Week in Review

Hello! This is another post on somewhat-interesting-things-we did-this-week. It will be followed shortly by a post on the really-interesting-thing-we-did-this-weekend. If you prefer to skip over this post, you are excused. But you should know that it contains another edition of Animal I Spy (because I think it's fun).

We finally walked through the cemetery that's right behind our house, and learned that German graves are extremely fancy and well-tended. I'd never seen anything quite like this, but Tyler says the graves in Lithuania are even fancier (though the people are poorer).


On Wednesday we finally went to the Beethovenhaus. This is a view from the courtyard in the rear. Beethoven was probably born in the upper-right attic room. (He was definitely born in the house, but they're unsure of the room.) The Beethovenhaus apparently has the largest collection of Beethovenania (their word) in the world, but it wasn't exactly bursting at the seams. There were some interesting things--I particularly liked seeing letters and manuscripts he wrote. (Beethoven's musical notation was much more legible than Mozart's, I learned.) Probably the thing I'll remember most about the museum, though, is that it has the loudest floors I have ever walked on. They didn't look original, so why they keep the world's squeakiest floors in a museum is a mystery to me.


We also went to a botanical garden. (We think there are two in Bonn, but we're not sure.)


It's located behind and around this palace, the summer palace of the Prince-Elector, I believe. Not the most palatial palace you've ever seen? Well, that's coming in the next post!


The gardens were very pretty and the weather was very nice, not raining as had been predicted. Tyler had fun with the camera.



This is a wild bee house, but I mostly wanted a picture of it because you can see close up the slate tile roof that is typical of buildings in Bonn.


Here is the promised Animal I Spy! This one is much easier than the parrots.


After the botanical garden we went and got haircuts in a combination of English, German, and Spanish. (My hairdresser was Spanish-German. I think she went a little overboard with the thinning shears, but it was fun to get to speak some Spanish. I was hopelessly confused for the rest of the day and couldn't keep my languages straight.) Tyler's hairdresser artfully spiked his hair, but that is not how it looks on a day-to-day basis.

A Taste of Bonn

We've been in Bonn about three days now. We've had two days of German class and know maybe ten verbs between the two of us. Tyler and I are in separate classes; he gets more homework.

BEETHOVEN. He's big in Bonn. He was born here.



















This is the view from the bridge over the Rhein. We live very close to this church, on the opposite side of the river from central Bonn.















Bonn is ridiculously cute. Here's a piece of castle in a square in the middle of the old town. We ate lunch by the fountain in front of it yesterday.



Also in the ridiculously-cute vein: a tea shop.



















Some shots of the cathedral (Münster) in the city center:



















The organ (along with all the stained glass) was destroyed in WWII. The organ was rebuilt between the early 1960s and '80s.



















The view out our front window tonight:















And out the back. Note the rainbow.















I know, I know. You're dying of jealousy. Frankly, I don't blame you.

P.S. It's not just Düsseldorfers. We have found many more Paradiese here in Bonn, including this one. For my dad, calling this shop paradise isn't much of an exaggeration.