Headed down to Bonn today, just half an hour south of Cologne by metro. It's a lovely old city and much more laid back than Cologne. It was of course the federal capital until reunification and the south of the city is full of the trappings of government, now no longer used in the way they were intended. Its very peaceful walking down by the river watching the incredibly long cruise boats chug up and down the Rhine.

Bonn was the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven, and his house is now a museum containing many relics from is life. His last piano is there along with the console from the organ in the church where he played when he was eleven. It is quite amazing to think those are the same keys his little figures played with over 200 years ago. The saddest exhibits are the gigantic ear trumpets he had made to counter his increasing deafness.