toy, Toy, TOY!

So, call it an early birthday present, call it pretty, call me crazy, but here it is: my new Toy. (My instinct was to capitalize "Toy" because it's a noun--I decided to leave it.)





Yes, after more than a month of driving Sara crazy by talking about and ogling every bicycle I've passed (and been passed by), I found a guy in north-central Bonn who repairs and sells old bikes out of his garage. This was a beautiful bike that he picked "just for me" because it "fits my size". Whatever. I love it. It's pretty, light, and Sara loves the fact that the paint is slightly sparkly. The plan is, once I track down a helmet, some replacement inner tubes, a pump, and some lights, to take her (the bike, that is) for a spin from Bonn to Koblenz along the Rhine. I'll let you know if the rain here ever clears up enough to do so.


P.S. I chuckled out loud when I saw this bumper sticker the other day. (A "Bonner" is someone from Bonn.) I found it funny for two reasons: 1) it's just a funny thing to say, 2) I thought to myself, "Wow! I just understood a funny bumper sticker in GERMAN! Oh, no, wait. It's not actually in German. It just has an extra 'u' in 'honor' and I'm in Germany. Drat." What a silly world.

Römisches-Germanisches Museum (and some slightly lower-brow diversions)

We took advantage of this month's Goethe Institute trip to get cheap train tickets to Köln. Instead of taking the tour again, we went to the Römisches-Germanisches Museum. This was our 5th museum in as many weeks, and we are starting to feel the museum fatigue. Actually, I'm starting to feel it and Tyler pretty much can't handle it anymore. When we were counting the museums he wanted to include churches in the count, too. I can visit churches all day long, but Tyler is not as gung-ho. (In case you're interested, the first four museums were: Beethovenhaus, House of German History, Kunst (Art) Museum Bonn, and the Arithmeum, a museum that primarily displays calculating machines, which is more interesting than it sounds. You might also count the displays housed in the fortress at the BUGA, which would bring the museum total to 6.)

The Römisches-Germanisches Museum has a very nice collection, including this amazing Roman mosaic.



The mosaic (which was the floor of a banquet room in a Roman villa) was discovered in the 1940s during the digging of bomb shelter. The museum was built around the mosaic. One of the central figures is Dionysus, Greek god of wine; others are his attendant nymphs and things. Here are some detail shots.







This is a Roman funeral monument, also found in Köln.



And here's another huge mosaic, this one depicting seven wise men of ancient Greece. It was discovered in 1844.



I particularly enjoyed the jewelry displays.



This is a gorgon mask. Notice the freaky snake head sticking out of her hair.



After the museum we hid from the pouring rain in a little pizza place that turned out to be quite good. Naturally, we also stopped by Merzenich for a Nougat Brezel.

Speaking of pizza, we spent half a day a couple of Fridays ago on a quest for pizza. We had spent the morning searching for apartments, and after making two calls in German each we were drained and starving. So Tyler found a website called pizza.de and we set out across town to try the reputed best pizza in Bonn. It's called Pizza Mann, and it took us about an hour to get there by bus and foot. We had a pizza with bacon, creme fraiche, large chunks of potato, and ridiculous quantities of cheese. It was immensely satisfying.

This past Friday we undertook another food-driven journey: we took the train to the Haribo factory store in Bad Godesberg. It was roughly the size of a grocery store, and was filled with people (mostly adults) buying boxes and boxes of fruchtgummi. We bought several different varieties ourselves, but I felt positively restrained by comparison with most of the other shoppers.



Our haul: cherry-cola bottles, black currant-flavored German flags, chocolate-covered marshmallows, some sour chewy things, extra-sour pugs, and ginger-lemon gummies. The things I've tried so far have been tasty, but I feel a little sick every time I think of our shelf stuffed with fruchtgummi.

Ahrweiler und Rolandsbogen

Our lovely and excitable landlady took us on a little excursion last week to Ahrweiler, a beautifully preserved medieval town in the Ahr River Valley about half an hour from Bonn. (She spoke lots and lots of German to us, which Tyler did a great job of understanding and responding to. I dozed in the car. She also bought us ice cream.)

We'd already gotten a taste of half-timbered cuteness in Königswinter, but Ahrweiler is all cuteness, everywhere you look, on steroids. The houses are not just half-timbered, but intricately carved and painted. The town is surrounded by 14th-century (I think) walls with towers and gates, and beyond are rolling hills covered in grape trellises. In short, it is stunning.





Because we had a third person along on the trip, we were able to take our first pictures together since we've been here. I'm including several, since these will probably continue to be rare.



This church is quite similar to Doppelkirche (the one we can see from our windows), but bigger and more beautiful. Like Doppelkirche, the interior walls are covered in paintings, some dating from as early as the 14th century.









If you'd like to see more of the ridiculous half-timbered cuteness, you can find more pictures on our Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldrumhaus (look for the Ahrweiler set).



After Ahrweiler, Frau de Matos took us to see some picturesque ruins in Bad Godesberg (south of Bonn; still considered part of Bonn; I'm not clear on this point). Behind this 12th-century arch is a restaurant and civil marriage office.



Until recently the arch was covered with ivy, and what stone showed through was black. Frau de Matos seemed very indignant about its restoration.



The views from up here were even better than the ones you get across the river in Königswinter, in part because you can see Schloss Drachenburg showing off its glinting towers and golden stags on its hillside across the way.