Before I left the United States one month ago, I took inventory of the challenges I might face in the Netherlands and the actions I could take to minimize them.
Thirty days later, I think my preparation has generally proven to be successful. However, there was one critical area I forgot to consider, and it had nothing to do with the cultural transition.
Affordably planning a semester’s worth of trips around Europe requires some level of detail-oriented thinking. You’ve got to be able to price flights from a variety of airports and consider the risks and limitations of each option. However, more importantly, it requires big-picture planning.
I spent a chunk of this past week coordinating schedules and trying to plan trips weeks or months in advance to book the cheapest fares.
Before I planned any major trips, I wanted to get a couple of weeks of class under my belt so I was aware of the demands of my schedule. Comfortable with the courseload, a friend and I planned to explore the Dutch city of Eindhoven on Saturday.
We made arrangements Friday night to carpool with someone through BlaBlaCar, a ride sharing site, for around six euros, the equivalent of six dollars and change. A few hours before our scheduled departure, I got a text message on my phone notifying me our booking request had been declined.
It’s hard to be disappointed at such cancellations when the booking would have cost less than a McDonald’s meal. Done correctly, travel in Europe can be incredibly cheap, but unforeseen cancellations and other inconveniences are part of the trade-off that comes with affordable rates.
With daylight waning Saturday, we were back to square one, no thanks to BlaBlaCar .
After some deliberation, we decided to take a bus to Aachen, Germany, just 40 minutes away from where I live in Maastricht.
Given its placement on the three-country border between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Aachen has a bit of everything. I overheard conversations in Dutch and enjoyed a delicious Belgian-style waffle from a corner bakery.
In many ways, though, Aachen’s vibe was definitively German. Whereas parts of Berlin felt more eastern European than you’d expect, many of Aachen’s cultural landmarks avoided destruction during World War II and have been well restored.
The Aachen Cathedral was left almost completely unscathed in the conflict and remains Aachen’s most impressive architectural site.
Between his coronation as King of the Franks in 768 A.D. and the king’s death in 814, the city of Aachen served as the center of Charles the Great, or Charlemagne’s, kingdom. The cathedral was built at the end of the eighth century and today continues to house many relics including the king’s throne and golden casket.
Aachen’s former city hall, the Rathaus, has a bit of a rougher past than its neighbor, the Aachen Cathedral. Parts of the monstrous building were destroyed in an 1883 fire, a 1923 raid by radical separatists and by allied bombing in World War II.
Like so many German historical and cultural sites, it was subject to a massive restoration between the 1940s and late 1970s. Today, despite its history, the Rathaus remains one of Aachen’s most awe-inspiring sights.
As I get used to the idea of planning far in advance for trips that will take me to the corners of Europe, I’ll be sure not to miss out on the loads of regional treasures like Aachen.
dkilcull@umail.iu.edu
