Forgot to mention: the Maastricht airport is just some 20km away and (the much bigger) Duesseldorf International airport is a one hour train trip. So connectivity is good. Also it is really very central europe, just have a look... And.. yeah Aachen is a town with histoy (ex kaiser residence and stufF) and has the highest pub/population ratio in Germany AFAIK. And there are some other nice places for geeks to have a good night out.