"Welcome to the former Capital city Bonn" a Bonn Travel Page by jo104

The answer to the question posted by Rhineroll on the meeting page was "Do you like romantic river valleys, shrouded in mist, teeming with colours of the autumn? Do you prefer dry fruity wine to a sweet one?" was a resounding yes - Of course on the wine front I like most wines except very sweet so I ticked all the boxes and booked a flight. Word spread rather quickly and Acirfa (Donna) & Barkerclive (Clive) decided to join me as part of the England clan.

We arrived in Bonn and caught the bus into the city, all excited about our wine exploration of the Ahr valley much to the dissaproval of the little old lady sitting opposite Clive (the youth of today!)

VT'er Dewisri (Basti) was kind enough to meet us at the bus stop and walk us to our hotel. We unfortunately felt we needed to make a quick exit out of reception as I was starting to feel nauseous from the smell of a resident's cigar smoke. I must say that there seemed no clear cut rules regarding smoking and it made me feel that South Africa & England are making far better headway - thats my anti-smoking grumble!!

Win met up with us at the hotel and we went for a pre-dinner stroll past the Rheinische Friederich-Wilhelm University and along the banks of the Rhine. Dinner was at Rietbrocks, a charming wine house, and the staff were very attentive - Oh and we were fairly loud. Win ordered the three different types of Rieslings including "Robert Weil" the wine our English Queen drinks.

With all our various nationalities there were chants of Prost, Gesondheid, Bottoms Up, Cheers. According to Mickybleck (Daniella) its essential you look at the person directly in the eyes when you chink glasses & drink - good fortune indeed shall be yours.

After dinner we headed to a local pub and some of the troops were a little worse for wear. Friday night our posse was made up of Rhineroll (Win), Acirfa (Donna), Barkerclive (Clive), Dewisri (Basti) & her sister Sarah, Mickybleck (Daniella), Reza and his cousin (whom he tricked into coming).

On saturday morning the English clan were up earlyish ready for a brisk walk before meeting the others. Donna took a shine to the horse we had spotted last night & plenty of photo opportunities at Beethoven's statue (Bonn incedently is his birth place 1770).

We met up at the train station with Sabsi (Sabine), Seppoman (Thomas), Horscheck (Holger), Yumyum (Sonja), Tinytuck (Stef), Sjalen (Charlotta), Kitkan (Keith) and who can forget our super trooper Alice. As our train chugged into the station it was with great delight that we all piled in ready for our adventure in the Ahr Valley. (please visit to find out more)

I think we were all rather worn out after the excellent full day Win organised that dinner was a rather quieter affair. The clocks go back so effectively it meant an extra hour sleep but some of us got no sleep (effects of the alcohol perhaps??)

As we had a tight schedule on sunday we decided to skip brunch and head accross the river for a photo shoot. Sadly when you wait for a barge it never comes turn your back and they all come at once - this is a valuable lesson for the photographer :-)

Anyway best leave the Bonn page for now so I can concentrate on the fun and games we had in the Ahr valley.