Easter Weekend in Bonn

It was Good Friday morning when we set off to visit our friends Marga and Ewald in Witterschlick near Bonn. They live on the outskirts of the one-time provisional capital of Germany, in a large rambling house in which Marga runs a short visit elderly persons hospice (if your going on holiday for a while you can get granny looked after in safe hands while your away galivanting). This time there was no room and so we went to the hotel in the village, it isn’t far and we did actually walk it on the first night.

We arrived on Friday lunchtime (lunchtime is always a good time to arrive) Ewald had his electric frying pan on and I scented fish, wonderful I just love fish. Ewald was cooking brown trout Müllerin, well what can I say, I started salivating like a dog at broth. The brown trout had been caught by Ewald and his pals on the river Wisent on their yearly fishing trip. They caught them with flies tied from pheasant feathers provided by me, so I was getting my just reward.

After eating we went to our hotel, The Lambertushof , this is a typical German Gasthof, oak panelled walls, a schankraum, with scrubbed deal tables and stools propped up at the bar, the meals that it serves are traditional Rheinland Hausmannkost (good home cooking from the area), without any frills, airs or graces. Order a meal and you will not leave hungry. With the exception of breakfast, we didn’t eat there this time, though I have eaten there many times in the past.

I had the evening before been to two of our local Schlachthof (to get different pork cutlets, shoulder steaks, etc for the grill), these had been requested by Marga, this meant we would be dining on meat, meat and more meat this weekend.

After booking in and unpacking we walked up (it is a little uphill) to Marga and Ewalds arriving just in time as Ewald had the meat under the grill. It is tradition that we get a little tipsy on our first night, this first night was no exception.

We walked back to The Lambertushof and had a peaceful night and did not get awoken to the chimes of the Church bells because it was Easter Saturday (no bells until Easter morning), this is not always the case, I have stayed here before and if you are unlucky then it can mean a room with the Church tower right outside your window.

Saturday was a trip into Bonn to go to the market and have a look around,

Aspargus green and white, spuds and strawberries (from Spain)

The Marktplatz with the Alte Rathaus behind

walk through the University down to the Rhine to the area of the “Alter Zoll” from here you can watch the river traffic passing below, with the passenger day trip boats tie up places. We took a few photographs and sampled the morning air, there where not a lot of people around, we being the only ones with the exception of a statue flanked by two old cannons.

The Alter Zoll grounds with the university and the Markt behind

magnolia blossom

a great tit foraging in the undergrowth

The Rhine tourist ships waiting for their first guests

We then walked along Ardenauerallee this runs parallel to the Rhine and leads to the Museum mile.

We passed  Villa Hammerschmidt

 the ex-home of the Bundespräsident and many of the Ministry buildings, the Ministries now being in Berlin. Most of the buildings are now being used by other organisations, the new UNO University building being but one. Crossing the road at the junction of Willy-Bradt-Allee, we went into the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (history of the Federal Republic Germany).

This building charts the life of the German Federal Republic from its conception (and prior to show the historic reasons for the formation of modern-day re-unified Germany) to present. Very, very interesting, you even get to sit in one of the seats used in the first Parliament building (Museum König) and have a vote.

Lots of things about the rebuilding of Modern Germany including the formation of the East and West, the cold war and the re-unification. 

It was raining when we came out as it was when we went in so decided to take the U-bahn, stop right outside of the door, there is even a direct entrance to the U-bahn, though we only discovered this when down in the station. 4 stops and we arrived back at the Main Railway Station. We decided to go for lunch, there is  a favourite of mine, but we took a wrong turning arrived at Beethoven’s Birth house, next door is a Sushi bar called Mika and then a traditional Gaststatten called Gasthaus im Stiefel “the guest house in boot”.

Dreesen Gasthaus im Stiefel  this is the menu

We plumbed for the latter as we wanted some traditional Rheinische Hausmannskost. Inside is what Germans would call Urig, a very tradition beer house, long scrubbed tables in the main body, at the far end a raised section with a log fire with a more modern atmosphere, we chose the traditional.

We sat ourselves at one of the scrubbed deal tables and along popped a friendly smiling waiter, plonked a couple of menus and a Tageskarte (daily menu)  in front of us, with a, “take your time” and took our drinks order. We looked at the Tageskarte and I saw at once what I was having, Rheinischesauerbraten with red cabbage, potato dumplings and apple sauce. Linda was in two minds about having it as well, but because of her diat the poor lass settled for another Rhineland speciality Bönn’sche Röggelchencremesuppe mit speckwurfel und rostzwiebeln, this is a Bonn rye bread, cream soup with bacon bits and roast onions.

Along came my Rheinischesauersauerbraten. 2 thick slices of pickled (sauer) pot-roast beef in a thick sauce (Rosinensoß), spiced with pumpernickel and raisins wonderful, truly wonderful. It was accompanied by a heap of  Rotkohl “red spiced cabbage”, Apfelkompot “apple sauce” and kartoffelnkloß “potato dumpling. Linda had a water, I had a large Bittburger pils, this is not the type of food that one drinks wine with.

Cost: mine was €7.50 and Linda’s was €5.90  mine would have normally cost €14,80 but because it was on the special menu it was almost half that well worth the price, even if paying the full wack.

We then got the train back to Witterschlick after doing a bit of shopping at T-Kmax and Karstadt (I picked up a Valentine Warner’s  cook book for €5,- was originally £25,- what a bargain).

Evening was another monster meal at Marga’s, her son Stephan was visiting with his wife and little son (Come to search for Easter eggs that have been left by the Easter hare). So this time it was rumpsteak and pork cutlets , chips and salad, garlic and herb butter.

We sat and chatted until late drank a few bottles of wine, tried Ewald’s self-distilled brandy and then Linda (who had not touched a drop, drove us home).