Bad Honnef

Another slow and peaceful day in Bad Honnef with family. But today we actually spent time in the city of Bad Honnef. A few days ago we were in the Siebengebirge. the seven mountain tops but this time Ina drove us around and showed us where she used to live and where all the rich people live on the mountainside with amazing view over Rhein. It’s a cute little city with 25 000 inhabitants.

The first stop of today was the local chocolate store and manufacturer very close to where they live in Aegidienberg. Wow, they had so much! I may or may not have bought some things. Second stop of the day was at a flower shop where we bought an orchid to the birthday celebration tomorrow. And next up was Bad Honnef. We walked around the city center for a while (it was small so it didn’t take too long) and then we ended up getting milkshakes and coffee at an ice cream bar. Delicious!

We then drove to Bonn and Die Rheinpiraten to play another round of adventure golf. I got a better score with 2 than last time. Mikael decreased his with 7, but both of us got a hole-in-one.

Back home, we had barbecued fish (salmon forell?) with rice and a cold sauce. Really good. But I got so full! And then we had ice cream and egg licquer with strawberry cheesecake flavor from Coppeneur. We saw fireflies as well which was cool.

It was a really nice last day in Bad Honnef. Tomorrow we are all leaving for Duisberg and the celebrations and right after that Mikael and I are continuing our Eurotour to Amsterdam.

Köln

Mikael’s aunt was working today so Mikael and I spent the day in Cologne (Köln), it was less than an hour drive and we got to see yet another new city on this trip. We had four stops in Köln and then another last event before this day was over.

First stop: Music Store

Mikael has been talking about getting a new guitar for so long now and he remembered that Köln hade a mega big music shop so we started our day there and he found his dream guitar that was a bit out of his price range the last time he was there. He noted it and will look it up back in Sweden once we are home. 1,5 hours felt not a single minute more than 20 minutes for this happy chap :).

 

Second stop: Früh Kölsch

The second stop was lunch at a very famous brewery from 1904 right in front of the Köln Cathedral: Früh Kölsch. Mikael hade been there before and knew what to order: Himmel und Äärd (black pudding, mashed potato and apple and roasted onion). I thought I was grown up enough to try and order something fun and exciting. But I made a mistake. I should have gotten the same as Mikael, the beef tartare was not to my taste buds liking. I have had beef tartar at Meet (a meat restaurant in Gothenburg) and it was so delicious), this was not quite the same. Even if I mixed everything like you were supposed to, I just couldn’t really find the charm. This is one of the first times I have been disappointed with what I have ordered. Like ever. So sad.

This place is also famous for the waitresses putting a new beer in front of you right after you finish the one you just drank unless you put the cover on top of your glass. And they just will continue to come until you’ve put it there. Not today though, maybe they were too busy?

 

Third stop: Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral)

We then went to the main attraction of this city, the Kölner Dom, the Cathedral of Cologne. It’s construction started in 1248 and ended in 1881 when it was inaugurated. 632 years of construction! Insane. But with 300 years of break when no one wanted to finance this monstrosity. It was a really impressive cathedral. I’ve seen my fair share of them while traveling but this one, with the two towers and immeasurable amount of details was in the top, for sure. The winner is without a doubt La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but it’s  competing in its own league. We walked around inside for a bit and then we bought entry tickets to one of the towers. 9 minutes later, we were up at the top, enjoying the view over all of Köln. Incredible!

 

Fourth stop: Chocolate Museum

We bought bubble tea on the way to the last stop in Köln and walked along Rhein. The chocolate museum was really great. It had a lot of focus on sustainability and covered many different aspects of cocoa farming. Poverty, child labour, deforestation and so on. I thought that was great.

They showed the process of making Lindt chocolate and then they had a store at the end. I bought a little for the way back to Bonn.

 

Evening in Bonn: Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits coverband in Biergarten)

The day ended at the golf course where we had a cup of coffee before heading over to the other end of the big park where they, every night during summer (except Monday’s) have a cover band in a biergarten and they serve food. Tonight was a band who played Dire Straits songs. It was great! They played all the songs that I really like. The currywürst was amazing and the company was really nice. Mikael and I were youngest by probably a couple of decades but I loved it. All the oldies danced along to the songs and it was such a great atmosphere!

Super tired now after a long and touristy day, but we experience so much on this trip.

Drachenfels and Bonn

What a lovely day in Siebengebirge and Bonn we have had! Most of the time, it was me, Mikael, Ina (his aunt) and Molly, the dog. Ina drove around through the forested mountains (Siebengebirge) and it was so beautiful!

We started the day at Petersburg Spa and Resort on top of one of the seven mountain tops in the area. It used to be the place where politicians of high rank stayed, presidents and such. Now, it’s a very fancy hotel with incredible view.

The next stop was Drachenfels, the next mountain top where there is a ruin at the very top and a fairly new castle a bit further down. The castle was built in 1883 and is very young compared to most of the castles down here in Germany. Molly was unfortunately not allowed inside the castle, so she and Ina waited outside while Mikael and I walked around inside. It was a cool castle. But you could tell that it was new, and it had taken furniture from different eras so it was not consistent with the 19th century for example.

The third and last stop of the day was at Die Rheinpiraten in Bonn, the adventure golf course that Ina and her husband Burkhardt opened in April last year. We have followed their journey and struggles of putting this dream of theirs into reality and it was so fun to see the final result. It was incredible! So well done and the quality of the course was amazing. Pretty decorations and fun courses. And that’s not everything. They have a biergarten where they sell drinks and light food. For lunch today, we took part in their flamekuchen tasting. On Monday they have to decide what to order, so they had 10 different types that needed to be tasted and evaluated. I’ve never had that before and apparently it’s a French pizza with a very thin crust. It was really good! I just realized that I didn’t take any photos of them, but you could google if you don’t know what they look like.

We have heard a lot of stories from Ina and Burki about what has happened there in the past year. As a former employee of a service place (Liseberg amusement park), I can relate to all of these hilarious stories. People :).

Around when they were about to close, the four of us went on the golf course. They had of course done it many times before, but Mikael and I did pretty well for the first time. 18 holes and reasonably hard courses. Mikael and I ended up getting exactly the same amount of points, so Ina picked a course to do over. We both got 2. But then I won on the next course Burki chose.

Afterward, we celebrated with ice cream, locally organically produced, and talked to Henning, their best employee.

A really great day in this local part of Germany 🙂 I know I might be a bit biased to family, but for reals, if you’re on Bonn, try out Die Rheinpiraten. Honestly the best adventure golf I’ve ever done. We have lots of them in Sweden, but none of them are themed, and this was such a great and well done theme very close to the Rhein.


Petersberg.

View from Petersberg over Bonn and Rhein.

Molly did so good on the trolley up to the Drachenfels.

Bad Honnef and Rhein.

The Drachenfels ruins.

We walked down to the castle from the ruins.
Winterskönig on this side of the Rhein, Bonn on the other side.
Schloss Drachenburg.

From on top of the tower.

They even had a beach at the course.