Archaeologists lose Charlemagne’s tomb

by Sean McLachlan on

After the fall of the Roman Empire, he was the first to reunite Western Europe. He ruled a vast kingdom that encompassed what is now France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Low Countries. The Pope even crowned him Emperor of the Romans. But while Charlemagne is famous around the world, very little is known about the real man.

There’s always been an air of mystery about Charlemagne, who ruled the Carolingian Empire from 800-814 AD. Historians aren’t sure where or when he was born, or who his siblings were. They can’t even agree on his native language.

Now it turns out he may never have been buried in his tomb.

Archaeologists studying the atrium of the Aachen Cathedral, Charlemagne’s traditional resting place, can’t find any evidence he was buried there. The oldest artifacts they found date to the 13th century. They weren’t expecting to find his bones, because a later ruler put them in the cathedral shrine, but they hoped to find some of his personal belongings or the original coffin to prove he’d been buried there.

This won’t stop Aachen cathedral from remaining popular for history junkies visiting Germany. The UNESCO World Heritage Site not only has Charlemagne’s bones, but also his throne and bragging rights for being the oldest cathedral in northern Europe. Once every seven years the priests bring out the cathedral’s collection of artifacts: the cloak of St. Mary, Christ’s swaddling clothes and loincloth, and the cloth that held the head of St. John the Baptist. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until 2014 to see them again. Maybe by then archaeologists can tell us where Charlemagne was originally put to rest.

Lon-done? Visit Bath

by Sean McLachlan on

London’s pollution and stress getting to you? Take the waters in Bath! Just ninety minutes away by train, this well-preserved Georgian-era resort makes for a relaxing day trip or, even better, a weekend getaway.

Bath is famous for its natural hot springs that supposedly have medicinal qualities. The Thermae Bath Spa offers you a chance to soak, but for old-school elegance you’ll want to visit The Roman Baths Museum and Pump Room. Here you’ll see where the ancients came to get healed by the hot mineral springs. The lower parts of the once-giant complex are still remarkably preserved. As you walk around the dim halls and central pool you’ll feel like the Romans left 15 years ago, not 1,500.

After the Romans abandoned their province of Britannia in 410 A.D. the baths fell into disuse. They didn’t come into national prominence again until Queen Anne stopped by in 1702 to cure her gout. The British love of imitating royalty kicked in and Bath was on the map again. An entire city appeared in the 18th century to take care of wealthy visitors, who often stayed an entire year or more. The Pump Room was the central meeting place, an elegant hall where you can still drink some of the healing water. It tastes very heavy in minerals and is served warm.

Bath’s most famous resident was Jane Austen, who penned sharp-witted novels about its residents and their pretensions. Fans won’t want to miss the Jane Austen Centre. Guides in period costume explain what it was like to live here in Austen’s day and trace the history of high society in this first of English resorts. A Regency-style tea room offers refreshment.

There’s lots of period architecture in Bath, but the two jewels that shine the brightest are No. 1 Royal Crescent and the Bath Abbey and Heritage Vaults. Restored and furnished as it was in Georgian times, the Crescent is part of a great sweep of townhouses that are collectively a World Heritage Building. When completed in 1774 they became the swankiest address in the city. In fact, it still is. In 2006 a house in the Crescent sold for £4.5 million, or $7.3 million. The elegant interior of No. 1 is faithfully restored with period furnishings and conveys an excellent idea of what it was like to be ridiculously wealthy more than 200 years ago.

%Gallery-83685%Bath Abbey’s Gothic spires loom over the city’s skyline. Begun in 1499, this is the last of the great Gothic cathedrals built in England and in many ways a culmination of the style. Its great clear windows on the north and south soak the interior with light, while the intricate stained glass on the west and east are breathtakingly beautiful. When lit up at night it looks like a glowing tiara, and locals have dubbed it “The Lantern”. The Heritage Vaults in the cellar trace the history of Christian worship on this site from the 7th century to the present.

The one off note with Bath is the number of visitors. It’s far more crowded than St. Albans or even Canterbury, so you might want to consider visiting outside of the tourist season. Since most of the visitors are day trippers, staying overnight will give you a chance to walk the historic streets in relative peace and see the Abey lit up. There are no shortage of hotel options. If you want to splash out try the Royal Crescent Hotel and live like you’re in a Jane Austen novel. To save your budget after all those spa treatments, eat at Yak Yeti Yak, a cheap and filling Nepali restaurant.

Lon-done? Try Canterbury

by Sean McLachlan on

If you’re looking for a day trip away from the noise and pollution of London, head out to Canterbury just a 90 minute train ride to the southeast.

We’ve all heard of the Canterbury Tales, a series of stories by Geoffrey Chaucer told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral. It’s a cornerstone of English literature and well worth reading. Even if you weren’t assigned to read it in school, a visit to Canterbury will be an interesting diversion.

The most important site is, of course, Canterbury Cathedral and St. Augustine’s Abbey, which together constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There’s been a church at this spot since 597 A.D., when St. Augustine founded one here to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Like many early Christian churches, it was built atop an old Roman temple to assert the dominance of the new faith. The church has been extensively remodeled over the years, especially by the Normans in 1070. The soaring Gothic roof and the dazzling stained glass are the most impressive features, but pilgrims come here to see the spot where Archbishop Thomas Becket was martyred in 1170 for opposing the Crown. There’s a small chapel here where Becket is buried.

Also worth a look are the extensive crypts, with dark chapels, flickering candles, and the cathedral treasury. After seeing the interior, be sure to visit the grounds, a quiet series of gardens and squares that are soothingly beautiful in the fading light of evening.

The other half of the World Heritage Site is St. Augustine’s Abbey, founded in 598 A.D. and now in a state of elegant decay. It’s the oldest Anglo-Saxon Abbey in England. It was the only abbey to survive the Viking invasions of the 9th century and became central to the religious life of the region until Henry VIII shut it down in 1538.

Canterbury was an important Roman town and some of the these early remnants remain. The Roman Museum on Butchery Lane explains the development of Roman Durovernum through artifacts and recreated rooms. The star attraction is part of a Roman house uncovered by a Luftwaffe bomb during World War Two. One room had a heating system under the floor, a hollow area where warm air flowed from a nearby furnace. Also preserved is a hallway decorated with mosaics.

%Gallery-83609%Canterbury is a fine old town for a walk. The River Stour cuts right through the center and lining its banks are timber frame houses from the Tudor era. Rough medieval towers and ornate Victorian buildings compete for space with more modern buildings to give a quick lesson in the history of English architecture. Just around the corner from the Cathedral is the Canterbury Tales Exhibit, which sounds like a literary tourist trap. Since I haven’t been there personally, I’ll refer you to a blogger who has.

For dining you simply must go to Kashmir Tandoori at 20 Palace St. This local favorite has been serving South Asian cuisine since 1966 and has won a entire wall of awards. The balance of spices is masterful, emphasizing flavor over fire in a way that makes you appreciate Indian cooking as more than an endurance contest. They offer regional dishes from all over South Asia.

If you stay overnight, you can’t get a better view than from the Cathedral Gate Hotel at 36 Burgate. When I was there in 2007 the hotel was a bit tattered and in need of a remodel, but being located right next to the cathedral gate with splendid views of the Cathedral itself, you’ll barely notice. Make sure you get a room facing the Cathedral and not the street.

Up for another day trip? See another cathedral and more Roman ruins at St. Albans. You can even drink in “England’s oldest pub”!

Italian answer to swine flu–automatic holy water dispensers

by Sean McLachlan on

Visitors to many Italian churches will see a new addition next to the door–automatic holy water dispensers.

Priests have been noticing that worshipers are reluctant to put their hands in the font containing holy water for fear of catching swine flu. About thirty people have died in Italy from the disease and people are a bit jittery about sharing the same water as hundreds of strangers, however holy it might be.

Some churches have even closed their communal fonts, like Milan’s cathedral, pictured here.

When inventor Luciano Marabese saw what was happening, he got to work. He invented an automatic dispenser that works along the same lines as a soap dispenser in a public bathroom, but has the look of a traditional font. The faithful put their hands under the dispenser where an infrared detector senses them and squirts out some holy water. There’s a video of the dispenser in action here.

Now if we can only get people to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. . .

Amster-done? Try Delft

by Sean McLachlan on

Amsterdam has long been a favorite for travelers, whether they are dope smoking hedonists or art loving dilettantes (or both) but what many visitors don’t realize is that the city offers a wealth of fun day trips. Here’s one of my favorites.

Delft is less than an hour by train from Amsterdam and is filled with history, beauty, and good food. What more could you ask for? Oh, and there are coffee shops, so even the potheads don’t have an excuse to skip it.

The city became prominent in the Middle Ages and developed into one of Holland’s leading centers for trade and commerce. Rich citizens built elegant houses like the one pictured here, and two giant churches, the Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk (Old Church and New Church) tower over the skyline.

Like a lot of Dutch towns, Delft is crisscrossed by canals lined with tidy houses, shops, and cafes. A lazy stroll along the water is a good way to spend the day, but if you’re more into sightseeing, here are four spots well worth a visit.

Oude Kerk. Built in 1246 and added to over the years, this church’s impressive 75 meter high tower rises over the main canal and makes for a great photo. Inside there’s a soaring arched roof, the grave of the famous painter Vermeer, an intricately carved 16th century pulpit, and a giant 19th century organ. Neither this nor the New Church have any original stained glass, because in 1654 the city’s supply of gunpowder exploded, blowing out every window in the city and killing more than a hundred people. The city fathers would have liked to have interrogated Cornelis Soetens, who was in charge of keeping the powder safe and accidentally set it off during an inspection, but they couldn’t find any part of him big enough to question.

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Nieuwe Kerk. The so-called “New Church” was started in 1396, showing once again that in Europe the term “new” is highly relative. One day an eccentric beggar named Brother Simon fell on his knees in the Market Square and claimed he had a vision of the heavens opening up. This might have been shrugged off as the ravings of a lunatic, but a respectable merchant saw it too and raised the funds to start construction. This work went on for more than a century but the end product is worth it. The church and its tower grace one end of the market and is the tallest building in the city. The most impressive sight within the church is the ornate marble and bronze mausoleum for the House of Orange, the Dutch royal family.

The Markt. A farmer’s market has been held in the market square between the town hall and the Nieuwe Kerk every Thursday for more than four hundred years. This is a great place to buy Dutch cheese, as well as lots of other delicacies. If you’re traveling on a budget, lots of stands sell cheap food like chicken and felafel that you can eat on the go. There’s also handicrafts such as the famous Delft blue pottery. Adjoining streets behind the town hall have an antiques market the same day.

Prinsenhof. This medieval monastery served as a palace for King William the Silent until he was assassinated in 1584. The bullet holes are still visible. Needless to say, the royal family didn’t really want to live here after that. Now it’s a municipal museum housing the usual historic bric a brac, along with a pleasant garden. You didn’t think you could read a feature by Gadling’s resident museum junkie and get away without a museum did you?

The Dutch being an efficient people, they’ve set up an informative English website covering Delft’s sights, hotels, and restaurants.