The Aachen Christmas Market and Cathedral

So, last week I shared our Friday stint at the Christmas market and St. Servatius Basilica in Maastricht, which is way down at the "bottom" of the Netherlands before you cross the border into Belgium (west) or Germany (east).  That was on Friday, 8 December.

See the 3 red dots?  

Our hotel was in Kerkrade, NL, a good home-base between Maastricht and Aachen over 4 days.

The thin gray, jiggly line is the borderline between three countries:

Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Saturday, 9 December, was our Aachen, Germany, day but first...
we decided to see the 3-country point, the highest elevation spot in the Netherlands (large blue dot).

It so happens that we when got to Vaals, 17 km from our hotel, we saw this Euregio tower, 

assuming it was the only spot for viewing the 3 countries.

It was worth paying the money to ride the elevator to the top (353.5 meters).

On a windy, blustery, snowy, icy day, we minded our step, trust me, and almost blew away.

But there you have it:  (l to r) Belgium (in the Ardennes), Germany, Netherlands.

Astrid had been here 50 years earlier and knew there was a monument,

so we drove a few meters further to the real tower and spot of importance.

No need to climb another tower but we did take in the monuments.

Vaalserberg is the name of this highest spot/hill which marks the 3-country point in the Netherlands.

It's 322.4 meters (1,058 ft) above NAP, which refers to Amsterdam, at sea level.

YAY.  We did it.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

From Vaalsberg it was only 7 km to Aachen for our second Christmas market of the weekend.

As we walked to city center, we immediately saw the Dom/cathedral.

You can't miss it.

It's one of the oldest cathedrals in Europe, consecrated in 805.

Because it was right in front of us, we decided to "do it" before anything else.

Little did we know we would be in a line of tourists walking the perimeter of the circular nave.

We could look into and across the nave but couldn't enter it.

So...around and around we went, with the crowd, to see what we could see.

How do you begin to describe this!

At the altar, with the choir behind it, we so wanted to go "inside."

The pulpit of Henry II, to the right of the altar inside the choir, blew me away.

What would my preacher dad think of that????

When we got to the side chapel of St. Nicholas, we were allowed to enter.

I think many tourists were glad for a place to sit and worship.

The rest of us saw what we could...and left.

[To be honest, it reminded me of being herded through St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.]

Once outside, we began our Christmas marketing in earnest,

always with the cathedral as a backdrop.

But first, it was time for lunch.

The mobs were congregated around the eatery stalls, so we opted to eat inside a nearby café.

GOULASH and GLÜHWEIN!  Perfect for a wintry day.
[But why, oh why, do the Germans serve white bread?????]

You know we find "impressions" everywhere we go.

Even though we were looking for the Christmassy things, we still got side-tracked, of course.

Then we paid attention.
How can you not become a Child when you see such delights.

The German Christmas villages always grab me.

Can you image "collecting" one new house each year to make your own village?

But nothing cheered me more than this display of whimsy,

even if for a select audience.

OMG!

By late afternoon, and when the evening crowd would soon descend, it was time to leave.

It was our second "fix" of the weekend and we were fully satisfied.

We had Sunday to go...the day we visited the Rolduc Abbey in Kerkrade, near our hotel,
all decked out for Christmas...next post.

In the Christmas Spirit

Because I want this in my In Soul archives (and not just on Facebook), here's a story to make your heart melt in these chaotic, messy times around the world.

It's about the second cat, Oscar, who found a home with daughter Amy back in Atlanta:

Here's the story in Amy's own words after finding him dirty at their patio door in 2012 (top-middle):

"We knew we couldn't take him in, but I wanted him to be safe. I brought him into the garage with a blanket, food and water, and left the door slightly ajar, deciding that if he was still there in the morning, we would take him to the vet to get checked out before taking him to the same shelter where we got C.C. [their female cat]. He was not in the garage, but instead roaming around out back in the morning.

When we took him to the vet, he was diagnosed with FIV, the feline version of HIV. We had already decided we didn't want another cat, but that was confirmed by the vet who expressed concern about C.C. being infected. I believe there are meds that have a possibility of reversing the diagnosis, but if I recall correctly, it wasn't a strong possibility. And because he didn't have any symptoms, there were no other meds needed. Just a diagnosis he would have for life, and similar to HIV for humans, weakens the immune system, making him more susceptible to infections or other illnesses.

When we left the vet, we took him to the shelter and were informed that they literally did not have a single spot available for Oscar. They also were adamant that C.C. would be fine. They said there is a lot of fear and misinformation around FIV (similar to HIV) and that the only way for Oscar to infect C.C. is via a vampire-like bite, enough to pierce the skin. Given Oscar's sweet temperament, we didn't think that would be a concern. But what made the decision for us was when she said: "No one will adopt a cat with FIV. He'll live here for the rest of his life." Ugh, I couldn't bear the thought! I called Dennis (he was out of town) and he simply said, "That's our cat. He found us, he showed up on our doorstep. That's our cat."

So, we decided to keep Oscar, but given how dirty he was and the fact that he needed to be neutered, we paid the usual adoption fee to the shelter to take him in (they found a cage in the surgery ward), clean and neuter him [bottom center image], before bringing him home. After only a few months of good food and being indoors, he quickly shed the straw-like fur for rabbit-soft hair. And now he is the whitest of whites, fluffy love-bug!

I can't remember when exactly, but I believe it was earlier this year (or maybe last year just after the move), when the vet ran the FIV test (twice) and both times it came back negative. He's never showed any symptoms and doesn't take any medication.

Can you imagine him sitting in a shelter just because of a label?"

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And now a couple of add-ons to the Christmas spirit:

A Canadian friend of mine makes mugs as a business venture,

so, to support her, I bought one that says "bow-chi-chihuahua."

Just the other day we gave it to friend, Coby, who has two of her own chihuahuas.

Merry Christmas!

Here's a better pic of the live Christmas tree that Astrid decorated for us.

We had it up by December 1st, believe it or not, because of Christmas dinner guests on the 2nd.

Traditionally the Dutch do NOT put up their Christmas tree until after Sinterklaas on December 5th.

Speaking of which, Sinterklaas marked my 8th anniversary of moving here to the Netherlands!

And because of our dinner guests, Astrid was the one who suggested putting up the tree early.

Merry Christmas!

And then, just yesterday, when we went to get our biennial mammograms, 

(government freebie for women aged 55-75),

we found these workers putting up their plaza tree (the day after Sinterklass!).

Normally such a big tree is purchased from Norway and shipped for a gazillion euros.

To get around that cost, look at the ingenious Dutch way of doing it:

they build a tiered stand on which they mount, in this case, 43 smaller trees,

to make it look like one HUGE tree.

As I often say, leave it to the Dutch.

Merry Christmas!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And to celebrate the season, Astrid and I drive to the south of the Netherlands tomorrow

to visit the Christmas markets in both Maastricht, NL, and Aachen, Germany,

right across the border from each other.

This map gives you a feel for our trip:

Gorinchem (middle red dot is where we live) to Maastricht = 168 km (104 mi.).

Maastricht to Aachen = 39 km (24 mi.).
We'll be staying at a hotel in between the two till Monday.

Merry Christmas!