Rheinaue Park, Bonn (must see)

The Rheinaue Amusement Park (also called Rheinauenpark), just called "the Rheinaue" by locals, is a 160-hectare park-like recreation area in Bonn. The main features of the park were created on the occasion of the Federal Horticultural Show in 1979 south of Bonn's Gronau, a floodplain area that was undeveloped and used for agriculture at the time.

In the amusement park there is a 15-hectare, artificially created Auensee. The lake can be crossed on six pontoon bridges; one island is designed as a non-accessible bird sanctuary. The Rheinauensee offers a habitat for various species of fish and geese, including the Nile geese, which have been problematic for other waterfowl populations since the 1990s. In addition, coypu have settled since the mid-2010s. These semi-aquatic (in the water and on land) rodents with the striking orange teeth have even become a small attraction in the Rheinaue. They resemble a beaver and are also called coypu, but their tails are round and not flattened like beavers.

The lake offers opportunities for boating (especially pedal boats). In the southernmost part, the so-called Regattasee, and in the northernmost part, the so-called Schiffchensee, ship model building associations have their waterways. In cold winters, the Rheinauensee freezes so much that the ice can be walked on and used for skating.

Between March and October, on the third Saturday of the month, one of the largest flea markets in Germany with around 1,700 stalls from non-commercial suppliers takes place on the left bank of the Rhine. Annual events in the Rheinaue are the large firework display "Rhein in Flammen" on the first weekend in May and a "Beer Exchange" on the last weekend in July and the "Family Game Festival". Bands play almost every day on a small stage in the Rheinaue beer garden in summer: jazz, blues, rock (see also: Rockaue Open Air), Latin and Schlager.