Situated 40km south to
Cologne, Bonn is
Germany's ex-capital, since the German parliament decided to make
Berlin the new capital after the two German states re-united in 1990. Called "Bundesdorf" (Federal village) by it's inhabitats because it feels like a village although is has 303,000 inhabitants.
Almost every quarter has a "village" name like "Buschdorf" (bush village), "Schwarzrheindorf" (black rhine village) because all these villages were assimilated when Bonn became West Germany's provisional capitol in 1949 after World War 2.
Famous for Beethoven's house of birth (famous German composer), the house of German history, lots of museums. When you come, you should try "Bönnsch", a strange kind of beer, very unlike Kölsch, but very tasty. Bonn-Beuel is the home of "Weiberfastnacht", a strange habit during Carnival in Germany, including cutting women cutting ties of men they don't know.
For geeks, Bonn is quite a nice place to live because it is quiet on the one hand and home of many technology companies on the other hand, mainly Deutsche Telekom. It is (2001) very easy to find a well-paid IT job here.