On the 1st of May this year I landed at Bonn to attend a conference on Sustainability. This was one of the most beautiful, adventurous and though-provoking trips! I am so glad I made it, even though I have to be honest- I have always found it painful to plan vacations in countries where the exchange rate is so stacked against our currency! Call it my small-town stinginess, but that is how it is.

Although Bonn was the capital of West Germany before the reunification, it is not a town that would feature on most tourist maps. Only a conference took me here, and it was later that I learned that the city was also the hometown of Beethoven. Unforgivably, I was so tired/late on most evenings that I could not make a trip to Beethoven House. That is how life is- can’t do everything. I make peace with what I experienced.

I want to remember many things about my trip, and of Bonn one of the things I want to remember is the walk along the Rhine. Although public transport in Germany is extremely convenient, and the conference venue was only 15 mins by U-Bahn (what we call the “metro” in India) I was glad to have discovered the most beautiful riverside promenade on the first evening.

It is always such a pleasure to walk along rivers, especially those where civilisation has flourished for centuries. It’s almost like in the quiet flow of the Rhine, I was getting a sense of German history from the dawn of their history. I always imagine that this place where I stand, was the same place where people stood before me, Here, they looked down at the river when the plague struck their town. Maybe a young Bonn Jew never saw the river again. Maybe Beethoven walked down from the Academy for a evening of reflection etc.

Every morning I walked down along the river, my face muffled inside a shawl and my hands protected by my little mittens. It was still so cold in May (especially for people from warmer climates!). I passed joggers, mothers with babies in prams, cyclists, and other conference-goers. Most mornings I would be finishing my breakfast, throwing banana peels, sticky strawberry stalks and coffee mugs in the bins that appeared discretely every few metres. Sometimes I stopped to watch a passing barge. In the evening, I had more time to stop and take photos or just watch people.

What was I thinking? I would think about what happened during the day, or what I planned to do the next day. I thought about how lovely it would be to walk with someone along the promenade, hand in hand. I thought how lucky the people were who had an opportunity to live here and access the promenade. The promenade ends on the north at the Bonn University, I envied the students and the university faculty who had lives where they spent their days learning and evenings walking along the river. Some evenings I felt lonely. And some evenings I loved the green solitude. Mostly my thoughts were just how lucky citizens of Bonn were, that they had states and institutions that preserved natural resources and individual liberties. Certainly there are many things that the Germans probably struggle with, and theirs has not been an easy history. They are also not the warmest people although I have to admit this was probably biased by my over-consciousness and cultural differences.

Nevertheless, after returning to India, where public spaces are disappearing under the guise of “development” and where natural aesthetic is sacrificed at the altar of garish over-construction, I am beginning to look back at my quiet walks along the Rhine with a rather deep nostalgia. Goodnight clean quiet evenings! May you provide many evenings of quiet contemplation to other travellers.

Getting to Bonn: Bonn approx. 2 hours from Frankfurt and you can take a train. I recommend downloading the DB app to look for train schedules and book tickets. You can also check prices on the Omio website. You can also travel there from Koln/Cologne.

Staying at Bonn: I recommend staying in the old town area (i.e. the one near the main train station Bonn Hautbahnhof (Hbf)). The Air B&B that I stayed at was literally in the middle of the train station and the bus stop (Maximilian Strasse).

Also here’s a link to more insights from Bonn from people who seem to have lived there