Bonn Culture

Bonn has a modern art museum a little way up the Rhine. Curiously it was featuring a display of old art, specifically paintings by various Dutch Masters. 

Old art in a modern art museum? That certainly had to be worth a visit.

Appropriately, the museum starts in an old railway station and connects to a modern building via a walkway and scenic elevator. To pique one's interest, there were some cool sculptures in the garden... 

The Dutch Masters' paintings were fabulous! 

The modern art by contrast was decidedly odd. The piece de resistance had to be the display of 12 pairs of used gardening gloves. We didn't understand how that could be considered art, however on the assumption that someone was paid for it's creation we did all agree it was a profitable business model. 

Having been a bit bemused by the cultural experience, the next day we planned 2 quite separate cultural excursions. First, an energetic climb up Drachenwelt during the day, followed by a concert in the evening. 

Climbing up the mountain, we stopped in at Nibelungenhalle, which effectively was an exhibition focused on Richard Wagner's music. Beautiful paintings of the legends that inspired his music were enjoyed with a background of that same music. Now this was more like it! 

Inspired no doubt by the story of Siegfried slaying Fafnir, the site also included a reptile zoo, featuring many snakes, a few turtles & tortoises, and a couple of alligators. Ironically, the only significantly mobile exhibits were the tortoises! The rest were rather somnolent, to the extent that we thought the alligators were inanimate models. 

We continued on our climb, for magnificent scenery and views. 

We did notice a large police presence. It turned out that there was a climate conference planning meeting on the next mountain. They take security so seriously that they post police on the neighbouring mountains despite being many kilometres away! 

Time for the evening cultural experience, a selection of songs by Beethoven, Schubert and Debussy in the Beethoven-Haus, which is a few doors along from Beethoven's birthplace. 

Culturally revived after the art experience, that left just the Rhine and political areas to explore...