Week 63: Koeln to Bonn by Bike

A little while back we visited the city of Bonn, West Germany's capital before the end of the cold war linked the two halves of Germany. Bonn is quite close to the city of Koeln (Cologne) and we thought that since they were so close and have a good train connection, that it would be nice to ride between the two cities.

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We started in Koeln and rode south, on the east side of the Rhein. The weather refused to cooperate the entire day and we ended up with 2 or 3 cloud bursts while we were riding. Not ideal, but better than pouring over the entire trip. The total ride was about 35 km (22 mi) based on the map, though we got a bit turned around just outside of Bonn when we couldn't find a way to cross a tributary of the Rhein, so it was probably closer to 40 km (25 km) total. 

Jason makes (very cute!) friends

Once we arrived in Bonn, we didn't have to wait too long for a train--maybe 5 minutes after we bought our tickets. From there it was about a 25 minute ride to Koeln. We dropped our bikes at the car, then walked around a bit. Koeln is the 4th largest city in Germany, and, let me tell you, on a Saturday afternoon in mid-July its shopping district is *busy*. It was a little overwhelming, since we are used to much smaller cities, but after taking a short look at the city's famous cathedral, we found a seat at a cafe and enjoyed a meal outside.

Inside of Koeln's Cathedral

With more rain in the forecast, we forewent a trip to the World Ballooning Festival, which we had seen last year in Echternach, and decided instead to go for another castle. We headed to Bourscheid castle in Luxembourg. The castle looks quite impressive from a distance, though it in more or less a ruined state (and has no place to get Kaffee and Kuechen!), with some restoration work having been completed since the 1970s.

Jason, an umbrella and a castle

Though there were no snacks, we did get a free English-language audio tour that was hosted by Victor Hugo and a couple travelling companions, who had visited the castle in the late 1800s. They told us about how the castle looked at the time of their visit and what renovations had been completed on the castle since that time in surprisingly good British accents for Frenchmen.

Bourscheid's Main Tower

After touring the castle, we visited the town of Diekirch, Luxembourg, which is home to a military museum that we had heard was very good and intended to visit, but we spent more time at the castle than we had originally planned, and so just wandered through town, had a small, late lunch and a cup of coffee and listened in for a while on a small festival, whose theme was related to WWII. We also saw this odd little gem keeping an eye on the town square. I felt much safer under his watchful eye as I drank my coffee.

This little guy makes sure you pay your tab

Week 26th: Bonn

For those of you who are about my age or older, you may remember Bonn as being a rather important city: it was the capital of West Germany. In doing some reading before and after our trip we found some rather choice quotes regarding the city, mostly how it was an unassuming capital, and more of a sleepy one-horse-town rather than a bustling international city. This podcast has a good profile of the city, including the impression (or lack-thereof) it made on visiting diplomats.

From our perspective of living out in the boonies, it is certainly a city. We had our lunch, then walked through the downtown area, where we came across the Altes Rathaus (old town hall). As you can see in the picture, it is quite pretty, with the ornate stairways and gold trim.

Jason and the Altes Rathaus

From the downtown, we walked to the Museumsmeile (museum mile) and went to the Haus der Geschichte (literally: House of History). This museum covered the modern history of Germany, starting just after WWII, going through the rebuilding of the country, the separation into East and West and reunification. One interesting thing we learned was regarding the various zones Germany was split into after the war. As you may remember from high school history, Germany was split into four separate administrative zones, one for each of the allies (UK, France, US and USSR). 


We all know what happened with the USSR's section, but what I didn't know is that the Western allies were not equal in administration. For example, France refused to let there be any industrial base in its region. It removed all the factories and wanted to turn Germany into an agrarian country--one that could never attack it again. While this happened to some degree in the US and UK zones, there was a recognition, first in the US sector, then later in the UK, that to have a successful, modern economy and to reduce unemployment, you need industrial jobs, so the destruction of the factories stopped. Where we live is smack in the middle of the French zone, and there is still an amazing lack of industrial base.

The museum set up two parallel tracks for the two halves of Germany. It was very interesting to see what was happening in the West and compare it to what was happening in the East during the same time period. After we left the museum--unfortunately we only made it to about the mid-1950s as we arrived only 90 minutes before the museum's closing time--we reflected on the fact that in the US we learned very little about the history of East Germany. For example, we had no idea that there was a popular uprising in 1953 that necessitated the institution of martial law throughout the country. Of course, the West couldn't really do anything to help, as it would risk war with the USSR, but it would seem like such an occurrence would be good reinforcement that the commies are no-good-bastards and, therefore, a good thing to include in our high school history narrative with the clear anti-communist thread that, at least, my history teachers took.

So, it is a really good museum. We need to go back and see the rest, maybe some other rainy or cold day this winter. And, to anyone who visits, we'd be happy to bring you there. Plus, admission is free!

Bonn is looking back