Photos from Aachen 2008 (3): a Visual Guide to the Cathedral

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

One of the recommended place to visit. It's located in the central area and though I passed through this building every day, only on the second last day (around 17:00) that I managed to enter it.

[Note: this blog includes only pictures essential for my story telling. More pictures can be found here.]


The Big Picture (plus Extremely Important Piece of Information)
Before we start with the visual guide, let's have a look at the Cathedral's schematic diagram:

As you admire the diagram, be informed that this diagram is the result of:

1. ultra-precision high-end scannings using a highly-sophisticated parallel dual-optical device with an 81-megapixel resolution, 120-degree vision, and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
   The scanned raw images are then feed into...
   
2. a novel yet efficient integrated post processor which is capable of uncompromising noise separation, dispersed clustering, fuzzy regression analysis, high-degree meta-cognitive, adaptive dynamic inference, etc.
   This will produce an in-memory abstract schematic diagram which will be...
   
3. projected as a persistent concrete schematic diagram using the provably high-tech plotting device which has a strongly optimum degree of freedom and is controlled through a network of multi-billion nano components.

The Exterior
Let us now start the virtual visual tour by firstly examining the four exterior sides:





The entrance is located at the left-side of the diagram.


The Interior: Palatine Chapel
As shown by the annotated diagram below, on the lower left of the Palatine Chapel (i.e. the circular area in the center) are two staffs selling photographing tickets. Since a chapel is used to holds masses, attendances are expected and hence, the chairs :). The next picture shows the view to the x-y-z direction.



In the location marked by x, there is Pala d'Oro (the golden altar) and Shrine of Mary (above the altar). The Shrine of Mary is said to store a number of relics. There is also a statue of Mary in location y. The location marked by z is the Gothic choir hall which is surrounded with colorful glass windows. Only guided tours are allowed to enter this choir hall. In the middle of the choir hall hangs a sun-shaped ornament with an illustration of Mother Mary and baby Jesus. The last picture shows area w.

The ceiling of the chapel is painted with an illustration of verses from the book of Revelation (I think).



The 8-side interior walls have carvings of Latin phrases. Unfortunately I took pictures of 7 sides only. As I recalled, I started shooting from the x direction followed by the other sides in a clock-wise direction (as per my mighty diagram).









Related Sites
1. Aachen Cathedral, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen_Cathedral
2. Aachen Cathedral (Kaiserdom), http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/aachen-cathedral.htm
3. Sacred Destination Travels Blog: Aachen, http://sacred-destinations.blogspot.com/2008/01/aachen.html

Photos from Aachen 2008 (2)

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

The weather in Aachen is unpredictable, according to the locals. And so, even though it was already in the spring, I was still fortunate enough to see a little bit of snow. It may not be like in Antarctic, but still it's refreshing for someone like me who's been staying only in tropical countries with two seasons (i.e. rainy and summer).

What else can we see? Well, here're two pictures taken within 5 minutes. While not immediately apparent, they're two different phenomena. Really, you just have to trust me!


Such views are common. The white trails may be due to the cold temperature, and the extreme frequency is probably due to Aachen being located at the border of three countries: Belgium, Germany, and Holland.

The church of St. Nicholas is located at one of the alleys in the central area:

Photos from Aachen 2008 (1)

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]


Frankfurt Train Station
The train station is just the opposite of the airport; both are connected through an overhead linkway. From the Frankfurt Intl. airport, travelers can easily continue their journey to other cities by trains.

The City
Buildings with middle-age architecture and streets made from stone can be found at various places in the central area. Most of the middle-age buildings I encountered are Catholic churches. Some of the photos below show the St. Elizabeth church.

The famous university, RWTH Aachen, occupies quite a portion of the city. In fact, it is as if the whole campus is a town. Further details on total campus area or portion of the city occupied may be found on the wikipedia or other sources in the Internet.

[Note: Photos of the Town Hall and the Cathedral will be on a separate post]

Aachen: Miscellaneous Events

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

As I'm spending my last night in Aachen, here're my two last-minute tidbits from today:

1. Aachen Cathedral
   Visitors are free to go inside the church. However, one has to pay for two Euros in order to take pictures — tripods are not allowed but flash is. After paying, one will get a ticket that is valid on the next visit.
   
   
   Hm, now I'm wondering if the "next visit" actually means "subsequent visits". If it does, then I need to preserve my ticket in case of a tiny possibility to revisit this city in the future. Yeah, I do have a bit of "mental dagang" (i.e. an extremely calculating mentality).


2. Diet cookies
   In a shop selling chocolate cookies, I picked a box of a chocolate cookies (how obvious). When I was about to pay, the lady shopkeeper pointed to the word "Diät" on the box and said something like "this is for diet". I was quite puzzled at first and had to ask whether the "diet" means "for those who want to lose weight"! Which apparently does!! Which then made me to quickly replace with another brand, plus a couple of other choices, and then left (after paying, of course).
   
   Later on, I made this guess on why the diet-cookies reminder: it is because of my excellent physique — I who am not in the slightest need of losing weight! Whether this turns to be true or not, a danke to the shopkeeper is in order. Otherwise I may be getting slimmer after consuming those diet cookies.

They're all the same

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Q: What's the difference between 3 and 7?
A: As one of my lecturer said from UI, it depends on the context!

For sure, they're mathematically different, strictly speaking. But in the context of temperature, they're the same; for me, of course. It's just like how certain things work: when things go beyond or below a certain threshold, things do not matters anymore.

So, any difference between 3 and 7?
Same lah (seɪm lɑh -- Singlish), same lah (sɑmə lɑh -- Pontianak-style Indonesian which is very much Malay), sama lah (sɑmɑ lɑh -- Indonesian), sami mawon (sɑmĭ mɑwŏn -- Java).

The Nth day in Aachen

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Here's a recap of my experience with the local weather:

1. Monday morning: 3 degree C


2. Tuesday morning: 1 degree C, and snow everywhere


3. Wednesday morning: -1 degree C (or was it -4?), no snow


4. Thursday morning: 3 degree C, windy

So, my first snow & below-zero-degree experiences.

First day in Aachen

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Started my travel by heading to Changi airport (SIN) on Sat 01/Mar/2008 21:30 SGT. The flight departed on Sun 02/Mar/2008 00:00. Incidentally, I met with my professor from Fasilkom UI, Dr Stef, who'll be a visiting professor in Lisbon and Dresden for the next 3 months.

After a roughly 12-hour flight, arrived at Frankfurt on Sunday 02/Mar/2008 06:30 CET. Continued my journey by train to Cologne/Köln (about 1 hour) during which I met another Indonesian working in a German education foundation. From Cologne, I had to rush for the next train to Aachen which arrived 5 minute after. Finally, arrived at Aachen after another hour of travel; check in to hotel around 11:00.

After settling down, went for lunch and then tried to make our way to RWTH. During the way, took some pictures of the city and also a visit to the town hall. Heading back to hotel around 16:30.

The weather is windy, temperature is about 2-11 C. And the wind is really strong; one can clearly see the cloud move very fast, unlike in Indonesia or Singapore. With such strong wind, it's no wonder to see wind turbines being used to generate power; something which is not feasible in Singapore (or SE-Asia?) -- at least, as was told by a from-aeroplane-to-hardisk engineer.