Day # 19 Wesseling to Bonn.

Monument to the Euro.

           A short  (15 kms.) ‘positioning’ walk today to Bonn, birthplace of Beethoven. Funny how the body adapts to the strain which is placed on it. If I know that I have 30kms to cover, I feel pretty fresh at 15 kms, not really tiring until the 25k mark. This morning, it was a struggle to walk half distance and that was only achieved with two charges of strong coffee to keep the motors turning.

        Tomorrow, the Rhine walking team doubles in size to two people. At 9.00am, I will meet up in Bonn with my brother in law of 42 years, Keith, who hails from the micro village of Llangybi, near Usk, South Wales, UK and with whom I shall share the next 12 days. Look forward to the company, as Keith always has an interesting and informed viewpoint on many subjects. Thanks to both Keith’s wife Jeannie, my sister and to my wife Jian, for releasing ‘us men’ for what promises to be a most interesting hike.

         Arrived just after 11.00 am in Bonn, checked into the ‘Max Hostel’ and headed off in warm sunshine to the nearby ‘Alte Stadt/OldTown, to get feel for this new/old city with an interesting recent history. Selected in 1949 to be the capital of the new born federal republic, specifically for reasons of its small size & meant to imply (to the Russians)  that it was only a temporary capital, until the time came to re-unify the two Germanys in the historic, but Nazi tainted capital of Berlin. Eastern Germany collapsed in ’89, but it was not until 10 years later that the decision was actually taken to move the capital back to Berlin. In fact, the motion to re-locate the capital city was almost defeated, with younger MPs preferring to stay in Bonn while older, more conservative MPs voting to return government to Berlin.

15.5 kms. walked today per Google Maps.
323.1 Cumulative kms. walked:
Type of overnight lodging: Max Youth hostel.
Cost of lodging: 25E.