I don't subscribe to the stereotypical image of the 'canny Scot', it's a fallacy. By the same token, we could say that the Irish like a fight, the Welsh like to sing, England is imperialistic, the French are rude, Germans are bureaucratic, Belgium's boring, Americans are loud, the Japanese are photoholic, yadda, yadda, yadda.......
This is all blatant nonsense.

But, when Ryanair were offering flights for 1 penny plus tax, I logged on to their website double quick pronto to snap me up some of that. ONE PENNY each way? I think my finances can stretch to that! A quick tippety-tap on the keyboard, a few debit card details, and POOF! We were on our way.

We flew to Frankfurt/Hahn, picked up a car, and drove the 100 or so miles up to Aachen where we stayed at the Holiday Inn. We had managed to get a deal on the hotel and it was only 52 euros, another bargain. Wait a minute, maybe all that canny Scot palaver is true after all.

*Disclaimer*
Of course it doesn't automatically follow that just because the first sentence in this review may, or may not, be accurate, any of the rest of the xenophobic rambling in the first paragraph is a true depiction of these fine nations and is certainly not the opinion of the author (whoever the heck this review was plagiarized from [joke]).

Anyway.

Our purpose on this visit was not for any cultural excursions but was purely a shopping trip, particularly the Christmas market.

Our hotel couldn't have been easier to find, immediately upon leaving the motorway, we were on Krefelder Strasse, and at the first real junction we came to, we could see the hotel a few hundred metres along the road. We arrived there just before 5pm so, after a quick freshen up, and suitably attired to ward off anything the weather could throw our way, we set off for town. Krefelder Str. leads directly into the old town and in actual fact, had the weather been better, it would have been a reasonably easy walk.

The market is situated in front of the Rathaus (town hall) in the Markt, and down a few steps in another area beside the Cathedral. These are both impressive buildings and when they are lit up, provide a magnificent backdrop to the market
We had been to a couple of German Christmas markets before and in fact, for the past few years, Edinburgh has had its own authentic GCM, so we were expecting the usual, similar merchandise on offer. To a certain extent that was true, but as Aachen market is quite a large one, there seemed to be a greater

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Travel destinations: Aachen, Germany?
We want to hear your view. Write now!