The Beethoven Haus In Bonn

Bill: No one else has answered your question so I'll try to help. I haven't been there, but here's the excellent website, you can do a virtual visit, I just did!:Beethoven HausRe accommodations, on Google Earth I can count at least 15 hotels quite near the Haus. To check these out, do the free download of Google Earth, when you're on the site, enter this address in the fly to window: Bonngasse 18, 53111 Bonn, Germany, and it will take you to a birdseye view over the Haus; then go to Layers in the lower left, click Places of Interest, then click Lodging, and the lodging icons will appear and you can click them to go the their websites, get reviews and book online. Since we're talking Beethoven, I'll share that in Vienna I went to Haus der Musik and they had 5 or 6 stations where you could listen to Beethoven's earlier symphonies, then his later ones, through earphones that replicated his hearing loss as it progressed during his life. When you get to the 5th Symphony you can't hear very well, and when you get to the 9th Symphony you hear nothing. We can read in a book that he was deaf when he wrote the 9th, but when you stand there in Vienna and hear dead silence when you should hear the 9th--well, that helped me understand the meaning of the word genius. To me, when you seek out a museum like you'[re doing, you experience Europe at its best--you're where these things happened! It has helped me to better connect with one of the important sources of our cultural inheritance.

You can use the following website to search for hotels in Bonn.

http://www.hrs.com/

Once it comes up with the selections, you can sort them on "Distance to", "Bonn Beethovenhalle". Even if you decide to make reservations through another means, hrs.com has many helpful features. I often do make reservations through them as they have the most flexible policies if you have to cancel a reservation for any reason.

Regards

Hey Kent!

Thanks so MUCH for the link, and the info on accomodations! I plan to immerse myself in all things "Luigi" when I get to Bonn, and your kind reply has just helped me so much!

In the so-called "Autumn" of my years, I feel the need to get in touch with my heritage, and as a German-American "Baby-Boomer", it is great to be able to begin with my favorite composer!

Vielen Dank, Kent!

B~

I like hrs.com too for looking at hotels. Sometimes their prices are even cheaper than with the hotel itself. Being able to check availability is a plus. If you run out of things to see in Bonn, since it isnt that big of a town, Cologne is right next door and there is a lot to see there too, plus the Rhine river is just waiting for you to travel up or down it.

Bill: Thanks for the kind words. What you see and hear in Bonn and in Vienna (hope you're going there) will make you proud of your heritage: the genius of these German composers. I spent time driving today in west Texas and was listening to Beethoven's compositions almost two hundred years after he wrote them. Or in Salzburg seeing Mozart's violin that he played at the virtuoso level at 9 years of age! Or Neuschwainstein and its connections to Wagner.

Well, I checked the site, but they're giving me close to 100.00 USD a night and over, and I was kinda hoping for something way cheaper than that. I guess it has something to with the proximity to the Haus.

Thanks

B~

Kent,

If you are a Beethoven afficionado (as I am), there IS a forum where we discuss all things Ludwig and some of his contemporaries.

If you are interested, here is the site address:

http://www.forum-lvbeethoven.com

If you go there I bet you'll be able to pick me out of the crowd of posters by my style of writing! ;)

Kent, I REALLY appreciate your advice, and yes, I DO plan to go to Vienna as well. (Need to see the beginning AND the end of this wonderful musician's life!)

As my hometown is Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Vienna isn't that far away!

Thanks once again, Sir!

Bill

Bill: If you've done the free download of Google Earth, then expand your search area and you will find more lodging icons, yes, farther away but perhaps in a better price range.

Bill: Thank you for that site, I'll go to it tomorrow and see if I can pick you out. As I was driving up theI35 from Austin tonight, listening to the 9th on the IPOD, and knowing that he wrote that when he was stone cold deaf and couldn't hear a note--well, it almost gives you hope, you see what a mere human can achieve in a life despite medical and emotional problems. The movie is something to see before you go, if possible, the one that shows the scene at the end where the first violinist has to turn him around so he can see the standing ovation he's getting in Vienna (the opera house that was bombed).

"Immortal Beloved". I have the DVD, and love watching it. Gary Oldman does a wonderful job, despite the film playing fast and loose with most of the facts! ;)

Thanks

B~

PS: Send me a PM when you think you've picked me out!

If anyone likes Bach and will be in the area, there will be an organ concert at the Kaiserdom in Frankfurt on 12 Sept. The organ there is massive, one of the largest in Germany. For Mendelsohn & Bach fans, there is a concert at the Drei Koenigs Church on the 19th, and on the 18th & 19th of Sept., there will be an ongoing Flutissimo concert in the Alt Nikolai from 11:00 - 17:00, which sounds very interesting. This church has wonderful acustics for being so small.