Aachen

From Aachen Hauptbahnhof, walk north up Bahnhofstraße for 8 minutes — the arcades thin out and suddenly a cream-coloured neoclassical colonnade opens in front of you, steam curling from two brass taps. This is Elisenbrunnen, the thermal spring that made Aachen a spa city for Roman legionaries and Prussian royalty alike. Starting here lets you ease into the day the way locals do: a sulfurous sip, a slow lap around the portico, then straight into the old town.

Tip: The two brass taps inside the rotunda run free 53°C sulfur water — bring a small empty bottle and taste it (think warm boiled eggs); you can see century-old plaques listing guests who 'took the cure' here, from Peter the Great to Handel. Arrive before 09:30 and you'll have the colonnade entirely to yourself for photos.

Exit Elisenbrunnen past the little Puppenbrunnen fountain (whose bronze dolls have movable limbs — give one a twist as you pass), then cut through Krämerstraße for 5 minutes; the octagon of Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel appears above the rooftops like a giant stone beehive. Germany's first UNESCO site and the coronation church of 30 kings, its golden dome and gothic choir glow best in morning light from the east. Circle the exterior clockwise through Münsterplatz and Katschhof — each angle reveals a different century stitched onto the same building.

Tip: The best photo is not from Münsterplatz but from Katschhof (the square behind) — you frame the Cathedral's octagon and the Rathaus tower in a single shot, something you cannot do anywhere else in Germany. Interior entry is free and takes 10 minutes; look up at Barbarossa's 12th-century chandelier, then leave — skip the Treasury queue, it's the exterior silhouette that tells the real story.

Walk 40 seconds across Münsterplatz — you can literally smell it before you see it. Nobis has been baking Aachen's hard spiced Printen in the same family ovens since 1858, and their flagship at Münsterplatz 3 is where locals actually queue (not the tourist branches). The café counter does quick savoury bites alongside the sweets, so you can eat properly without sitting down for an hour.

Tip: Order the Kräuterprinten (the original hard herbal gingerbread, €4/200g — snap it, don't bite it) plus one warm Laugenbrezel and a Kaffee — that's a real Aachen lunch for under €10. Grab an extra pack of Schokoladenprinten for the train; they keep for weeks and airport shops charge triple. Skip the soft 'Saftige Printen' — tourists love them, but purists know the hard ones are the real thing.

Three minutes uphill through Krämerstraße (stop at the little cobbled alley just past the Printen shop — it frames the Rathaus tower perfectly) and the gothic town hall fills the entire north side of Markt square. Fifty statues of German kings line the facade, Charlemagne's 14th-century bronze stands on the Karlsbrunnen fountain in the middle of the square, and the colourful guild houses behind you have been Aachen's living room for 700 years. Afternoon light hits the Rathaus facade head-on here — the reason to come now and not earlier.

Tip: Stand with your back to the Karlsbrunnen fountain and shoot the Rathaus — the statues of the kings cast the deepest shadows between 14:00 and 15:00, which is when the carvings actually read in the photo. Do NOT eat or drink at any of the restaurants with English menus outside on Markt — they charge €6 for a coffee and €22 for a Schnitzel the locals wouldn't touch. Save your appetite for dinner later at the same square but on the proper side.

Leave Markt heading north up Pontstraße — this is Aachen's student artery, lined with kebab shops, bookstores and graffiti'd bars; 10 minutes later you pass through the 13th-century Ponttor gate, one of only two medieval city gates left standing. Another 15 minutes of gentle climb through parkland and you're on top of the Lousberg, 264m up, staring down at Charlemagne's golden dome with Belgium on one horizon and the Netherlands on the other. Europe's first landscape park, designed in 1807 — and the only place in the city where the whole story makes geographical sense.

Tip: Head for the open meadow just below the Belvedere monument (not the forested top) — that's where you see the Cathedral framed between trees, and in April-October the sun sets directly behind the Dom silhouette between 20:00 and 21:30. Bring a bottle of beer from the Pontstraße kiosk (€2); drinking it on the Lousberg at sunset is what Aachen students have done for 200 years. The rear path down via Kupferstraße is 5 minutes shorter and lands you straight back at Markt.

Walk back down from Lousberg to Markt (20 minutes, mostly downhill through Pontstraße — now lit up and buzzing with students), and you'll see the Postwagen: a leaning black-and-white half-timbered house from 1657, physically bolted onto the side of the Rathaus. This is Aachen's oldest dining room and its most local one — low beams, carved wooden booths, the smell of vinegar and cloves. Order the Aachener Sauerbraten (€22), a horse-meat roast marinated for five days and served in a sauce thickened with crumbled Printen — yes, the gingerbread from lunch, now turned into a dark gravy. The circle closes.

Tip: Reserve for 19:30 the day before (+49 241 35001) and ask specifically for the 'Eckbank' — the corner booth by the window facing the Rathaus; it's the table every Aachen family requests for birthdays. Start with Reibekuchen mit Apfelmus (€9, crispy potato pancakes with apple sauce) and finish with a Doppelkorn shot. Pitfall warning: the three restaurants immediately south of Postwagen on Markt (with the photo-menus and the multilingual touts) are pure tourist traps — the Sauerbraten there is microwaved and costs the same; locals only eat at Postwagen, Am Knipp, or Leo van den Daele, full stop.