I know, I know, I told you I would post something about Bonn on this blog after my Berlin post, and I didn’t. Well, let’s say that the St. Gallen festival kept me busy every day, and… there will be a post about it 😉 But now that I am back in Paris for a few days, I can tell you quickly about Bonn. It was almost one month ago! The trip was a mix of work and tourism, which I rarely have the time and occasion to do. I used the same organization as in Berlin, the Greeters, to find a guide to show me aspects of the city I didn’t necessarily know.
I arrived on an evening and the first thing I did was to have beer and local food in a traditional pub. I arrived just before the rush hour and was able to take some pictures of the place before it became crowded. This restaurant is called Em Höttche and is located on Marktplatz (Markt) in the city centre, close to the city hall.
But the next morning, I was working at the Beethoven archives in the Beethoven-Haus doing some research for an article I needed to finish. I worked there a few days, and as usual, I felt as if I was home. My musicologist friends and colleagues made sure I had someone to have lunch or dinner with, and we talked about projects and ideas.
I was working on the completion of an article about my trip to Budapest and to Martonvásár last year, and about the relationship between Beethoven and the Brunsvik family (Brunszvik in Hungarian). I needed to check historical sources from several periods to complete my article, including some in Hungarian (with the help of Google Translate), German, French and English.
Fortunately, I also had a full day of visit of the city with my Greeter in Bonn, Stefanie. We spent a few hours exploring known ans less known parts of the city. Well, it is Beethoven’s city after all 🙂 And a bit Schumann’s, but not a lot of people know.
I also visited the city museum, which is quite old and would benefit from a renewal. It will happen next year, if I understood correctly. It will also move to a more modern building. They have interested items of all sorts and all periods.
I worked at the archives for the remaining of my stay. I also witnessed a protest organized by ecologist activists in Bonn, during which a guitar player dressed with a bear costume sang remodelled pop songs with lyrics about climate change. He was sitting at the feet of this statue:
That’s it for my trip to Bonn. Just after that I took the plane to Zurich and the train to St Gallen, which will be the subject of my next post.
As always, stay tuned 🙂