I was greeted by Lotti, the Italian mutt. She doesn't speak italian though! She happily barked and I was so glad to see her. It felt like I was cheating on Mr.Baby. But I was also so glad to see everybody else and to be greeted in such a warm way like the Puerto Ricans do, people actually glad to see you back. It felt like happiness.
The next day we had to get up super early so we could have time to visit Aachen. Today was the only day people actually could come with us and before the Christmas Markets closed on the 23rd. It was early so there was no sunlight yet, but I was full of expectations of what awaited me in Aachen, a city I had not seen when I was studying in Germany. I was also filled with the thrill of the new adventure. By the time we arrived to the train station, morning was upon us. Kamen has a small train station and we waited there by the bakery for a few minutes. It smelled so delicious. It served only to remind me how hard it is to carry a diet when such things like pudding pretzels covered in icing exist here. First stop was Bochum, where we met with half of the group. I was glad to meet with old friends and meet new ones. Then we took a regional train to Aachen... I remembered the first time I went to Cologne in one of these and this was the same route. These trains were always super full and this train was no exception. But we managed to find seats, which was a bit hard for one in our group who is 2 meters tall.
Two hours later we arrived at Aachen. We were greeted by the second part of the group, a beautiful couple from Vietnam. I was finally able to speak a bit more English and their German was surprisingly easier to understand. First stop there was the Lindt outlet. Let me repeat this... LINDT. OUT. LET. Chocolate outlet? I didn't even know these existed... let alone Lindt... delicious Lindt chocolate.
As we arrived there, we were supposed to smell the smell of chocolate but today it started raining and it is holidays so I couldn't smell anything. Inside the store there were all classes of Lindt chocolate I had not even seen before. I thought I wasn't going to buy anything, but these thoughts were useless as I saw there was 99% cacao chocolate which I thought my dad would love. All I did was buy chocolate to bring back home.
Next stop was another outlet. This time it was Lambertz, what Mr.J called the "kingpin of sweets in Germany". Here we bought Printen, a traditional Aachen cookie. Also Mr.J bought some Dominos cookies which are filled with marzipan, a horrible fruit jelly and a cookie, all covered in chocolate.
The day was gray and as we got out of this outlet, it started raining harder. We took a bus into town and now I could see all the old houses and traditional architecture that I was waiting to see. We decided to go eat first to this Lebanese restaurant but it was too full and the weather was too bad to go outside with the food. We kept looking and looking and everything was either full or closed. We ended up inside a mall, and ate... a burger. :) I guess with the rain and the trouble with finding a place to eat, comfort food was all we needed.
After this we carried on to the Aachen cathedral, where Charlemagne is buried. From outside it doesn't look like much and it is much smaller compared to other cathedrals like the one in Cologne. But inside, the real treasure lied. So. much. GOLD. All the ceiling was full of mosaics with real gold. Different patterns, different colors, everything was beyond beautiful. This certainly made the weather and the trek there worthwhile.
But the weather carried on. It was cold, it rained, there was no more sun. I didn't feel any more adventurous, I just wanted to go home. After looking around the Christmas market, we went home. I guess nobody was enjoying themselves anymore either. Everything was full, there was nowhere to sit and nowhere to go. We then went home.
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