I was near there recently.
I went to Maastrich - an excellent airport with really good all weather facilities and pretty cheap as well. Of course there is miles of tarmac. I hired a car in Maastrich and drove to Aarchen have decided the runway there was a little short for my purpose. It is a very easy and pleasant drive.
Not wish to poor damp water on a good trip dont have too high an expectation of Aachen - I though the place was a dump, with mostly tired shops and not much of interest (to me anyway).
It is a pleasant enough trip over the scenery of the low countries however and very straight forward.
You could also visit Valkenburg which is far more interesting, very close and has some good hotels.