Dorfy Day Trips: German Downton Abbey

The glorious Schloss Drachenburg, aka German Downton Abbey.

Live long enough in the Northwest Rhineland (a year and a half or so) and you start itching to see if what's beyond Dusseldorf and Cologne. You get curious about the stuff further than a bike ride away. You look at maps and wonder about places with names that seem strange, but familiar. 

Then you get on the train and give it a shot. You head south and decide to see what happens when don't get off at Cologne's big cathedral. You continue down the Rhine into who knows what.


Poor Old Bonn 

Ludwig Beethoven was born in Bonn, started his musical education in its schools and at 21, he left his hometown for his era's Music City, Vienna. 

Vienna has been quietly claiming him as a local boy since the move. He wrote all his great symphonies and sonatas there. These were great years for him, and music in general. But he also went deaf in Vienna. Would that have happened in Bonn? Doubt it. 

The world mostly left Bonn alone until the city woke up one morning in 1949 to discover it was the capital of a new country. 

This wasn't a real country but West Germany, a temporary country formed from the British, French, and American occupation zones. The Soviets created their own East German country from their zone.

The West German chancellor, a hometown boy, made the decision to name Bonn the new capital. Before you start feeling proud for Bonn or start ranting about German pork barrel politics, Konrad Adenauer had his reasons.

The ultimate plan was never to keep Germany separated. Someday they would be reunited and when that day came Berlin was going to be the united Germany's capital. 

He also realized this plan might take a while to come together, so he would need a temporary capital city. Bustling, cosmopolitan Hamburg or Frankfurt (which was briefly the capital of a briefly unified German confederation in 1848) seemed like more obvious choices, but if the capital was moved there it would be difficult to move the government from such big, self-important cities.

Adenauer needed a small, humble place that no one romanticized. He needed a town close enough to a larger city like Cologne to be easy to reach, but far enough away from everything that no one would mind moving for Berlin if they had to. Poor old Bonn was that place.

Not all of the government agencies moved to Berlin. The defence ministry stuck around. As we sat by the Rhine sipping a midday drink in the sun, I realized I also would found it tough to leave this quiet, pretty place on the river.


Wagner's Strange Monument to Wagner

From Bonn's riverside, you can see the Seven Mountains. Two myths come out of these mountains. One is Snow White and her posse of seven dwarves – I'm guessing they each got a mountain. The other myth is about Siegfried and the dragon, which lived in a mountain cave.

If you're not familiar with Richard Wagner's operas or German mythology, Siegfried is a hero who killed this dragon and then bathed in the dragon's blood to become invincible.

Of course he missed a spot – mythic heroes always miss a spot with their invincibility coating – and later his wife betrayed him – yes, German mythology also respects women – by marking an ex on that spot to show another guy where to stab Siegfried while he took a bath in a river.

Some enterprising spirit saw an opportunity in this, and decided to put a strange memorial to Wagner part way up the mountain. Then, just in case that didn't pull in the big bucks, they added a reptile zoo, because of the whole dragon-reptile connection.

Although, as I write this, I'm thinking there might be an opportunity to open a Dragon's Blood Bath and Spa Resort. Oh, wait! Dibs! Patent pending.

 Wagner Land, the perfect place for the kids.

German Downton Abbey

At the top of this mountain is a castle-villa mansion thing. What is it about eccentric millionaires from the 1800s building ostentatious castles based on a mix of Gothic and Medieval. Toronto knows about this.

So, where else should we end this journey deeper into Rhineland than at Schloss Drachenburg.

There's a room for billiards, also known by its other name: Rich People Pool. 

A minimalist backyard.

Oh, hi!

A view to Bonn.

And a few upriver.