Bonn

but that did not turn out to be so easy...
Bonn is a big city and we could not do it justice in one day. We limited our itinerary to just one, the house in Bonngasse where Beethoven was born. From the Hauptbahnhof, we headed directly to the city center where we knew there would be a tourist map placed at a strategic location. With that , it was easy to get our bearings and we found the triangle shaped Marktplatz where stands the Beethoven statue, but we could not find Bonngasse despite the arrow signs. Giving up was out of the question. Unwilling to waste time on lunch, we bought fruit at one of the many stalls at the Marktplatz. Only one stall had mirabelle, round, green and sweet as emperor grapes but almost as big as apricots. After more than an hour of meandering through the Marktplatz, we found Bonngasse, a short and narrow street that was almost like an alley.

His exact birthdate is not known. He was baptized Ludwig van Beethoven on December 17, 1770, but above the ground floor window is a plaque that says he was born on that date.

Now a museum, the house where he was born is L-shaped and has three floors. Proper restoration work does not include changing the original materials , as was done on the baroque townhouse. The wooden floors creaked each time we took a step. The rooms are small, each leading to another that held memorabilia, autographed scores, paintings, and musical instruments. In the small garden were a statue made in 1905 by Niaoum Aronson and a bust by Cantemir Riscutia. .

To the right of the front entrance is the museum souvenir shop where Rolf bought me a CD of Beethoven’s Fifth played by the Berlin Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. For Rolf, I bought a coffee mug on which was this photograph of Beethoven and chocolate bon bons with the same photo on the wrapper (as if it would taste differently ... Rolf claims they did taste nicer).

From the Beethovenhaus we went back to the Marktplatz to take more photos. I have often wondered why birds like to perch on the head of a statue. There was one on Beethoven’s too, the statue that was made possible by Franz Lizst who donated 10,000 francs to have it started and performed concerts all over the world to add more funds to the building of the memorial.

At opposite ends of the Marktplatz are the Postamt (post office) behind the Beethoven memorial and the Alte Rathaus (old town hall) right across.

Commissioned by the Elector Clemens August,the Alte Rathaus was built around 1737 in the baroque style that shows faint traces of the Roman influence. In the year 11 BC, Roman soldiers crossed the Rhine at Bonn, which they made into a Roman camp that they named "Bonna". To the right of the Beethoven memorial is the Munster Basilica where kings were crowned in the years 1314 to 1346. The Munster is the oldest church in Bonn, with its Romanesque cloisters well preserved.

Bonn is a magnificent mix of the ancient and the modern
At the back of the Munster Basilica is a classic fountain and
in the midst of the modern shops is what remains of a very old stone tower,
and space is optimized by the use of hanging verandahs in front of food kiosks. .

At the Hauptbahnhof in Bonn, the platforms for the long distance trains are at ground level, while those for the local and commuter trains are below the ground. At both levels, there is space where one can rest and have a cold drink before taking the trains, as did Rolf and I after a long and exciting day at the Marktplatz.