On the Streets of Bonn... (07.14.12)

This past weekend I headed to the former capital of Germany and birthplace of Beethoven, Bonn.  Bonn served as the capital of West Germany from 1949 until 1990 and then was the capital of Germany until 1999.  Although no longer the capital, the neighborhoods, the well-manicured lawns, and the plethora of museums could fool anybody that didn't know any better.

Statue of Beethoven outside the post office.  All the statues of him make him appear to be a man on a mission.

This is the Dom for the city of Bonn.  Not as impressive as the one in Cologne, but definitely more approachable.

The remnants of the city wall that once surrounded Bonn, this is all that is left.

A picture of Beethoven right across from Beethoven's house, just in case you get lost.  I saw the wall art, took a picture and walked right by the house.  Oops!

This is why I missed Beethoven's house.  It is such a small front and blends in with the surrounding buildings that I thought it was just another German house.

The entrance to the museum for Beethoven's house is accessed through the house garden.  Unfortunately they didn't allow photography, but I managed to take some anyway.  The house was relatively large with multiple rooms.  However, people were a lot smaller back then and the house ceilings are a lot lower.  

The top portion is the printed version of Beethoven's Fur Elise.  The bottom portion is the original composition written by Beethoven.  When I looked at the original composition, I am glad somebody was able to read it because I certainly could not.

The two pianos that Beethoven used to compose one of his piano concertos.

After wandering around the Beethoven house and subsequent museum, I was starving.  Earlier in the day I had purchased a Bonn tourism ticket, only 9 Euros, which included free admission into various museums, 24 hour pass to ride the Bonn public transit, and a bunch of other specials.  One of the specials included a free Bonnsch at a local Breurhaus.

Bonnsch is a local beer in Bonn, but is also the German dialect from this area.  I have never seen a beer glass like this one, but it makes it a lot easier to drink beer because it fits your hand.

This meal is essentially bangers and mash.

After enjoying a great meal of bangers and mash, I wanted to see the Rhine.  Long story short, I got lost and ended up wandering around the streets of Bonn in the rain.  However, it wasn't all bad as I stumbled across the University of Bonn and saw many of the upper class neighborhoods of Bonn.  

The Mathematics Museum located on the grounds of the University of Bonn.  Unfortunately, the museum was closed, but I am pretty sure they have some cool artifacts, like an old slide ruler.

Picture of the University of Bonn from the Mathematics Museum.

I really liked this wall art, which was scrawled on the side of the Mathematics Museum.  They look like a bunch of bacteriophages.

The beautiful Rhine after a rainstorm.  I really like the cloud effects in this picture.

After reaching the Rhine, I walked along the river until I reached musuem mile.  Similar to the Smithsonian, there are a high concentration of museums in this area.  Although most of the captions were in German they did have some English translations.  I think the most fascinating museum was the Deutschland Museum.  It is free to the public and details the history of Germany starting after World War II.  The most fascinating aspect was how the exhibit treated World War II.  The tone of the exhibit and at least the English connotation was something I had never experienced in U.S exhibits.

The presentation of World War II, was an exhibit that showed it happened and something that should never happen again.  It is similar to a U.S Vietnam War exhibit that chastised the decisions of the leaders, acknowledging that it happened, and then went on to state the lessons learned and ways to avoid it in the future.

Three minutes before I took this picture it was pouring buckets of water; such is the weather in Bonn.

The Bonn Hauptbaunhof or the main train station.

By the time I finished the exhibit in the museum I was exhausted and apart from viewing more museums I was done visiting Bonn.  Next week I head to Aachen, so stay tuned.