Aachener Printen

I thought I finished my visit to the city of Aachen quite early and I thought that I would get delayed because the cathedral wasn’t open when I got here. It kind of worked out in the end because while the cathedral was closed, I was able to find time to visit the Aachen City Hall which looked imposing but ultimately there wasn’t much to see there. The Aachen Treasury was also another disappointment because it was closed for the winter. It was a shame because it was one of the important places to visit in Aachen. After a quick meal at the Aachen Christmas Market, I thought that I was ready to leave.

By this time, the Aachen City Center was already very lively. It was already noon and I guess a lot of people just wanted to come here to have lunch. As I was making my way out, I noticed a shop which apparently sells an Aachen specialty – printen. This is the first time I have heard of printen and I wanted to know what the deal was. Apparently, printen is one of those goods which can only be made in a certain place for it to be called that. This is why printen is also Aachener printen because it can only be made in or near Aachen. The shop was extremely busy but it was easy enough to find their stuff. Printen is best described as something that is similar to gingerbread. The printen was a mixture of flavors coming from the variety of spices that were used to make this. It was also harder than I thought it would be but it wasn’t anything that you would break your teeth on. The legend is that eating printen saved the local people from starvation. These days printen comes in different varieties. The one I liked was the chocolate covered one with nuts. I ultimately bought a pack home to munch on.

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