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.