Interiors Aachen Cathedral

Aachen Cathedral is the first German site to make entry to UNESCO World Heritage list in 1978. Charlemagne, who built this cathedral, had collected a variety of relics during his lifetime. These are kept in Aachen cathedral.

The four most important are: the cloak of the Blessed Virgin; the swaddling-clothes of the Infant Jesus; the loin-cloth worn by Christ on the Cross; and the cloth on which lay the head of St. John the Baptist after his beheading. These are kept in the treasury. These attract swarms of Christian pilgrims from around the world.

We toured around inside the dom. It is truly an architectural gem! Stepping inside the sight of octagonal dome with superb mosaics stunned us. It has golden mosaics pictures with the God and twenty four Ancients around Him. Our gaze remained glued upwards.

The main altar is decorated with a magnificent golden frontal known as the Pala d'Oro. It faces the Octagon and dates from about 1000 AD. (In the picture above)The image in the center is of beardless Christ enthroned inside a mandorla (almond-shaped nimbus), who gives a blessing and holds a cross with one hand and holds a book in the other.

The walls are filled with thirteen colorful stain glass windows, each huge in size depict various stories. The original ones were destroyed during war and the present ones date to 1950s.

Our World Tuesday

The Garden of Augustusburg Castle, Bruhl, Germany

After the disappointing experience of finding a closed castle we strolled towards the garden, other tourists too headed towards this beautiful spacious garden. The original elaborate flower garden was designed by Dominique Girard. It was later redesigned a couple of times and turned in to a landscape garden.

Walking through the rows of trees lining the garden was a fanciful experience. It felt like we were walking through a tunnel of trees. Observing carefully I saw that most of the tree trunks were hollow. They are inserted with metal rods to provide strength to the tree trunks. Obviously the trees were many many years old… may be a century or so I guessed. Spring would the ideal season to visit the beautiful garden.

Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 56

Hot dosas being made at a roadside eatery. When so many are being made simultaneously, the cook has all his concentration on them.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Aachen Cathedral, Germany

After the Bruhl experience we double checked the timings of Aachen Cathedral. Charles the Great (Charlemagne) built the Palatine Chapel in 792. This later was renovated many times and now in its present form has good ‘old’ feel. It is all that remains today of Charlemagne's extensive palace complex in Aachen. You can read more here.

This, I read, is one of the most historically important sites in all of Christianity. One interesting bit of story among the many I read about this cathedral is: “When he died in 814, Charlemagne's remains were placed in a vault in the cathedral. In 1000, Otto III had Charlemagne's vault opened. Otto of Lomello, one of the courtiers who accompanied him, recorded the event, which is reported in the Chronicle of Novalesia, written about 1026.

The account reads: "So we went in to Charles. He did not lie, as the dead otherwise do, but sat as if he were living. He was crowned with a golden crown and held in his gloved hands a sceptre; the fingernails had penetrated through the gloves and stuck out. Above him was a canopy of limestone and marble. Entering, we broke through this. Upon our entrance, a strong smell struck us. Kneeling, we gave Emperor Charles our homage, and put in order the damage that had been done. Emperor Charles had not lost any of his members to decay, except only the tip of his nose. Emperor Otto replaced this with gold, took a tooth from Charles’s mouth, walled up the entrance to the chamber, and withdrew again."”

The grey exteriors don’t give the slightest clue of the splendor inside. No entrance charges, but you need to pay one euro for photography, which I gladly paid. The cathedral is huge and I found it difficult to capture it all in one single frame. Finally crossing the road at its rear, after lot of tries I got this second frame. A small lower part of the cathedral is missing in the frame.

SkyWatch Friday

Augustusburg Castle, Bruhl, Germany

From Frankfurt we set off for Hasselt in Belgium. The plan was to see two UNESCO World Heritage sites on the way to Hasselt. The first one was the Castle of Augustusburg in Bruhl. The castle got this prestigious status because of it being among the first creations in unique Rococo style architecture in Germany. I had no clue what kind of architectural style that would be even after I read the facts of this castle. I was keen to see it for myself. The castle did look like a little jewel box, just as how Lonely Planet had mentioned.

As I approached the castle my story takes a different turn, it is because the doors are shut. 'Castle remains closed on Monday' I read on a board there. Amidst all planning I forgot to check the holidays of this site. ‘This is what happens when you plan the tour yourself’ I said to myself!

We roamed around for sometime, the church nearby too was closed, thankfully the gardens were open. I will be posting on that soon. We spotted some avians in the stream flowing near by. One particular moorhen was behaving a little aggressive. We didn’t realize we were approaching its nest. As we neared we saw a couple of eggs in it, white ones, slightly bigger than hens’ I thought. This was exciting; we soon forgot about the closed castle and got involved in taking pictures of the moorhen and its eggs.

Our World Tuesday

White Cherry Blossoms in Frankfurt

It was just the beginning of spring when I was in Frankfurt in the first week of April. The trees seemed to getting ready with their colorful drapes. Even the plain white cherry blossom blooms were a sight to behold. The trees bursting with white cherry blooms looked like little white clouds. The tender shoots and buds in each branch indicated there is more that I was going to miss when I move out of Frankfurt.



Cherry Flower is the unofficial national flower of Japan and they have more than one hundred varieties of this. The ones I got to see in Frankfurt are the five petal blossoms. One of the famous Hanami (the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of cherry blossoms) of Germany is in Hamburg, may be I will be able to visit it some day when spring is at its peak. For the present, for you and me, I have these shots to enjoy.

Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 55

Isn't she brave? She stood so close to the elephants to take their shots. I maintained a distance.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Moon so round and red...

Could you guess this is a setting moon? I woke up early to capture a good sunrise in Belgium and instead ended up with the capture of this setting moon. The eastern skies were cloudy and it was long after ten in the morning I got a glimpse of sun peeping from clouds.

The color of the moon surprised me. I have seen yellow moons and read many poems inspired by yellow moons… but a red moon!

The shot is taken from my hotel room which is facing the Antwerp port.

SkyWatch Friday

Parc Disneyland, Paris

We spent a beautiful, activity full, fun day at the Disneyland of Paris. The weather was fantastic and the pink Disney castle looked magnificent against he blue skies. My daughters waited for this day of the tour, I had apprehensions about the weather, fortunately we were spared by the Rain God!




Thanks so much friends for the comments in my posts during my absence. I will be commenting on your posts too as soon as I return.

Amiens, France

Posting these pictures of main door of Amiens Cathedral. The cathedral is HUGE and the details over the doors are jaw dropping sights!

Our World Tuesday

Belgium Skies

It was the fourth day in Belgium today. The skies are grey most of the time with no sign of sun at all. The first time I sighted sun I was confused if it was the moon I was seeing or the sun. Thankfully it isn't raining, no drizzles either. Most of the shots have grey cloudy background unlike the bright blue skies I got in my previous tours.


Plenty of sightseeing done in these last five days. Two spots in Germany; Aachen and Schloss Augustusburg in Brul, Anne Frank's House in Amsterdam, Bruges, Ghent, Leuven and Antwerp in Belgium. Tomorrow it will be Brussels and more. The weather forecast isn't very encouraging, but we are armed with umbrellas and raincoats so the scene shouldn't be bad.

The picture below is that of a section of Antwerp's port from the window of my hotel room.

Vacation Time !

For the next seventeen days I will be touring Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and France. We have planned the entire itinerary ourselves, that includes tickets to places to stay and the places to see. No tour operator's help taken. I hope the weather will be friendly.