Thursday, May 19 -- The beginning

We got up at six a.m., unable to sleep anymore. After a relaxed breakfast we almost had to hurry to our bus, from which we changed to another bus and rode to the airport. The terminal number two at Tampere airport was in a much better condition than the local newspaper had claimed, and even Ryan Air performed pretty well. Quality and punctuality were both good enough for the price. Timo felt a bit dizzy during takeoff and landing, while Tiiti had one single contraction during each. Fellow travelers curiously watched as Tiiti exercised her legs on the aisle. The check-in was not interested in any formal fit-to-fly documents from the maternity clinic.

Our destination was Bremen, and we refreshed some memories from our last visit around 2000. We took the tram to the centre and tried to find the famous sight called Networking the Shape of the Future and Mental Health. Alas, it evaded us. Instead someone had brought there a church that looked very familiar. There were gorgeous glass paintings and a surprising exhibition about Chernobyl on the altar area. Tiiti got her first exposure to talking German when she bought a knee support from a huge sports store. This knee support later played a significant role in making the trip a success.

We went on through familiar cities by taking a slow RegionalExpress to Osnabrück. The plan was to simply find the first place that sells some typical German food and get going. Instead we wandered around for a whole hour before having to give up and eat something typically Turkish. At least the selection of kebap houses was good and this one served heavenly lentil soup and falafel in addition to the omnipresent döner. Suddenly we noticed that we could still make it to our train, and we did.

ICE is supposed to be the fastest possible train, but it takes quite a while for it to reach Cologne. A lady tried to offer her place to Tiiti but we managed to find two seats next two each other. The lady left on the next station, and smiles were exchanged. We found out that our flexi-pass interrail tickets are stamped only once every day and that the stamp goes next to the date and not next to each ride. The atmosphere was very German, and there was a guy that looked a lot like Arne in our compartment. Timo was pleasured by Ihr Reiseplan, which presents an exhaustive list of every stop and follow-up connection.

Timo was surprised by the interior of the cathedral in Cologne: "It coulda been wider, but there seem to be two on top of each other." We marveled at the windows so dedicatedly that we missed our first connection, which meant that we suddenly had even more time for marveling at them. There was a sermon at one corner, and the priest was letting in people he knew. This was the first Unesco world heritage site on the trip, but also too large for Tiiti's tastes.

We finally caught a train to Aachen, but then Arne sent an SMS saying that there is a broken "Stellwerk" along the way. And so it happened that the train stopped at Düren on the way and we thought we would have to take a bus. The announcements were naturally only in German and some friendly passenger asked if we knew what was going on. This reminded us again of year 2000 and the broken night train to Leeds. Back then we had taken the train just to get a night train to sleep comfortably in, but this time we were actually trying to get to our destination.

There were no bus connections to Aachen. Instead DB had hired lots of taxis to drive non-stop between Aachen and Düren. We found out that you had to pay for local taxis with DÜ in their licence plates, and Aachenese ones with AC were the ones to offer a free ride. While waiting we chatted with a nice local fellow, who first tried to ask us for information in German but quickly changed to English and small talk.

The furious taxi driver switched lanes at 180 kph, and the motor didn't even complain. School buses on the Autobahn -- do the schoolkids feel anything when they play driving games? The driver said "ole hyvä" to Timo as he handed the backpack from the trunk. The taximeter was ticking at 240 euros as we climbed out of the car at Aachen Hbf. Apparently the taxi had already completed a couple of trips. 90 kph felt like staying put after the Autobahn.

Arne had been summoned to meet us at the station and soon enough we noticed the familiar face and his cloud of a dog on the other side of the road. Iffi might or might not have recognised Tiiti. Maybe it was just glad to see any people. Arne is Tiiti's conference friend from year 2009 and is finishing his PhD studies in computer graphics. Tiiti had visited him once before, and Arne was at our place just a year ago.

We settled at one of Arne's equal-sized rooms. The living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom are all of the same size and in a triumph of logistics have been put in a row in that order. It was already getting late and after some self-maintenance we only had the time to take a walk around Elisenbrunnen, which is a building with pillars and some stinking water coming out of its wall. The place is a renowned spring, considered healthy, and the original name Bad Aachen does not describe the smell, but refers to bathing.

Friday, May 20 -- Sauerbratenpalast

It seems that dark curtains are unknown of outside Finland. We had to get up at 7.40 a.m. and even before that struggled with a blindfold. Iffi was, for some reason, extremely deligted to find Tiiti in the living room. Arne had acquired proper ingredients for porridge, and even had jarfuls of good tea. It felt like home. Even the gas oven didn't feel impossible to use.

Tiiti had an appointment with some fellows from the local radio lab, while Arne promised to show their computer graphics lab to Timo. We walked to the university, seeing the city on the way. The radio lab was located in a magnificent building that was built in a park that used to belong to the mansion next door. Jörg gave a tour of their student lab, planar near-field scanner and the radio anechoic chamber from where the absorbers had been removed. He finally took Tiiti to the amateur radio station. There eager young researchers presented all kinds of Hamnets, Echolinks and D-stars. Somewhere along the way Tiiti met a 90-year-old professor emeritus who can still be seen at the department every day, and saw a 2.9 mm female connector where the center pin had been opened like a tulip.

Tiiti's gift in return was a presentation on her own research. People were summoned using a central radio! Tiiti even got some comments. Someone had made a master's thesis at IHF on bending patches, but otherwise wearable antennas had not been researched yet. The speaker asked for a glass of tap water, but the request was denied, and instead a bottle of sparkling water was supplied. "I can just as well drink tap water." "Yes, you are physically able to do so, but you don't want to."

Meanwhile Arne showed Timo around the computer graphics lab. Arne's projects seemed exciting and his colleagues were not far behind, either. Virtual Aachen consisted of several small projects brought together, which made it quite an impressive whole. The lab had all kinds of old and new equipment, including laser scanners, a 3d printer, different kinds of 3d video projectors etc. As a teacher Timo soaked all the information he could get on the teaching arrangements to help him organise his own teaching as they do in the big world.

The forecast had promised good weather, but as is typical in Aachen, it started to rain. Luckily Jörg had some guest umbrellas and escorted Tiiti to Arne's department. We went to the Mensa, i.e. student canteen and ate some hoki fish, which is synthetic, at least according to Arne. The food was dosed by a lady behind the counter, you had to pay extra for salad and there was no tap water available. The food itself was quite good, especially the potatoes, but Arne still doesn't like his Mensa.

Arne still had some work to do, so we waited on his office sofa while he uploaded an app. Tiiti discussed with the officemate, Jan, about the four-rotored helicopter while Timo and Arne took a look at some more interesting graphics equipment. On the way back home we showed Arne some beautiful buildings that he had not noticed. One oddity was some fraternity house decorated with insignias and flags. We bought some ice cream cones for 70 cents apiece from a kiosk. Everybody thought their flavor was best, except Iffi, who felt sour for not getting her part. At the theatre next to Arne's place somebody was practising singing, creating an atmosphere like in a movie.

The night was reserved for Sauerbratenpalast. Sauerbraten means "sour roast", a traditional German dish, which is a mildly sour roast served in a mildly sour sauce. Palast naturally means palace. In Germany, everything is either officially Bundes-something or pompously something-palast.

We decided to walk to the palace and took a look at some park that had seemed nice on the map. It filled the promise. We got to observe the level of German park football. They had no offsides. Tiiti applauded for a goal and instantly one of the players approached to ask whether we knew each other. Chestnuts and other big leafy trees were grand, and grand in size were also the rats crossing the road. At the pond it was forbidden to feed the ducks, but the precisely official Germans were of course not obeying.

The sauerbraten sauce was heavenly, red cabbage tasty and the rest of the meal excellent. You can always have your dish with apple jam in Aachen, but you can not find milk in restaurants. Not even those run by a solicitous grandma, such as this one. Later we found out from a travel magazine that this grandma had an award for her dialect. It was good to have some locals to talk and understand. Iffi was naturally not discriminated against, and was with us in the restaurant, since dear dogs are not left at home or outside in Germany.

We were accompanied by Dani, who told among other things about the correct procedure to make Sauerbraten. It should be marinated for a whole week! The version in Aachen naturally has Printen-spices. The Printen are local gingerbread-like things, which fennel among the other spices.

Dani gave us a ride home using such a detour that we had no idea where we are until right before home. Outdoors we admired the bats for a while before going to bed. The birds of night sang loudly, and we had forgotten to close the window.

Saturday, May 21 -- Aachen cathedral

It was time to get up as the sun started shining to our eyes behind a banana tree.

As we were in Germany, we had to get some bread rolls from a nearby bakery for breakfast. This morning the bakery was not so nearby, and on the same trip we visited a grocery store just to be amazed at the stupefying spectrum of yoghurts available. We visited another bakery to get some rye bread, as Tiiti had mentioned that German rye bread is no good. Finally at the breakfast table Timo said it feels like a hotel breakfast with everything available. The vietnamese tea was both exceptional and tasty.

We were originally planning to go to Vogelsang to see nazi trenches and a beautiful lake, but finally ended up walking around the city. A bookstore had a railway map of Germany that was just perfect for us. It even omitted such useless things as roads. We would never have thought of going to a bookstore for a picnic, but this one had a roof terrace just for that purpose. The view was lacking something, but we got plenty of tranquility and sunshine instead.

We wandered around the centre for some more time, admiring the houses and statues. Many fountains were designed by the famous sculptor Kein Trinkwasser. We paid a visit to Charlemagne traveling info, which presented some modeling work of ninth-graders who had done some practise at Arne's department. Arne dropped Iffi home while we spent some time daydreaming at some model railway and board game shops.

The mosaics at Aachen cathedral are surprisingly from the 19th century, and originally, in the 9th century, the church only consisted of the octagonal area in the middle. Who cares -- the mosaics were still beautiful. Some of the glass paintings had been renewed in the fifties and now had the names of sponsors: Sparkasse etc. On the other hand, old churches always have advertisements saying this and that king had donated this and that piece of art. Timo concentrated on enjoying the atmosphere and listening to the guide, while the cathedral veterans already knew what to photograph. The Aachen cathedral is, by the way, another Unesco world heritage site.

Our feet were getting so tired that we skipped a museum with gold treasures and went to a tall cafe. In the typical German way, the house was a narrow slice, but the same cafe extended to at least three or four floors. The toilet was cutely located a couple of steps before the 2nd floor (in Finnish notation, 1st in German). Timo hit his head on a low-hanging log. In the stairs a similar dangerous spot had some padding, but it was even lower, around 170 cm. Timo was surprised when his delicious-looking raspberry cake tasted more like lingonberries.

After a quick visit to a huge department store we finally got home to rest a bit. We solved a crossword puzzle from 1944, but the quality was not so good: Knight of the Elephant (ab.) = KE. The child took part by kicking.

We decided to have dinner at a asparagus restaurant. By mistake Tiiti received some cold asparagus salad, which was not nearly as good as the hot asparagus with butter sauce. The non-alcoholic beer seemed surprisingly intoxicating until Tiiti consciously explained herself, why that would be stupid. To conclude the evening we visited an Irish pub, where they also served for the dog.

Sunday, May 22 -- Saunawelt

We were able to sleep late due to the cloudy morning. Tiiti dreamed of being in Prague. It had rained in the night, and more of that seemed to be coming.

We attended a musical service in the nearby church. Annakirche was all white on the inside, windows were bright and there was even no altarpiece at all. Sounds like fundamental protestantism. The quintet from Bach society sounded fantastic. Momentarily one of the singers sounded human, but otherwise all we heard was music. Tiiti sang in German and tried to understand. The sermon was almost incomprehensible. When the congregation was supposed to sing, the situation was almost like a rock concert: come on, you can make more sound! Let's try once again!

Aachen spa includes a Sauna world with more than ten different, weird saunas. As Finns we had trouble keeping our poker faces, but the Germans seemed to be very solemn about the place. Entspannungsaufguss (=löyly/steam for relaxing) had a Caribbean theme with music, piña colada flavored steam, palm leaves and a gigantic fan. Fruit treatment meant getting some fruits from a plate in the sauna.

You are not allowed to throw löyly (water on the stones) youself, and most saunas don't have it at all. For us Finns, löyly is pretty much the point of going to sauna. Here we had a sauna master come in at certain hours and give 15-20 minutes of extremely mild löyly.

Colour sauna had among others a red shade that shows your veins through the skin. Lake view sauna had a view to the pool, but how did the idea of a coal mine sauna get started? We imagined new concepts like watching-the-paint-dry sauna and grass-is-growing sauna, since you were not allowed to speak in the saunas (Nur Ruhe bringt Erholung). For reference, we are used to Finnish student sauna culture with drunken students singing loud and dirty songs. Sauna is a good place to have deep conversations and even negotiations.

Baking oven sauna does not look like an oven, but has one. The master put something in the oven and said she'd be back in 20 minutes. We waited in the pool and returned after 15 minutes. The same Germans were still waiting on the benches. Nobody came, and the atmosphere started to get grumpy. Even the Germans started to break the silence by mumbling to their friends.

We almost reached for the food in the oven ourself, but Arne suspected that the oven would be locked. We couldn't help but watch the complicated taps-and-cranks system repeating its function every five minutes. The system poured a small amount of water to the stove-oven-whatever. When someone finally arrived to get the already quite dark food, some lady opened the conversation by explaining how we had waited and waited. This opened the flood gates and everyone started to babble without caring for the rules. The food was some kind of bread with grains of salt on top; we had hoped for something sweet.

After all these sauna activities we were actually quite Entspannt, relaxed, and even the high price of 28 euros per person was not enough to shock us. The guys returned our backpacks while Tiiti willingly waited in the city centre. For dinner we went to Louisiana for some hamburgers and Bionade, which is a organic beverage made using fermentation.

Next stop: Ghent.

Leave the train.