This was my second visit to Germany, Bonn in about 2 years. My first sojourn is summarised here. All trips to Western Europe start with that laborious process of acquiring a Schengen visa. You must produce all documents exactly as they require including: medical insurance (in case you are run over by a car); proof that you have enough funds in your bank; and if like me, you travel on Official (government) Passport, you must produce a Note Verbale. The good thing though is that once all documents are in order, it is quicker to process a business visa. Although I requested the Germans to grant me a 5 day visa, they decided to give a year long access, presumably on the strength of my previous travels to Schengen states.
Bonn is a small city with a population of just over 300 000 people. The airport nearby services both Bonn and Cologne. On these trips with connecting flights things rarely go according to plan, and this time was no exception. I discovered in the connecting flight to the final destination that the date for my taxi pickup was incorrect. Indeed on arrival there was no one to pick me up. Luck was on my side, because a guy from Cape Town who was in the same flight was in the similar predicament. He suggested we take a train to Bonn. It turned out he had been a PhD student in Cologne, and could speak a smidgen of German. This would prove valuable, because everything was written in German. We bought our train tickets, but we missed the train by a minute. It was a public holiday, and the next train was expected an hour later. The second option was to take a train to Cologne central, and then from there connect with another one to Bonn. This plan worked pretty well. I used the opportunity to show him my address, Bonn - Bad Godesberg. A curious German onlooker in the train suggested that I must get off and Bad-Godesberg and not Bonn.
I refer to my magazine for the trip's pictorial summary.
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