Aachen Sights II

The Aachen Cathedral stands across the Katschhof from the Stadhuis.  The Katschhof is the central market and public area.  It is a remnant of the medieval shape of the city and the name, apparently, comes from the German term for pillory.  When I went through, there were some school groups who were having wheelbarrow races. 

This is a 360 degree video of the Katschhof.  It starts looking toward the Stadhuis and then circles around.  When the camera points toward the Cathedral, if you turn the volume way up, you can hear some of the musicians who were performing in the streets.

This is the North-East corner of the Stadhuis.  On the left, you can see the side of the Ratskeller restaurant. 

This is the Ratskeller, or City Hall Basement, Restaurant.  I think it is really cute.  It is so tiny, especially in comparison to the giant Stadhuis that it is cozied up to.   There used to be a giant horse sculpture, called Culinario, that stood in front of the restaurant (you can see some pictures of it on the restaurant website here).  It wasn't there when I was there, though.  Apparently, it got a parking ticket, for blocking the pathways for pedestrians through the marketplace.  It sounds like the restaurant is pretty sad about this and hopes to get Culinario back pretty soon.  

Shopping streets in the shadow of the Cathedral.

One of the shopping streets in the shadow of the Dom.

A fountain made out of metal marionettes.

I couldn't get a very good picture of this window, because of the glare, but this bread store looked amazing.  There are chocolate candy elephant cookies all over the place.  I am not sure about the significance of this but they were plentiful.

This is the name plate for St. Foillan Church which is right next to the Dom.  The plaque says that St. Foillan was a Scottish missionary bishop and martyr during the 7th century but St. Foillan (according to Wikipedia) was an Irish missionary of the 7th century.  Perhaps the Germans don't care to differentiate or perhaps there were more than one.  In any case, the church has had a storied history.  This says that the church was built in 1180, destroyed in a city fire on May 2, 1656, rebuilt in 1672, destroyed in a bombing on April 11, 1944 (so close to the end!), and rebuilt in 1958.  One upshot of all of this, as the sign notes, is that the building is is "gothic and neogothic with modern elements."

The stained glass windows over the alter in St. Foillan's Church.

This is a little video showing the front side of the Cathedral market and St. Foillan's.  If you turn the volume up a bit, you can here a busker (street musician) playing an accordion on the corner.

This was a booth in the Market in front of the Dom.  The sign says "Asparagus from Cleef Farms" (more or less).  They were selling asparagus there and demonstrating their nifty asparagus peeling machine.

People were pretty fascinated by the asparagus peeling machine and, I will admit, it was pretty fun to watch it in action.  People were also buying a lot of asparagus and strawberries because it was the height of the asparagus and strawberry season.  It smelled wonderful. 

I took this picture for Mom because of the sewing machine.  As far as I can tell, "Picco Bella" is Italian for "Beautiful Peak" or possibly "Point Beautiful".  The only Picco Bella I could find on the internet was some kind of cleaning, catering, and office supplier, as far as I could tell, but that doesn't have much to do with a sewing machine, so I don't really know what this is all about.

The weather was just beautiful when I was in Aachen and there were loads of people strolling through the city streets.  Since the streets are pretty narrow, it made it seem pretty claustrophobic.

This is Sankt Adalbert.  It is the second oldest church in Aachen, after the Dom.  It is a catholic church and is the base for the diocese of Aachen.  It is named after Adalbert of Prague, who was the Bishop of Prague but who was also a missionary to the Prussians.  He was martyred, in 999 (as far as I can tell) because he was too vocal in his condemnation of the Prussian practices of polygamy.  Saint Adalbert is actually one of the people commemorated in the giant statute in Wenceslas Square, in Prague, where I actually was.  I put a picture in my post here, although I think Adalbert is the statue that you can't see, to the back left of Wenceslas's horse.

I took this picture as I was walking around town on the way back to the bus station.  I just thought that it was interesting that the street was named after Martin Luther.  

I took this picture just for Mark.  I thought that it was pretty interesting that, of the five
things advertised for sale, three of them are alcohol.  ("Geschenke" means "gifts".)