This is the reason why you want to go to Aachen for a weekend now
Winter is not really my season. Cold, shorter days, so gray... No, give me summer. But I do have one bright spot in these winter days and that is Christmas markets. And weekend getaways (because that's fun in every season). Preferably a combination of these. Recently, I was in Aachen and I can tell you: they understand it here, the whole concept ‘Christmas market.’. So much fun and cozy here, the glühwein tasted more than fine, you can do your Christmas shopping here very well and the squares where the market is located are just too cute. The setting is not bad either: you look out at the large Cathedral where you can take a free look inside and go all the way up for the best view.
It’s probably not the first town that comes to mind for an outing, Aachen, but I really recommend it. A plus is that you can get there so easily (just over two hours from the heart of Amsterdam), but personally, I also enjoy road tripping. A little looking around (I’m not driving, you understand), a little chatting with each other and listening to music. Total relaxation, I think. And Aachen is really just over the border in Germany (you can almost see the border), which gives that feeling of being away for a bit. By the way, take the tripoint with you while you’re there.
It may now seem like I just discovered the Christmas market in Aachen, and that’s true. I had no idea that it is visited annually by about one and a half million people from outside the city (I clearly wasn’t one of them until this year). But I do promote it enthusiastically, because if you’re going to celebrate Christmas with me, I can already tell you that all my gifts come from this Christmas market, which I picked up between the glühweins.
This Christmas market is not for the last-minute decision-maker, because it ends before Christmas Eve (quite a short time in which they welcome those one and a half million people). So you know what you need to do: rally your friends, plan a weekend at the Christmas market and add a night to it. Christmas shopping, glühwein, dinner in the city, and on the way back, stop by the tripoint. You’ll have done a bit of sightseeing too. Merry Christmas everyone.
