Aachen; Monday, 31 August, 2020

The rain had continued hammering most of the night and was still going strong when I woke up a little after 8am. Thankfully it started to ease as I headed down to breakfast and by the time I checked out of the hotel and started to head out for the morning it was down to just a light, persistent drizzle.

First stop of the morning was the Cathedral’s treasury museum. This houses some of the finest – and most expensive – pieces of religious art, with gold and precious gemstones being the main motif of everything.

After taking in all the wealth of the Charlamagne empire (and the many centuries since) I had a bit of a wander around the city centre, taking in the small archaeological remains in the small park behind the cathedral that explain the history of the city from the first inhabitants around 4000 BCE through the Romans and Holy Roman Empire to the modern day. The remains are located just behind the Elisenbrunnen the neoclassical pavilion that was erected over the mineral spas that were discovered here.

Over the centuries these have proved to be a popular cure for many things, and the warm sulphurous water still flows from the two fountains in the pavilion – albeit with warnings about the water being non-potable. The smell, steam and slight yellow tinge to the marble would be enough to put most people off, but there were still people trying the waters. I declined to.

By now the usual curse of travelling in Europe on a Monday had struck with almost nothing open and not the weather for sitting at an outdoor café soaking up the sun, so I fell back on my so-far fool proof backup plan of hunting out the city zoo.

The Aachener Tierpark Euregiozoo does really go out of its way in its name to play down it’s zoo credentials – which given their line up of animals is probably not a bad thing. On the positive side all the animals were out in relatively large enclosures – albeit in the tail end of a damp morning – with nothing kept in enclosed houses (which also helps to make the zoo Covid secure for visitors)

I spent a good couple of hours wandering round the site, as the weather slowly improved, taking in the various animals before it was time to start heading back into the city centre.

My final stop of the trip was to make a quick detour to the Marschiertor the other of the city gates. This one is less impressive for the fortifications but is much taller and imposing in its environment – even if it is now effectively stuck on a road traffic junction.

Having taken in the gate I caught the bus back round to my hotel to pick up my luggage and then hopped back on another bus round to the Hauptbahnhof to start my journey back home.