Our last leg of our Germany/Belgium/Netherlands trip was to the smaller town of Aachen, Germany. It took awhile to find a place to stay, but eventually found a cheap hotel. We saw the Cathedral that was built for Charlemagne in 792 making it one of the oldest cathedrals in northern Europe. Along with the treasury next door, they house Charlemagne’s remains in a vault along with some of his bones in ornate golden relics. They also had crowns, robes, jewelry and other cool old stuff on display.
We ended up eating dinner at a tapas bar. (I know…Spanish food in Germany?! Sacrilege!) Frank ordered a Long Island at the end of the night and our server said “Be careful!” the next three times he came to our table. They had a bathroom attendant at this restaurant, which means when you use the bathroom you are encouraged (expected) to leave a tip. Now I’m all for tipping people when they extend a service, but I don’t see how sitting on a chair and pointing to a bathroom stall merits anything except a “thanks, if I couldn’t have told which stall to go in you would have really come in handy”.
The breakfast spread in the morning consisted of processed cheese singles, bologna loaf with mushrooms and a shriveled apple in a fruit basket, so we grabbed a piece of bread and coffee and hit the road. Our eleven and a half hour train ride back to Aachen was pretty uneventful until the last 2 hours when four intoxicated and rowdy Swedes joined us in our train cabin. They all had giant packs and skis so our cabin was pretty crammed. We didn’t know what language they were speaking at first and didn’t think they knew English until they ordered more liquor from the drink cart guy so we introduced ourselves. They were probably our age or a year younger and they were going on a skiing trip to Austria for break. It was one of the Swede’s birthdays, so his friends bought him a bikini and he started to put on the bikini over his clothes and waved at people as they walked by the cabin and posed for pictures. Of course the first thing they had to know before we started any conversation was if we support George W. Bush or not, which is something I have encountered a lot while meeting new people in Europe. Frank and I happened to have a bottle of vodka in our bag so we took that out and sent it around the cabin while we talked to the Swedes about politics, Europe, and not surprisingly the drinking age. It was an interesting, albeit random way to end our excursion.
