Savoy Hotel Bonn

Street Musicians

by hekate

When I was walking around the Münsterplatz and the streets nearby I saw street musicians 2 or 3 times. Probably because it is supposed to be one of the most touristy places in the city it seems to be a favorite place for them to play.

So, if you are into people watching it is a good opportunity. All of them were good musicians and it was a pleasure to stop by and listen for a while. It seems that local people do that as well, so usually in front of the musicians you will find a small group enjoying the performance.

Needless to say, it would be polite if you provide a small financial aid for them :)))

Beethoven House

by Nemorino

Beethoven was born in a small room at the back of this house in 1770. The front part, at that time, was a pub called Im Mohren, which is why that is written across the front of the building.

The twelve rooms of the original house are now a museum about Beethoven's life and times. Off to one side there is also a new building which houses a computer room, where you can access their entire collection and for instance listen to excerpts of Beethoven's music while looking at his handwritten score on the screen.

In the basement of the new building there is a highly unusual room called the Stage for Music Visualization. Here you are given 3D glasses (which you can wear over your regular glasses, if any) and can listen to excerpts of Beethoven' music which take on what they call "an optical acoustical shape" in the form of abstract figures which move to the music.

I found this attractive and strangely effective. When I was there they were playing a performance called "Fidelio, 21st Century", which consists of excerpts from the second act of Beethoven's only opera (described on my Edinburgh page), with moving abstract geometrical figures for four of the characters.

You stand in a dark room while this is going on (it lasts about twenty minutes), and there are four pillars where viewers can manipulate the four characters in various ways, mainly by moving them closer or further away (it's 3D, remember). My impression is that this slight interactive aspect serves to heighten the concentration of those viewers who do not know the opera very well.

The music, which comes out of eighteen loudspeakers in the darkened room, is from a classic recording by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein from the year 1978. The solo singers are René Kollo (Florestan), Gundula Janowitz (Leonore), Hans Sotin (Pizarro) and Manfred Jungwirth (Rocco).

Enjoy the Rhine Skyline

by RhineRoll

Viewed from the Autobahn bridge in the north, the Skyline around Bonn is dominated by the Rhine and the "Seven Hills" range in the south with the city almost disappearing in the landscape. It is a pretty big city though, with more than 300,000 people living within its city limits and another 100,000 in the communities around it.

Germany's United Nations City

by Rupanworld

Bonn is the Capital city of the former West Germany and was so for 41 years, 1949 to 1990. It is situated by the river Rhine in the German state of Land North Rhine Westfalia, near Cologne. It is the 19th largest city in Germany. From 1998, many national government offices were moved from Bonn to Berlin. However, Bonn still remains to be a centre of politics and administration. It is now called the 'Bundesstadt', or a Federal City. A little bit of history here: The city of Bonn was first known as Castra Bonnensia, and was a fortress built by the Romans in the 1st century AD. It became a civilian settlement after the breaking of the Roman Empire and in the 9th century AD, it came to be known as the Frankish town of Bonnburg, from which the present name Bonn emerges.

One present significance of this city is that it is called Germany's United Nations City. This City currently hosts 16 United Nations institutions and agencies, most of which are based at the newly established United Nations Campus in the area where the former parliamentary offices were situated, by the banks of the river Rhine. Another great significance of Bonn is that it has been the birthplace of Beethoven, perhaps the world's greatest composers and my favourite. The Rheinische Friedrich Wilhems Universität Bonn (University of Bonn) is one of the largest universities in Germany and its buildings are spread throughout the city. So Bonn is also known as the city of Universities.

The Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Museum of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany) is an important history museum here and a must see for visitors apart from the Beethoven house.

I have a regret that I was not able to spend much more time in this city and see all that the city has to offer, many museums, many other places of significance and ofcource, the United Nations quarter. I wish I have the opportunity to visit this capital city of the former West Germany once again in future in order to be able to explore it better.

SickBoy's Bonn Page

by SickBoy

So what´s so special about Bonn?
Nothing! It´s a tipical German town. It has a river, a big church and a nice park, and not much else to see. But the park is really nice. And also, Bonn was the capital of Germany for 40 years and it has a pretty ugly Bundestag building as a memory to those days. But I met some great people there so, after all, my memories about Bonn is very good.