Yesterday evening we returned from a lovely little two-day trip to Germany we took with our friends, Dennis and Elia, who kindly offered to show us some of their favourite spots in the beautiful Eifel Region that borders Belgium. The rainy, misty weather, while not welcomed at first, made the low mountains and forest villages all the more green and enchanting, and we left with a feeling of having satisfactorily seen at least a piece of picturesque, rural Germany. More than this was all the fun we had cruising around with Dennis and Elia, playing road-trip games, and discussing things from the abstruse to the ordinary.
Our first stop was a storybook village nestled in the hills along the Mosel river called Cochem. Cochem is full of colourful houses and marked for its looming hill-castle - it could easily appear illustrated in an edition of the Grimm brothers.
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Elia pointed this one out to us: the lines and dates drawn onto this buidling denote the height of the water during the years when the Mosel river flooded the village. These ones date from the 1780s!
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Reichsburg Cochem ft. some German swallows. There is documentary evidence of there being a castle on this site since 1130. The medieval structure was unfortunately destroyed by the smelly French in the 17th century. The present Gothic Revival structure dates from the late 19th century.
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| Elia and I looking very gnomish :D |
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| these two fine fellas <3 |
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a good yodeling spot wethinks.
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| teehee! |
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| cuties! |
From Cochem it was a quick drive among the wide wheat fields into the forest and rocky gorges where the medieval Eltz Castle is hidden.
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| Remarkably, the castle is still owned by a branch of the same family that lived there in the 12th century. |
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| photo credit to Dennis! |
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| finding elf doors and trying to make myself look bigger beside them is my specialty |
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group selfie time!
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After rambling about castles and climbing up promontories we were all quite ready for the relaxing evening we had planned. So we stocked up at the nearest grocery market and zoomed off to our cozy holiday flat to prepare dinner and enjoy the evening. I don't have any pictures of this but Dennis managed to find us an incredible holiday house for super cheap and all in all we had a really nice night chatting, listening to music and Dennis play his guitar before we all nodded off to bed.
The next day we were headed back to Leuven but planned on making a few notable stops along the way. Our first stop was the imposing medieval Maria Laach abbey. A Romanesque structure dating from 1093.
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| exploring possibly the prettiest cemetery I've ever seen (and as a budding historian I see a lot of cemeteries...) Photo credit to Elia. |
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| 'earthsteppers' behind the scenes! photo credit to Elia |
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| The majestic abbey! Photo credit to Dennis |
Our last stop on our way home was the city of Aachen whose cathedral is both historically and architecturally significant for its connections to the great Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne (c.747-814).
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| Photo credit to Elia. The cathedral itself is an UNESCO World Heritage site. The rather typical exterior may make you ask 'why?' |
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The interior is another story.
The construction of the palatine octagonal chapter began c. 790-800 under Emperor Charlemagne's supervision who wanted it to symbolize the unification of the east and west under his imperial rule. The Classical and Byzantine inspiration for the cathedral is unmistakable. Many of the columns of the chapel were ordered by Charlemagne to be brought from Rome and Ravenna. |
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| gorgeous mosaics cover the ceiling |
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| The stone throne of Charlemagne! Facing the altar, this served as the coronation seat of the kings of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages until the 16th century. |
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| The shrine of Charlemagne, containing the ancient king's mortal remains. Its shiny :D |
Thanks to Dennis and Elia we managed to see a lot of beautiful and interesting places into a mere two days. While traveling and sightseeing is all fine and grand, the experience is made all the more precious with good company. Kyle and I are so blessed to have met so many incredible people during our year abroad, and our return to Canada in a mere 10 days (eeek!) will certainly be bittersweet. Shout out to Dennis and Elia for the amazing trip, you guys are definitely invited to come visit us if you ever find yourselves in wild Western Canada!
Much Love - M & K
