to Aachen, a larger city that also has a Christmas market. Their Christmas market is on a completely different level--it stretches for blocks, with hundreds of stands selling ornaments, wooden creations, jewelry, German food, etc. It is also quite famous for its hot wine, called gluhwein. We had quite a bit of time to explore this market, which for the first time all semester made me feel like Christmas is approaching. There was even a band of, shall we say, musically uninclined children playing Christmas music. We also got a tour of their Cathedral, which is not only beautiful but also steeped in history. Charlemagne, who was a powerful emperor of the Middle Ages, lived in Aachen and ordered the Cathedral to be built. Inside you can see what are (supposedly) some of Charlemagne's bones, which is not only a little creepy but also slightly controversial, as there is strong but not definitive proof that they belong to him. You can also see Charlemagne's throne, which is surprisingly not ornate and consists of concrete blocks brought to him from Jerusalem. In fact, he was so honored by these concrete blocks that he ironically never actually sat in his throne, because he did not want to ruin what was to him a prized treasure.

It was fun to travel to Germany again, as I had only spent one weekend there in early October, because the region is gorgeous, the food is amazing, and the markets are vibrant. Eventually I would like to see more of Germany, since I have really only seen the Western edge of it. Despite the fact that it was raining all day, it was still nice to see two beautiful towns. The mood was rather sad among kids in my program though, as it is dawning on us that this amazing experience is coming to an end shortly. Our lifestyle, which we are so grateful to have and is now so routine, is shortly going to be brought back to reality, and that's tough to swallow. Thus I'm going to try to make the best out of my last couple of weeks here!