FRANZISKA OUT AND ABOUT

This is the last posting on Franzi’s weekend trip crossdressed to the city of Aachen. After lunch and sightseeing, I went back to my hotel to pick up my luggage and hung out in the lobby for a while, until it was time to leave for the train station. The letters you see on the wall behind Franzi are part of a symbol that you find all over the city of Aachen. Such bronze plates on the ground lead you the historical path through the city of Aachen. But what is it? It is the seal or monogram of Carl the Great, Charlemagne, KAROLUS. But what happened to the vowels? At first you think Hebrew, no vowels! But they are all there: the upper half of the central rhombus represents the letter A, the lower half the letter U, and the rhombus itself the letter O. As Charlemagne could not read or write – like probably 95% of the European population at that time – he signed off on all documents, which had been adorned with his monogram by a writer, by adding the two little streaks or lines in the fo...

The first stop of Franzi’s sightseeing tour on Sunday was the department where I had spent a major part of my undergraduate and graduate studies. I asked a passerby to take a photo of Franzi in front of the gate. Maybe it was the time of the day and him being a student or maybe he wasn’t the brightest candle on the cake, but it took us several attempts until everything that I wanted was caught on the photograph. Imagine a large gate, the title of the department over it, a statue to the right and to the left of it: why cut off my feet, or part of the title, or half of a statue? And I am afraid that he was engineering student, a gen-z type of engineering student, I’d suppose. Anyway, my way then led me past “Audimax” (Auditorium Maximum), where I had heard Inorganic Chemistry twice a week at the ungodly time of 8.00 a.m. cum tempore, as well as the main “Mensa” (Mensa Academica), the lunch cafeteria of the university. I went further to “Ponttor,” the northwesterly gate in the outer city ...

As usual on Sunday morning at Franzi’s weekend trips crossdressed, art was in order. It was still very quiet in the city by the time I left the hotel. From my experience in Düsseldorf, I made sure this time that the museum was already open by the time I wanted to visit. While I walked to the museum, Franzi caught the attention of some strange fellow, who seemed to roam the streets without any clear target or intention. He followed me for a while. I have a very keen sense for such situations, but it still took a couple of minutes to eventually shake him off. He is alive (still, I assume), so don’t worry. Continuing with the theme of the weekend “Greens and Blues,” I wore a very light dark blue flower print dress. I was fun to wear. You might remember my visit to “Museum Ludwig” in Cologne in early 2024. “Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst” (Ludwig forum for international arts) in Aachen also goes back to the art collectors couple Peter and Irene Ludwig, who donated their vast collec...

As you know, Franzi loves dressing up for evening entertainment activities. Now, Aachen is provincial, as compared to Stuttgart, Munich, Cologne, and Düsseldorf, but still, any decent concert, opera, theater performance, or musical deserves to be dressed up for accordingly. There are two distinctions handed out in Aachen annually – both since 1950 by the way – the “Karlspreis” (International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen), to public figures who have made significant contributions to Europe and European unity and the “Orden wider den tierischen Ernst” (Order Against Deadly Seriousness). The latter was initiated by the Aachener Karnevalsverein (Aachen Carnival Association), as Aachen is a “Karnevalshochburg” (Carnival stronghold) in Germany, the likes of Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Mainz. The Order Against Deadly Seriousness is awarded to well-known national or international public figures "who combine individuality, popularity, and wit, but above all have demonstrated humor and humanity...