Following Charlemagne...

I've been in Europe for the last three weeks on a bit of a wander from Bavaria through Zürich and Zermatt (Switzerland) to Carcassonne, up to Paris, across to the Keukenhof and then London and Bath.

In two weeks.

It was a bit of a dash, but lots of fun.

There was one strange thing though: it seemed that almost every famous monument-y place we visited had some sort of connection to Charlemagne.

In Zürich a large "likeness" of the well traveled King is atop one of the towers of the Grossmunster. Apparently Charlemagne founded the cathedral above the graves of two Roman martyrs.

And then in Carcassonne we discovered that not only did Charlemagne lay siege to the city, but according to legend, one of his men gave the town its present name.

And on to Paris where a huge statue of Charlemagne astride a horse greets visitors to Notre-Dame St Michel. Not only does he greet visitors, they greet him...

As we stood in the square, two young school boys ran to the statue, stopped, raised their hands and shouted "Charlemagne!"

Odd.