Things to do in Bonn
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Industrial Heritage Trail
Most of the smokestacks and mines are quiet today, but the Ruhrgebiet has embraced its heritage by cleverly converting many of its 'cathedrals of industry' into museums, concert halls, cinemas, restaurants, lookouts, playgrounds and other venues. About 25 of them are linked along the 400km Industrial Heritage Trail that takes in such cities as Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Bochum. Most sites are also served by public transport.
The route's central visitors' centre is at the Zollverein colliery complex in Essen.
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Museum Koenig
Across from the Villa Hammerschmidt, the Museum Koenig is a natural history museum but it’s hardly your usual dead-animal zoo. The ‘Savannah’ exhibit re-creates an entire habitat with theatrical flourishes: elephants drinking at a watering hole, a jaguar holed up with its kill and vultures surveying the scene from above. Other highlights include a talking baobab tree in the ‘Rainforest’, a colossal sea elephant in the ‘Arctic’ and a condor with a 3m wingspan in the ‘World of Birds’.
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Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
The Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland presents a highly engaging and intelligent romp through recent German history, starting when the final bullet was fired in WWII. Walk through the fuselage of a Berlin Airlift ‘Rosinenbomber’, watch classic clips in a 1950s movie theatre, examine Erich Honecker’s arrest warrant, stand in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall or see John F Kennedy’s famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech. U-Bahns 16, 63 and 66 stop here.
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Doppelkirche Schwarzrheindorf
The 12th-century Doppelkirche Schwarzrheindorf is a magnificent ‘double church’ where the nobility sat on the upper level and the parishioners on the lower. The beautiful Romanesque architecture is impressive, as is the restored Old Testament fresco cycle in the lower church. It is across the river from Poppeksdorf in the suburb of Schwarzrheindorf; take bus 550 or 640 from the Hauptbahnhof to Schwarzrheindorf-Kirche.
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Schloss Drachenburg
The neo-Gothic Schloss Drachenburg looks medieval but was actually built in the 1880s. It houses exhibits on the building's history, the ongoing restoration process and on the history of nature protection. Perhaps more interesting, though, are the lovely grounds with their terraces, fountains, and tower that can be climbed for expansive views.
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Plenary Hall
About 1.5km south of the Altstadt along the B9, Bonn's former government quarter was, from 1949 to 1999, the nerve centre of West German political power. These days the Bundesviertel has reinvented itself as the home of the UN and other international and federal institutions. The airy and modern Plenary Hall where the Bundestag (German parliament) used to convene, now hosts international conferences.
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Arithmeum
The Arithmeum explores the symbiosis of science, technology and art. On view are hundreds of mechanical calculators and historic mathematics books but also an out-there exhibit on the aesthetics of microchips. Design your own or study their beauty through a polarisation microscope. Work your way down from the top floor of this minimalist glass-and-steel cube. It's on the southeast corner of the Altstadt by the Hofgarten.
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Münster Basilica
A good place to start exploring Bonn’s historic centre is on Münsterplatz, where the landmark Münster Basilica was built on the graves of the two martyred Roman soldiers who later got promoted to be the city’s patron saints. It got its Gothic look in the 13th century but the Romanesque origins survive beautifully in the ageing cloister (open till 5pm). It's interior is redolent with centuries of burnt incense. On the square outside the church, a buttercup-yellow baroque Palais (palace; now the post office) forms a photogenic backdrop for the Beethoven Monument (1845).
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LandesMuseum Bonn
South of the Hauptbahnhof, the LandesMuseum presents its rich collections in such themed exhibits as Epochs, Gods and Power. Highlights include a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal skull and a rare blue Roman glass vessel from the 1st century AD. The museum restaurant, DelikArt (mains €11 to €17), enjoys a fine reputation.
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Beethoven-Haus
The famous composer first saw the light of day in 1770 in the rather plain Beethoven Haus. It’s now the repository of a pretty static array of letters, musical scores, instruments and paintings. The highlights – his last grand piano, the huge ear trumpets he used to combat his growing deafness and a famous portrait – are all on the 2nd floor.
Tickets are also good for the Digitales Beethoven-Haus next door, where you can experience the composer’s genius during a spacey, interactive 3-D multimedia show or deepen your knowledge in the digital archive. You can contemplate his life in a near-hidden garden out back, and stroke your inner-Schroeder (of Peanuts fame) in the…
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Schumannhaus
Fans of Robert Schumann (1810-56) might enjoy the small memorial exhibit in the Schumannhaus. It's in the former sanatorium he checked into following a suicide attempt in 1854. He and his wife Clara are buried in Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery) on Bornheimer Strasse in the Nordstadt, as is Beethoven's mother Maria Magdalena.
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Langer Eugen
Near the Plenary Hall, the high-rise nicknamed Langer Eugen, where members of parliament kept their offices, is now a UN campus. Officially retaining their former purposes are the stately Villa Hammerschmidt, still a secondary official residence of the federal president, and the neoclassical Palais Schaumburg, now serving as the chancellor's Bonn office.
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August-Macke-Haus
The expressionist painter August Macke (1887–1914) lived in this neighbourhood in the three years before his untimely death on the battlefields in WWI. His neoclassical home is now the August-Macke-Haus, where you can soak up the master’s aura in his re-created studio and see some originals; the finest works, though, are not far away at the Kunstmuseum Bonn. The house is about 1km from the train station.
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Der Spanier
It's a food store. It's a restaurant. It's both. Conversation flows as freely as the wine at this convivial eatery whose eclectic clientele shares a passion for chef Luis' grilled gambas (shrimp), crunchy fried calamari and other Iberian staples. If you help yourself to a bottle of wine from the shelf, the corkage fee is just €3.
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Nibelungenhalle
The 1913 Nibelungenhalle is a templelike shrine to the composer Richard Wagner decorated with scenes from his opera cycle Ring of the Nibelungen. Tickets include access to the Drachenhöhle, a cave inhabited by a 13m-long stone dragon, and a small reptile zoo.
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Bundeskunsthalle
Adjoining the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland is another striking space with a name that's a mouthful. It has special exhibitions of everything from serious art to the works of Pixar (admission fees vary).
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Deutsches Museum Bonn
Did you know that the air bag and MP3 technology were invented in Germany? You will, after visiting the Deutsches Museum Bonn. This pint-size subsidiary of the blockbuster Munich mother ship highlights German technology since WWII with plenty of buttons to push and knobs to pull. It's some 2km south of the other museums; take U-Bahn 16 or 63.
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Kurfürstliche Residenz
To the south is the palatial 1705 Kurfürstliche Residenz, once the immodest home of the archbishop-electors of Cologne and part of Bonn’s university since 1818. Its south side opens up to the expansive Hofgarten (Palace Garden), a popular gathering place for students.
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Brauhaus Bönnsch
The unfiltered ale is a must at this congenial brew-pub adorned with photographs of famous politicians: Willy Brandt to, yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schnitzel, various pork cuts and sausage dominate the menu, but the Flammkuchen is always a crowd-pleaser.
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Kammermusiksaal
This chamber music hall is part of the Beethoven House complex.
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Klein Bonnum
Klein Bonnum was a Nordstadt institution long before the quarter became up-and-coming. It's sort of a grown-up student pub where you can stick to the basics - salads, pizzas, nachos - or go fancy with such dishes as black linguine with salmon and tiger shrimp.
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Havana
This friendly contender in Poppelsdorf is a lively meet-and-greet zone that always hums with activity. Despite the name, the menu is more Italian than Cuban, but the cocktails are strong enough to give you the guts to chat up that cute guy or girl at the bar.
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Harmonie
The well- prepared comfort food - pizza, pasta, salads and meaty mains like schnitzel and pork chops - has vaulted this low-key pub to the top of many a local's fave list. In fine weather, the beer garden tables are the most coveted.
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Pawlow
Generations of bon vivants have followed the Pavlovian bell to this northern Altstadt institution. A cafe in the daytime, it morphs into a DJ bar at night with electro, punk and '60s sounds heating up a chatty, boozy crowd.
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Akademisches Kunstmuseum
At the far end of the expansive Hofgarten, the recently renovated Akademisches Kunstmuseum presents plaster casts of antique sculptures in a former anatomy institute designed by Prussian master builder Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
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