"City of Kings and Thermal Baths" a Aachen Travel Page by BillNJ

Charlemagne (aka Karl der Grosse in German, Karel de Grote in Dutch, Carolus Magnus in Latin, and Charles the Great in English) became the sole King of the Franks in 760 A.D. upon the death of his brother, Carloman. During Charlemagne's reign, he led the Franks in numerous military campaigns throughout Western Europe. On Christmas Day, 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" in Rome by Pope Leo III, the first such crowning in the west after an intermission of 324 years.

Unlike previous Emperors, Charlemagne did not establish his residence in Rome. Instead, Charlemagne chose the city of Aachen for his home. According to Einhard who was a scholar in Charlemagne's court and his earliest biographer, a big reason why Charlemagne chose Aachen was that he liked to swim in the city's thermal baths. Reportedly, Charlemagne frequented the baths often, and he was usually accompanied by family members, officials or guests.

Aachen has a compact city center that can be explored easily on foot. Furthermore, much of the center city is made up of pedestrian zones with restricted automobile traffic. Tourists are advised to bring their walking shoes and enjoy the sights!

On my first night in Aachen, I met with VTer Stef (TinyTuck) and her two friends, Alex and Alex. To eat, we enjoyed "German tapas" at the Brauerei Goldener Schwan on the Marktplatz (market square) overlooking the historic Rathaus. With dinner, we drank Kölsch -- and we had more later at a couple of other great pubs in the city center. It was an informal and enjoyable VT meeting!