From the 21st of December until the 3rd of January I was away on holidays, first in Bonn, then to Cologne, back to Bonn, and then to Luxembourg, then Bonn and then back to Stockholm. I stayed at a friend's place. Unfortunately I caught a cold on my first day of vacation and so I spent Christmas day sick as well. We did have a Christmas German dinner prepared by my friend's mother which was nice. Too bad I was so sick I couldn't fully appreciate the food.
When I was well enough I went around the city. It was quite cold which I wasn't expecting. I didn't bring proper winter clothes to withstand negative temperatures so most of the time I was freezing.
On the 26th of December we went to Cologne. There's a massive cathedral next to the train station. It was a weekend and most things were closed, but it was still nice to visit and walk around.
I bought about 15 euros worth of candy. To-date I still have some with me, it's a lot of candy!
Finally on the 3rd of Jan I visited the Beethoven house, the home to where Beethoven was born! He left for Vienna when he turned 21 and never came back. But Bonn is where he was born. The room that he was born in was very tiny.
Well Chinese New Year is coming up soon. I'm pretty excited for the New Year. New job and new work colleagues. Who knows what exciting things can happen this year? Last year was a bit meh, especially with work. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely glad to be offered the opportunity to be in Sweden, but with that company, it was a real waste of time. I was so full of optimism when I first found out I was joining, and it didn't turn out to be exactly what I thought it would be. So let's hope this year will be far better. It simply has to be.
A Merry German Xmas.
Square in downtown Bonn, home of Beethoven.
I had some Churros from the Xmas markets.
Xmas markets in Bonn.
Cologne at night.
Ice skating rink and Xmas markets.
From the 28th to the 30th of December I was in Luxembourg. We drove the car from Bonn to Luxembourg, which took about 4 hours or so. Luxembourg's a small picturesque city.
Downtown Luxembourg.
Luxembourg.
Luxembourg.
Luxembourg.
Notre dame cathedral.
On the last day we went to the American cemetery and memorial. It's where a few "Band of Brothers" soldiers were buried and it is also the burial place of George Patton, the US General during WW2. The cemetery is slightly outside the city, you need to drive to get there.
American cemetery.
American cemetery, George Patton RIP.
American cemetery.
The drive back to Bonn was a lot shorter since we took the highway. Some parts of the road were like a scene off "Silent Hill". It was really misty.
New Year's day was spent at Drachenfels in Bonn. It's a pretty nice view up at the top. The midnight countdown was in Bonn with two of my friend's German friends. Well I didn't really talk much. But we played "You don't know Jack" and some other games and that was pretty fun.
Going up Drachenfels!
View from Drachenfels.
View from Drachenfels.
On the 2nd of Jan we went to the Haribo factory. Bonn is the home to the world famous Haribo candy, so not visiting is just not an option.
Haribo! Not much outside, but it's big inside.
Lots of candy.
Lots of candy.
Lots of candy.
Finally on the 3rd of Jan I visited the Beethoven house, the home to where Beethoven was born! He left for Vienna when he turned 21 and never came back. But Bonn is where he was born. The room that he was born in was very tiny.
Beethoven house, Bonn.
Beethoven house, Bonn.
Beethoven's work.
Beethoven's will, he was pretty sick when he wrote this.
The room which Beethoven was born. The light brown line on the floor was an extension of the room.
After that we took a short walk around the city. I had curry wurst which was good. I hadn't really had any proper German food in the time I was in Bonn until that point.
Postoffice, Bonn. That's a statue of Beethoven outside!
Currywurst for dinner, yay!
The drive to Düsseldorf took about an hour or so. All in all I think I had a good time in Germany and Luxembourg even though I was sick for almost half the time. I eventually got back in Stockholm and home at a time of almost 1am.
Düsseldorf airport.
Plane back to Stockholm.
Well Chinese New Year is coming up soon. I'm pretty excited for the New Year. New job and new work colleagues. Who knows what exciting things can happen this year? Last year was a bit meh, especially with work. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely glad to be offered the opportunity to be in Sweden, but with that company, it was a real waste of time. I was so full of optimism when I first found out I was joining, and it didn't turn out to be exactly what I thought it would be. So let's hope this year will be far better. It simply has to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment