Bonn Fire

Rheineau in Flammen, Bonn

Posted by Teliung

May 7, 2005

Sedad e-mailed me on "Rhinen in Flammen" (Rhines in Flames) along with its website when I was in Stockholm coming back from the Viking Cruise to Finlandia. At that time, I was still bent on doing England, Wales and Scotland (and maybe Ireland) after Scandinavia. But after my excursion to Norway, and reality time check with Samantha (who did England first) while we were in Oslo, I realized that it was not possible to do Britain in 4-5 days. So after 3 nites in Amsterdam I decided to head back to DE on the evening of the Bonn Fire on May 7.

I arrived at Bonn Hauptbanhof around 5:15PM, with Sedad again patiently waiting for me. After freshening up, we joined Nina and Amir at Pizza Casa for dinner that nite. Both Nina and I again ordered our favourite dish –"Linguini with shrimp in a mild curried creamy sauce"- with a generous sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan. It is the best eventhough I could never finish the portion served.

Since Nina is allergic to crowd (as do I to a certain extent..I’ve always avoided crowds whenever I can), it was just Sedad and me going to the Rhine Park that nite. It was freezing cold but there was already a growing crowd there for this celebration of Spring. Since we were early, we walked around, buying candied almonds and some interesting local nuts.. I also took pics of stalls selling all sort of wursts and wieners typical of the German staples (well mostly to tease my younger sister who’ll probably demanded that I samak the camera just for taking pics of porcine which off course, this being a "pork and ham" country, is in such abundance throughout DE). There’s folk music in the background, which I innocently commented.. as being crappy.. (as opposed to Scorpion :)another German product) ..which invited an unsuspected scolding from Mr. Bonn himself. Luckily he was quick to offer a peace treaty sealed with a wild pansy :) Later, I realized the German crowds were happily and patriotically singing along with those “crappy” folk songs.. I guess it is like our Rasa Sayang song.. beauty is in the ears of its natives it seemed, so I told Sedad I took back my comments :)

Bonn Fire

Posted by Teliung


Due to the droping temperature, the organizer considerately fast forwarded the lighting of fireworks by half hour to 11:00PM. I must be almost frozen by then, standing in my thin Chinese dinner jacket, which hardly provided any protection against the extreme cold temperature, with my feet falling asleep on me, but regardless, managed to take some pics with my completely frozen hands. I think they turned out rather nicely:) I especially love how the Ferris Wheels' pics turned out.

Ferris Wheel 1, Rheineau in Flammen, Bonn

Posted by Teliung

Ferris Wheel 2, Rheineau in Flammen, Bonn

Posted by Teliung