w i t h   S T U A R T   P A T E R S O N

A FEW years ago, the city fathers of Liverpool decided, in their no doubt infinite wisdom, to dub its airport John Lennon International, or something as equally appealing to Japanese music fans. Now, I shalln’t commit the cardinal sin of besmirching that fine city on the banks of the Mersey, but I will say that the cities of Bonn and Cologne made a better choice when they opted to name their air transport hub after Konrad Adenauer, the father of the modern German nation.

To all intents and purposes, the airport is situated in Cologne, which is by far the larger of the two cities, with a population over three times that of Bonn. As well as that, the International Air Transport Association code for the airport is CGN, so why is it called Cologne/Bonn? One would imagine that, as the airport was opened to civilian air traffic in 1951 (having previously been occupied by British forces), the name is a result of Bonn’s former (and much-missed) status as capital of West Germany. Konrad Adenauer was born in Cologne and died on the outskirts of Bonn. He served as mayor of Cologne, and led his nation from Bonn. Therefore, it is fitting that the airport bears his name.

It was whilst on a journey from the aforementioned airport to my abode that I became aware of the fact that spring has well and truly sprung. The temperature has shot up and leaves have returned to trees in abundance. In Bonn the advent of spring means one thing – the annual marathon. The fact that there is such a thing as a Bonn marathon came as a surprise to me, not least because I questioned the existence of 26 miles and 385 yards of road, such is the bijou nature of the city. However, I have been proved wrong and in a few days thousands of runners will leave the Rathaus on an epic race around the city.

For some inexplicable reason, the starting pistol is due to be fired by the boyfriend of the openly gay leader of the German liberal party. From the Rathaus, those hoping to emulate Pheidippides will cross the Rhine and head into Beuel, a district of Bonn that is only notable for being on the opposite side of the river. The participants will be pleased to discover that their stay on the right bank will be brief, as the route heads back over the bridge to Bonn proper. Interestingly the bridge is named after President John F. Kennedy, who greeted crowds outside Bonn Rathaus before heading to Berlin to tell a worldwide audience of millions that he was actually a sticky doughnut. During Bonn’s time as capital, the Rathaus hosted receptions for various world leaders. Since reunification, the calibre of guest has declined somewhat. So far I have attended two receptions there. Enough said, I feel.

From the bridge, the marathon route follows the Rhine past the headquarters of Deutsche Post and the former government district, down towards Bad Godesberg, a rather well-to-do spa town founded in the eighth century, which hosted a meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler in the run-up to the Munich Conference. The town was unglamorously swallowed up by Bonn in the 1960s, and was, for many years, the suburb of choice for foreign diplomats, as the continued existence of a Marks and Spencers surely proves.  Curiously, it would appear that it is also the site of Bonn’s only branch of Woolworth’s.

From Bad Godesberg the route heads back north through the unremarkable suburbs of Friesdorf, Dottendorf, and Kessenich until reaching the city’s northern extremities where runners will again reach the Rhine which they follow back to the Rathaus where medals, foil sheets, and the distinct possibility of a myocardial infraction await.  Sounds fun, doesn’t it?