Emperors Bakers and Beasts Tour of Aachen

Smell the sulphurous water that drew Romans north and once cured Europe's wealthy of bad nerves.

Circle a fountain donated by the local bank that turned into a cartoon about greed.

Bend the limbs of the bronze figures yourself, because every passing child rearranges this fountain.

Meet the sulphurous calf that locals say climbs onto the shoulders of drunken men staggering home from taverns.

Step into the baroque interior of an Aachen café that survived two world wars somehow intact.

Stand inside the pharmacy where one of the first chocolate bars made in Germany was produced.

Spot the bronze boy caught the moment a stolen rooster crowed from inside his coat.

Bite into the spiced biscuit a young apprentice once stole back from the devil himself.

Follow the story of the man who trained pigeons to outrun the telegraph for a single summer.

Look up at the emperor French troops once carried off as war booty, until the mayor petitioned Napoleon.

Walk through the hall where thirty one German kings sat down to their coronation banquet.

Lift a piece of medieval chain mail and meet the original bronze Charlemagne, retired from the rain.

Cross the paved courtyard where palace servants once swapped rumours between Charlemagne's chapel and his great hall.

Pause beside the chapel that held the bones of an emperor for three and a half centuries.

Notice the toddler the city kept hiding for twenty years before a council vote finally settled it.

Search out a Roman pagan coffin that once held a Christian emperor, and a knife he hunted with.