My Visit to Bonn

The journey

It took a fair while to get to Bonn, and we were the only ones who got off there after a silent journey. We used the same train later on to get to the famous park where we met with some friends of ours.

Bonn is smaller than Cologne with only 300, 000 inhabitants, but was chosen as the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War and remained so until German reunification in 1990. Similar to in Cologne, the train station is in the very centre of the city, so it didn't take us very long to walk to the market square (Marktplatz) and see the town hall (Rathaus). A large part of Bonn was destroyed in the Second World War by bombs from various enemies of Germany, and for this reason there are not many antique buildings left standing today. We walked through the streets in the city centre and saw the cathedral (much smaller than Cologne cathedral, of course) and other parts of the Old Town that are still standing.

'Streets full of restaurants and people'

Wandering through the streets, my attention was drawn to the number of restaurants and bars, and since it was a sunny day all the outdoor terraces were full of people. When we were reading information about Bonn later on, we read that the city is principally famous for its large amount of restaurants. The streets were all cobbled, and it was a very clean city. In the typical tourist information pamphlet, we found directions to the house where Ludwig van Beethoven was born: a little house painted pink.

My opinion

There was definitely more we could have seen in Bonn, but as we were just passing through we didn't have much time, so we left it at that. I'd say that I quite liked Bonn, despite the fact that many of the buildings were new ones, although it's clear they've tried to rebuild in the traditional style of the area. For a day visit, Bonn is ideal.

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