I was so bummed out last night that I couldn’t get myself to process the pictures that I have taken and to put this entry online. We have walked several miles throughout the day. After that our feet were serious killing us.
The day started a little later with breakfast at 8:30am. Earlier breakfasts are on request here. It didn’t matter to us anyways to start the day a little later. While we got up it was raining. I thought to bring my photo gear anyways. We drove to the city limits of Aachen in Germany to park the car. From there the city offers transits to downtown Aachen for very cheap. So, that made it easy to get there and into the city, rather than having to drive into the city itself, which is busy.
On arrival it was still raining, so that was iffy. We walked around a bit and found that the Christmas markets yet had to open. Leann spotted a Starbucks (how can she not, right!?) and we had some coffee there while we waited for the Christmas markets to open. Although Valkenburg does have “Santa’s Village” a Christmas market, it’s still nothing like what they do in Germany. One could actually buy all Christmas presents possible in these markets.
It didn’t take me long to get my hands on Curry Wurst (a curry spiced and cut sausage). It was awesome! We walked around and when we came to the end of the last market, it actually stopped raining. I really hate going back over my footprints, but it gave me the opportunity to take pictures of Aachen and its Christmas markets. As a huge exception, we walked the same way back as we came while I took the pictures I wanted. Fortunately Leann was very understanding.
Getting back to the car was as easy as getting downtown. So eventually we got back and drove to the Post Office in Germany to get international cards mailed. The German Post charges 30 cents per card less than Dutch Post. Besides that there was a gas station close by that would save us approximately 80 cents a gallon on gas. That was another big save, since the car was almost out of gas.
Back in Valkenburg the weather cleared up some more and we decided to head downtown Valkenburg. By then Leann was very hungry so she ate some Reiberkuchen (another German delicacy). After that we looked in a store for some shirts that I wanted and they didn’t have. Then it was time to head to the caves. Valkenburg has Christmas markets inside caves; one of them being the Velvet Cave. It was big and it was BEAUTIFUL! I was really impressed. We wanted to buy some Christmas lights, but the guy sold them out and was not so friendly, so we thanked him and went on our way.
After the Velvet Cave our feet were killing us. We decided to head back to the hotel, get our dinner and not long afterwards I must have fallen asleep (really early!). It was another eventful day. Pictures of Aachen are available by clicking this link. The pictures of the Velvet Cave are available by clicking on the picture of this entry.
Happy looking.
