Glühwein time!

Trees and I ventured to Aachen, Germany today to visit the cathedral and explore the German Christmas market there. Of course we sampled some glühwein and I had to have some schnitzel while on German soil. Aachen is only an hour from Maastricht and even less by car.  I love how Maastricht borders Germany and Belgium and it's all so close to our home. 15 minutes by car takes you to French speaking Belgium and 25 minutes in the other direction takes you to Germany. It's incredible. 

We stopped first at the Aachen cathedral which has played an important role in Germany's history throughout the centuries. The cathedral houses the throne and remains of Charlemagne and served as the coronation church for German-Roman kings for over 600 years. It's stunning. My obsession with old things continues. Part of the church was first constructed in 800 A.D.

13th century shrine (Charlemagne's in the background)

The goods at the Christmas market were unique, fun to look at, and we each walked away with a souvenir. I bought a Christmas tree ornament for us. It's more special than buying gold balls at Hema. I now understand why Jaap doesn't like the Christmas markets in Maastricht. They're pretty much faux German Christmas markets. I'm glad we got to experience the real thing today. 

Beautifully hand crafted Christmas ornaments

My favorite table

And for me...one of the main purposes of this trip was to sample some hot glühwein. They even had white glühwein (which was much fruitier in taste), but we decided to go the traditional route and enjoy some red. Lekker!