Deutschlandfest Bonn 2011: Hello Dahon Folding Bike Riders! Hello "Angel of Cultures"!

This year a three day long Deutschlandfest was celebrated in Bonn.  The estimated number of visitors was 800 thousand so it was a good idea to go downtown by bike.  Many visitors were there with their bicycles, even a few on folders like this couple.  "Hello Dahon riders!"

Did you enjoy the show the exhibits and the music?

Here comes the marching band of the Musikverein Ziesar from Bandenburg near Potsdam.

But we also saw this:  people riding a Segway_PT, which I suppose comes close to the fun of riding a Brompton.

As we came near the university, we witnessed an artistic happening.  Two artists were explaining their project of  "Angel of Cultures" (Engel der Kulturen) in which they want to foster the idea of a 
peaceful dialogue between the religious cultures of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

The new angel is a symbol uniting the Christian cross, 
the Islamic  half  moon and  the Jewish  star

The artist is creating his "angel" of iron with a cutting torch.

The new symbol of inter-religious peace is being placed into the street pavement.

The artis is giving his "angel" a finishing cement job.

At the President`s  Party for Children
We also went to the children`s party on the premises of the President of  Germany (Bundespraesident).  The children loved to act along and to shout loudly in what the organizers were calling a torch light concert. There is probably no other way of breaking the culture of music further down to the simplest levels than was done by the performing group Rumpelstil from Berlin.  However, the kids loved it, and the president and his family were attending the show.

Torch light "concert" at the children`s party of the Bundespraesident (President of the Federal Republic of Germany) - the kids loved it. The performers: "Was this too simple?" - Kids:  "Yes!"


Thank you THW
After the "concert" we went back to where we had left our bikes locked to a piece of railing near Kennedy Bridge.  It happened that Germany`s Federal Agency for Technical Relief, commonly called THW, was dislocated here during the festival.
In the darkness of this late summer evening, we experienced their great competence.  As my son and I were struggling with a bicycle chain that had jumped off  a rear sprocket (not of the Brompton, mind you, it was of the kid`s bike), two young men from this fine volunteer organization came to help us, first with a torch light, then with the expertise of  tightening the proper screws of the derailer, and finally with a detergent to let us clean our hands.  Thank you, THW, we really appreciated this.