Last day in Germany - lunch at Rolandsbogen

Our last day in Germany had arrived.  After breakfast our hosts Elmar and Ursula took us with their son to Rolandsbogen, an old castle that was just remains save for one of the last arches of a castle built in the middle ages.

There was an excellent restaurant there where we enjoyed a great farewell lunch with our hosts.

We left Bonn just after 3pm for a train journey home, this time all first class as that’s all that was available.  As ever, it’s been a fantastic week in Bonn and made even better by starting with three nights in Aachen.

Bürgerfest

We went to Stadtplatz today for the Bürgerfest in Bonn.  There were some excellent performances by groups both from Bonn and Oxford and their surrounding areas.  We enjoyed Morris dancing, an excellent brass band and some teenagers who did some amazing breakdance-style dancing.  We had a light lunch in a local café and a short wander around some Bonn shops before returning to our host’s home for a brief rest before the evening event.

The evening saw a Barbecue at a local school called Bonns-Fünfte.  It was a fun evening with good food and more entertainment.  There was some football being shown and the opportunity for some great conversations with friends old and new from Bonn.

Brühl, Ecumenical service and formal dinner.

Today had a seminar on local planning and development on the agenda but not being a councillor at the moment I elected to miss that.

Instead we got a train to Brühl and visited the Augustus Burg – an incredibly well-preserved palace that was built in the 18th century by Karl Augustus, the archbishop of Cologne and part of the Wittelsbach family (who ran Bavaria).  After this we talk a walk through the beautiful gardens of the Burg, to a hunting lodge that was rather further away that we had expected.  It was about a 2 mile walk and sadly had just closed for a 90 minute lunch when we got there.  We walked back into Bruhle and went to the Max Ernst museum where we had a pleasant lunch and enjoyed some more fine art and a special exhibition of quirky photography.

We got the U-Bahn back to Bonn and got dressed into our suits for a reception at the Stadthaus (Town Hall) followed by an ecumenical church service at the Namen-Jesus church.  It was bilingual as well as ecumenical so took quite a long time.  We enjoyed some excellent music by a local choir including the mass setting by Karl Jenkins.  The church is an “old Catholic” church – a church that is actually in communion with the Anglican Church rather than with Rome.

The service was followed by an excellent formal dinner at a local restaurant including a great speech by Oxford’s Lord Mayor Rae Humberstone, and by the Buergermeister of Bonn, Helmut.

Rhine boat trip, Walk of democracy and Bad Godesberg

After a good German-style breakfast, our host Elmar, drove us to the pier from where the boat tour was leaving.  We cruised down the Rhine as far as Linz, and were served plenty of drinks and an excellent lunch.

We got back to Bonn at 2pm and then started a “Walk of Democracy” that was laid on as part of the twinning trip. We saw some fascinating sights including several former government buildings that are now United Nations buildings housing lots of parts of the UN. Since German reunification, much of the government function has moved to Berlin but there are still quite a few activities and official residences in Bonn.

At the end of the walk we stopped off for an ice cream in the Koenig museum and then got a U-Bahn train to Bad Godesberg.  We had an explore there and climbed a tower at a castle where we enjoyed some great views of Bonn.

In the evening we enjoyed a really good musical concert at Carl-von-Ossietzky School and a few drinks in Bonn afterwards.

Moving on to Cologne and Bonn

We left Aachen fairly early today to go to Cologne where we had arranged to meet a friend from Australia who happened to be there for the week.  We were a bit early so (re)visited the Cathedral first then met Craig outside the Cathedral.

We had lunch at a fairly traditional place called Peters Brauhaus.  We visited the Walraf-Richarz museum where we saw more fine art.

We left Cologne for Bonn around 5.30pm and got to our hosts, Elmar and Ursula, at about 6pm.  We received a very warm welcome and went fairly quickly after that with them to the Oxford Club in Bonn to the opening event of the Oxford in Bonn twinning festivities.  It was good to catch up with many old friends from previous twinning events.

After the event Elmar and Ursula took us to a local bar where we had some drinks and a meal.  I enjoyed some liver.

Couven, Media, Charlemage, Suermondt-Ludwig - Museums day!

Today we finally found shops open.  It hadn’t been a problem having them closed but it was good to see Aachen on a typical working day including its market with lots of asparagus of many different colours.  Today was to be museum visiting day.  We started off at the newspaper/media museum, then the Couven Museum (with lots of high class interiors), then we had asparagus (Spargel is big in Germany) for lunch.

Following lunch we went to the centre Charlemagne then had some Kaffee und Kuchen.

Our last museum of the day was the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum where we enjoyed lots of fine art.

We dined in a restaurant in the centre of Aachen called Zum Goldener Einhorn (the Golden Unicorn) where we enjoyed a much more typical German dinner of Asparagus Soup, Clear beef soup, baked black pudding and some delicious lamb.  We went back to Café Kittel for late evening drinks.

Exploring Aachen

We got up at a reasonable hour and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel.  Today was a bank holiday in Germany for Pentecost so no shops were open but the Cathedral and its treasury were.  The treasury is one of the most important cathedral treasuries north of the Alps and contains a huge amount of material from the era of Charlemagne.

After lunch near the cathedral we had a pub lunch and then visited the Rathaus (Town Hall), it was also extremely interesting.

Following this we went to Carolus Thermen, a spa just outside the City with some fun swimming pools, including a whirlpool and dozens of different saunas and steam rooms at different temperatures.

Back in Aachen we again found little open so enjoyed a Mexican meal in a place called La Tijuana.

We rounded of the evening with some beers in Café Kittel.

Off to Aachen on the train

This is the start of a week in Germany, partly to visit Aachen and partly to join in the Town Twinning celebrations in Bonn, visiting old friends made as part of this link.

We left Oxford just after noon to get to St Pancras in time for a Eurostar train to Brussels at just after 3pm.  It was on time and after a change at Brussells we got an ICE train right across Belgium and into Germany, arriving at Aachen about 3.5 hours after leaving St Pancras.

We checked into our hotel and had a wander around the town, finding most things closed as it was Sunday evening. Eventually we found a nice Argentinian restaurant and had some pleasant steaks for dinner.