Goats, Beethoven, Chocolate, and Cologne

Before I return to the states, I've made it a point to visit my favorite places, and those which I have yet to see in and around Cologne. This past weekend, I visited my favorite spot for the third time, the wild park in Stadtwald Park next to my flat. It's a nature park/petting zoo complete with deer, goats, strange looking birds, and hundreds of screaming and crying children. For 0.50 Euro cents, you can purchase a box of feed from the vending machines in the park and hand feed the animals. Who could pass that up?!

I guess the one downside of the park is that it has no wash station. Therefore, once a sheep licks all the feed out of your hand in one swoop, you have nothing left but a gross looking film on your hand. Speaking of sheep, I found them to be my least favorite animal to feed. The goats are a little cuter, and a little less rude and disgusting.

In an attempt to get away from the hoards of screaming and crying children, I walked down a path not used by many of the patrons. I came upon a group of goats, and with one little jiggle of my box of feed, a few headed my way. After feeding them some food, a few of their friends decided to join the party. Eventually, I was surrounded by the entire herd. If you notice in the pic, I couldn't get the feed out of the box fast enough, and I had goats literally jumping on me. I quickly closed up the box, and headed towards the less aggressive deer.

Growing up in MN, I am accustomed to seeing deer in northern MN, and even out the office window. I've never got this close to them before though, and it is amazing how comfortable they were. The highlight was watching a two year old break free and make a bee-line out into the field. Needless to say, the deer got a little scared and hauled tail further out into the field. After listening to child after child cry and scream, watching various animals "go to the bathroom", and being disgusted with the thought of my hand being attached to my body, I left the park content with my visit.

Next on the list was a visit to the neighboring town of Bonn to get a look at the house Beethoven was born in. Bonn is a quaint and beautiful town. It was the seat of the West German govt during the DDR and Berlin Wall days. It too has a large university, and contains playful Baroque style architecture. This was my third trip to Bonn, but the first was on a Sunday, before I knew that Europe closes on Sundays, and the last two were to evening festivals just outside the city. So, I feel it was my first REAL visit to the city.

Since I visited Vienna and am a complete expert on classical music now (me being facetious) I thought a visit to Beethoven's birthplace (pictured) would be cool to see. It truly was a nicely preserved place, completely full of old letters, busts, and his pianos, violins, and funky looking instruments he used to compose his music. I looked at the things, and thought to myself, how in the hell did he produce such great music on those instruments. They looked so primitive. Actually I guess you could say they were. At the end of the tour is a plaster mask of Beethoven shortly after his death. It was gross.

Walking through the house, and reading about his life, it sounds like Beethoven was actually well taken care of and nurtured. With all of these mythical figures, you expect them to have these highly interesting and twisted lives, but his seemed pretty normal. I was amazed to find out that he was actually extremely hard on hearing. There was a case in the museum which housed all of his hearing aids. Again, how do you compose such great music basically deaf? When he died, I read that they opened up his head to see if they could figure out what caused him to loose his hearing. Can't you just accept the fact that he was deaf and move on? I can picture his ghost sitting in the corner and saying, "Hey guys, it's a little late for that. Can you please put my head back together?"

Next stop was a return visit to the chocolate museum in Cologne. What a fantastic idea, a shrine to my secret lover chocolate. The museum starts off with a history of the cocoa bean, chronicling its cultivation and use. Various rooms show how it was discovered, how to grow it, what tools were/are used to pick it, and how it was transported around the world.

Half-way through the museum is when my heart was truly taken over though. There in all its shiny glory were the modern machines used to make chocolate. You could hear the beans rattle around here, and see the liquid chocolate pour out there! Then perfectly shaped bars and truffles come out over there, and gold wrappers secure them here! Oh I was in heaven. It was a scene right out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

At the end of the room was a large shiny fountain of chocolaty goodness (pictured). A woman dipped wafers into it and handed them to visitors. I pushed three kids out of the way in order to get my hands on it. To cap it off, there is a huge gift shop by the entrance were you can buy a chocolate anything. Chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, chocolate soccer balls, chocolate beer! Oh boy, give the person that invented that a raise! I filled a bag with $11 worth of chocolate and ate it all as soon as I left.

Next on the list was a visit to the House #4711 (sign pictured). It's better known as the birthplace of Eau de Cologne. It was a concoction developed in the late 18th century meant to enhance the senses and attract the ladies. Basically, I think it was developed to be more of a deodorant then anything. I couldn't pass it up though, and the current fragrance store on the site has a mini museum on the second floor providing the history of the fragrance and displaying the original packaging and bottles it was sold in. Although I didn't buy a bottle, I'm sure the ladies love it.