bonn

post karneval, and jana's back at school. i've spent the last few days wandering around bonn, this time decked out in a warm coat, scarf & gloves since the weather has turned frosty. bonn was the capital of west germany until 1990 (after the berlin wall came down, berlin became germany's capital city), so it's rich with history. it's a city of about 450,000 people so it's easy enough to find your way around. although i might've got lost once...or twice.

bonn: famous for being beethoven's birthplace. without a map, i really had no chance of finding the beethovenhaus... but after getting lost around a few winding cobble stone streets... there it was! proof that getting lost isn't always a bad thing...
he was born in a modest old-school cottage tucked in between surrounding houses. thanks to my incredible german skills (or lack thereof..), i managed to learn a bit about the house's history: beethoven was born on either the 16th or 17th of december 1770 (they're not really sure about that one..), chilled in the house and when he eventually became deaf, had to wear brass trumpets on both his ears. the idea was to channel & magnify sound to his ears. no wonder he was supposedly always grumpy, imagine having to wear trumpets on your head...

jana's school is in the centre of bonn, so during her frees she was able to show me around the city first-hand.. in between a few (hundred) coffee/hot toddy breaks to escape the freezing cold. natürlich
we visited the bonn münster, kunstmuseum, the university (recognisable by the burnt orange colour of its walls) and hofgarten (the gardens stretching out from the university), as well as a heap of others.

i've made a bunch of amazing friends here in germany, and - despite the icy weather - am loving it so much... so i've decided to stay here for another week or so. will hopefully get up to köln at some point..!

auf wiedersehen,


S.

love that 9º weather

cheers jana,  for the map of the walk home