An Extremely Short Trip Down Memory Lane: Bonn

Road trip! During the school break, we drove to the Bonn-Cologne area with the kiddos!

On the first day, we spent a bit of time wandering through Bonn. In keeping with family tradition, we managed to pick a rainy week for our vacation, but we were lucky to have a couple of dry hours when we reached the downtown area.

I was an exchange student many many (seriously many) moons ago in Bonn and used to walk everywhere in the city. So it was pretty horrifying to see how little I remembered. I couldn't even find my way from Münsterplatz to the Hofgarten. Sigh.

Since the day we arrived was a holiday (Easter Monday), the city was quiet and fairly empty. Here's the beautiful post office, where I once sent tons of post cards.

Beethoven (born in Bonn in 1770) stands in front of the post office, his eyes to the Münster, the big church.

Beethoven's looking a bit grouchy.

The Münster

 

Detail, above a door

Next, we stumbled upon the Sterntor, which is a section of a defensive wall from the 1200s. Now it sits in the middle of a pedestrian zone.

Note the sky growing progressively cloudier

We also swung by the Altes Ratshaus (old city hall), which kind of looks like it should be a wedding cake. One of my foreign study pals called it The "Politics Barbie" City Hall (hi Kevin). I compared our new pictures to some older ones, and it seems the paint has faded a bit since I last saw it. It used to be more baby blue and pale salmon.

I'm sad to say that I didn't get to stroll along the Rhine river like I did with my foreign study friends countless times. I also didn't see the Hofgarten where I once feel asleep in the sun. You see, my too-old-to-act-like-this kids were so exhausted, they couldn't walk more than an hour. Gah. I hope they read this someday when they're older and feel guilty.

Bonus for German speakers: this is a poster from a bakery

Be sure to stop by again. I'll describe Cologne and Drachenfels in the next posts! 


All pictures taken by me or my family members.