Aachen and Monschau

Today was our first encounter with quiet a few things. We got our car and drove to Monschau. It was tough driving on all completely new roads with all Dutch signs and no signs that say north or south. You have to know the major cities in the direction you are heading or your SOL. Anyways when we found Monschau it was a beautiful city all in a deep valley. We parked the car and went to a brewery museum. We felt like there was not very many people there but maybe more would come a little later. So the brewery was not like the breweries you go to at home where they take you through the place and tell you about the whole process. No we got a little book that we read to ourselves and walked through on our own and gave ourselves the tour. Different!  One really neat thing was there was this room with a few thousand beer bottles, all different ones from all over the world. It was really neat to see all the different kinds, labels and places. After the independent brewery tour we walked around a bit and went to a glass making place. There were thousands of different glass designs. There were vases, ornaments, dishes, figurines, and tons more. Because it is winter there were no glass making shows but it was neat seeing all the things they had already made. We left there and we just felt like there were still really not that many people there.
We looked around and did a little walking and realized there really was just not much to see or do in the area that we were in. We had heard good things about Monschau but we really didn't see all that we had heard. So we decided to drive a bit farther down the road to see what we were missing. Just a little bit farther down the road we found tons of shops, beautiful houses, restaurants, food stands and more. We parked again and decided to walk a bit more. For lunch Jared had a bratwurst and I just at French fries. After walking around a little bit more looking at all the beautiful sights we decided to head to the second half of our trip Aachen.

Aachen is a much bigger city than Monschau. Following the signs we found our way into Aachen and the first thing we saw on the side of the road was this bathroom. It is made of aluminum and you had to put money in the side. Once you put enough money in, the door opens and you can go inside. Once you've done your business and the door closes behind you the whole place washes itself down. Standing outside you can here it just completely flush itself. It was funny!

Not knowing the area we found a place to park and got out to walk around. With much walking and getting lost and more walking we ended up finding what we went there for. Although we had parked in the completely wrong spot, (no wonder it was so cheap) we got to the cathedral and it was enormous! It was absolutely beautiful. There were so many people and tons of shops there too. We walked all around stopped for a beer and walked some more. Then it started to get dark much colder, and with no sun and a long walk back we decided that we would return to Aachen when it was warmer and make sure we stayed for dinner. We headed back to Maastricht and thank god for street signs leading us home. We made it back safe and sound and pretty hungry.

We went to dinner at an Irish Pub down the street. There were tons of people, good music and all the waiters spoke English(with Irish accents). We had soda bread to start which was the texture of banana bread but tasted more like wheat bread, very filling. Then for dinner Jared had meatballs filled with cheddar cheese and a salad which both were delicious. I had fish and chips but the fish was not breaded and deep fried like at home but it had a breading you would usually have on chicken, but either way it was great! This place has trivia night every Tuesday where they do world wide trivia. Jared and I might go try to make some friends one night some time soon.