Bonn, c'est bon.

I feel kind of sorry for Bonn. One day, you're the capital of a major global power, backed by a booming economy and the moral righteousness of upholding democracy in the face of totalitarian evil; the next you're just another sleepy little town hardly worth a pit stop on Rick Steves' itinerary.

But not us: we are egalitarian travelers, willing to spread our attention even to the humblest of former world capitals. Also, Bonn is just 20 minutes by train from Cologne, and we had some time to kill.

How to spend half a day in Bonn? Four suggestions:

Blue Beethoven at Bonn's TI

1. Beethoven: 

Bonn is the home of Ludwig van Beethoven - and it does not let you forget it. Every house claims that Beethoven slept there; every church claims that Beethoven played there. The (very helpful) Tourist Information office in Bonn gives out free Beethoven walking tour brochures so you, too, can retrace every step Beethoven ever took in this city. We dutifully walked past Beethoven's childhood home, but I generally have a short attention span for the "a famous person slept here" sort of touring.

2. "The Path of Democracy": 

This walking tour, also available from the TI, leads you around the cluster of unremarkable mid-century buildings slightly south of downtown that were once the home of German democracy. We skipped this tour, however, when even the guy giving us the brochure at the TI suggested it would not be worth the time and trouble - which made me feel very sad for Bonn-the-capital, used and discarded by the West Germans like a starter wife.

Not actually part of the Path of Democracy tour, but I thought it was a cool picture.

Getting hands on at the Arithmeum

3. Museums: 

Bonn seems to have a large number of them, probably thanks to its former capital glory. We, however, visited a less traditional museum: the Arithmeum, attached to a research institute for discrete mathematics. (What can I say, I date an engineer.) I for one really needed to see the "bizarre cogwheel mechanisms in mechanical calculating machines" as advertised, and I was not disappointed. The museum traces the history of adding, from the abacus through some rather ingenious renaissance and enlightenment contraptions to the explosion of (really complicated) adding machines before the advent of computers. Being a child of the '80s, it shocked me to see there was life before God invented the handheld calculator.

4. The Good Life: 

What Bonn does well is calm and pretty: pedestrianized streets and squares, parks, cafes, palatial buildings from the 1700s and 1800s (which Cologne severely lacks). The historic center of town, alongside the Rhine, is free of cars and has several squares and some nice winding streets. One could mellow here - which is perhaps the best way to spend an afternoon in Bonn.

All photo credits go to Jeff - thanks, Jeff!