Köln and Aachen, Germany

On Saturday and Sunday I traveled further north to see Köln (Cologne ... or Colonia if you happen to be Roman) and Aachen!! Köln was an actual city! It was big! With big city things! I think I've been in southern Germany for a bit too long, any place that doesn't have half-timbered houses seems really cosmopolitan to me.

Aaack! The Kölner Dom is coming to get me!!!

Köln has lots of Romanesque Churches ... and here's a word to the wise, do NOT try to see all 12 in one day without really really good walking shoes.

To untrained eye, they all look like this:
This is St. Gereon if anyone is counting

Romanesque mosaic from St. Gereon ...
I'm thinking Samson is too sexy for his shirt,
so sexy it hurts, if you know what I mean.

Then I took a day trip out west to see Aachen, capitol of the Holy Roman Empire under my man Charlemagne (you know, the Carolingian guy ... lived around 800 ... liked to recreationaly bathe ... nice guy). Only a bit of his palace complex is left, in the form of the "Palatine Chapel," but it is a cool COOL bit.

The chapel is the domey octagonal thing in the middle,
surrounded by Gothic-ness

Here it is from the inside!! It was so cool I had trouble not passing out.
(I realize that this means that I'm an art nut ... go with me here)

It's me!! In the Palatine Chapel at Aachen!!

I think I'm glowing more than the ridiculous chandelier behind me.