The Rhine Promenade..a favorite of runners, walkers, cyclists and promenaders like ourselves …
A clichè on German walkers: A walking cane is a very important gadget, sometimes two, like this lady’s
The Rhine is the busiest waterway in Europe. Seen in the background is a barge transporting gravel, or is it coal?
Raring to see a bit of village life, we exited Bonn and drove southwards, planning to stop by the nearest “castled” town.
On both sides of the highway, we noticed a proliferation of tall, modern-ish buildings. The Germans, despite their modern way of living,
still manage to come out with very stylish and nicely-designed buildings, unlike the boxed concrete
row of apartments you see in Belgium, Spain or even France.
We saw the signages of the Egyptian Museum…. Zoological Museum, then I realized, we were driving through the Museum Mile of Bonn.
Then there’s also the government buildings such as the Federal Republic of Germany, a reminder that this city with a “quaint-town-atmosphere” used to be the
capital of West Germany but after reunification in 1990, the capitalship went to Berlin, the largest city of the Fatherland.
Our target destination was Bad Godesburg, famous for its castle ruins, hoping to find an authentic German restaurant serving
authentic German food. We drove into a tunnel, missed the turn to Bad G. and were getting uneasy driving through the
seemingly unending dark and very confining underground highway so we took the next available exit we could find!
We found ourselves in some quaint but very wealthy village along the Rhine, where the houses are unmistakably costing several millions
of euros each, the size of 4-storey buildings and the style is a mix and match of Art Deco and half-timbered houses. It was lunchtime
and we were getting hungry. The only restaurant visible was a 4-star looking one that would no doubt make a dent of our visa card.
The hubby was quite willing to part with part of his fortune that moment, but luckily, it was closed.. well, it’s their lost not ours!
An enormous German house
Our attention was diverted to a boat , a wide open catamaran carrying people, bikes and cars. It was coming towards the pier where we stood.
It was the ferry taxi! We’ve seen it crossing the river backwards and forwards, disposing and picking up passengers and vehicles, non-stop.
We thought it would be exciting to try so we joined the queue of people, bikes and cars.
The fare was 90 centimes for a 5-minute crossing, but what an experience! There are no seats, you just stand, hold on to the railings and enjoy the 360degree view!
Ferry taxi
It ferries people and their vehicles to the other side of the river, seen in the background.
We got off the opposite village called Niederdollendorf, and started scouting for a restaurant.
The village of Niederdollendorf with its church
The half-timbered houses of Niederdollendorf
What an excellent find! It was exactly what we wanted and we’ve done it!.. A village German restaurant. And there’s an added bonus…
that of being able to sit in a “no-smoking” room! A nice mural of the town is nicely painted in one of the walls, very charming!
The Elvis Presley voice-alike German singer was singing “Are you lonesome tonight?” over the radio.
Great! A reassurance that this place is indeed a family-run establishment and the food will be alright and the bill will be reasonable!
After few seconds, a family with a baby arrived, seemingly just came out of the church and having their traditional Sunday lunch in this restaurant.
The 99%German/1%English- speaking owner came to give us the menu card. In my slow English (so he understands), i asked him
which German cuisine he would recommend to us, and he described in half-gestures half-German what seemed to be an exciting food!
After getting served an Entrée of soup which is a mixture of brussel sprouts, vermicelli, chicken shreds and baby carrots,
the Meal of the day was as follows:
Sauerbraten rheinische
Art mit rotkohl und Klössen…. 9.50euros
Translation: beef, boiled potato, sauce and a side dish of sauerkraut (shreds of cabbage marinated in vinegar)
The beef was marinated in red wine for 24 hours then stewed for hours… à la beef bourgignon!
This 2-course meal costs 9.50 euros!
And of course, we washed it down with the very satisfying Kölsch beer.
We thoroughly enjoyed the meal, except for the sour cabbage. I can compare it with our very own “atchara” but i also hate
this Filipino salad! The Germans do love their cabbages! it’s probably the only vegetable they could grow in the Fatherland ?
They didn’t have dessert except Eis Weit..(ice cream)
So we just had kaffee….
You see a lot of game machines like this in the Fatherland.
What makes German gaming machines special is because they look very high-tech, whereas in Spain, Italy and France,
they are the more old-fashioned jukebox-looking machines
This Arc, part of the Bonn University building serves as entrance to the old town
Jewish memorial stone.
On this spot stood a synagogue, burned and destroyed during the Nazi regime
Wigs!
Did you know that most wigs you see sold all over the world come from India?
There is a religious event in India where the devout go on pilgrimage - young and old, men and women - their heads shaved.
All these hairs, tons and tons of them, are then delivered to a factory where they are sorted out by length, by thickness, then washed and sold “wholesale” to hair businessmen who then dye them, turn them into wigs and sell them all over the world. Europe is the biggest market!
I know it’s crazy to eat Chinese or Japanese food in German soil but we just couldn’t resist it when we saw a sign saying
“All-you can eat Sushi and Asian food at 9 Euros!”
It was a lucky find! We have never eaten so much sushi in our life! Japanese restaurants in Europe are so expensive so we always avoided going into one.
That night, whereas we only had one plate of sushi each (rice is so filling!), the young German couple next to our table had three
platefuls! gosh, what a stomach! And yet there was still the Asian buffet table to attend to!
Dont go to this cafe!
A café-bar to avoid, located in Remigiosplatz. We went to this place twice and both times, two different waitresses never gave us the change!
