Our last side trip was to Bonn. The entire group made their way to the Beethoven museum, however the Haribo store was probably a bigger highlight for them...sigh. Mr. Randall, however, finally found Bienenstich and that made him very very happy. Travelling by train again The birth house of Ludwig von Beethoven Namenjesu Kirche (Holy Name Church)

This was a wonderful town to walk in. Although the Roman-Germanic Museum was closed we got to both the Ludwig and the Wallraf–Richartz Art Museums, which were definite highlights for the group. Our first stop after the Dom, however, was the old town right along the Rhine Schäl Tünnes And the art was not limited to the streets and buildings. The group first went to the Ludwig Roy Licht­en­stein. M-Maybe (A Girl’s Pic­ture), 1965 Jasper Johns. Map (Based on Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Airocean World), 1967 Martin Kip­pen­berg­er. Like­able Com­mu­nist, 1983 David Hockney. Fires of Furious Desire, 1961 Yan Pei-Ming. Mao, 1991 Then there was the Wallraf–Richartz... Anthony van Dyck. Jupiter as Satyr with Antiope, 1620 Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. Self-portrait as Zeuxis Laughing. 1662 Adolf Schrödter. Don Quichote 1834 Edvard Munch. Four Girls on the bridge, 1905 Auguste Renoir. The Couple (Les fiancés), 1868 Claude Monet. Springtime near Vetheuil, 1880 Paul Cezanne. Landscape from the West of Aix-en-Province. 1885

Our final stop on the three week whirlwind Germany extravaganza was Cologne and Bonn. When in Cologne it is virtually impossible to not spend time in the Cologne Cathedral. The cathedral become one of the most significant places of pilgrimage in Europe in the 1100's because Emperor Frederick I (AKA Frederick Barbarossa) gifted the relics of the Magi to the Archbishop of Cologne. The Shrine of the Three Holy Kings (in the church) is the largest surviving European goldsmith work dating from the High Middle Ages. In 1996 the Cathedral was named a UNESCO World Heritage site. The group arrived at the Hauptbahnhof and were immediately impressed with the size and scale of the cathedral Nick keeping a wary eye on that pidgeon Inside it was hard not to be impressed with the attention to detail and the work involved in creating this incredible structure It's kind of impressive when the floor you walk on is art The relics of the magi are contained here Like I mentioned before, it's kind of impressive when the floor you walk on is art And again there are details inside and out that impress And it kinda looks nice at night too...