Saturday, 10 a.m.: Even if it's not quite as hot as it was, there are only a few people out and about in the city center. More passers-by can be seen on the banks of the Rhine, some are getting onto the already well-filled KD excursion boat. In a few minutes, it will leave for Linz. "In the past days our excursion boat services have been very well attended, despite the heat," says Philipp Wagner. Those who had planned a boat trip were not deterred by the hot temperatures: "Although it is cooler inside, there are plenty of guests who want to go to the outside deck despite the heat. But especially older people are a bit worried," says Wagner.

10:30 a.m.: About a dozen people stream into the beer garden at Alter Zoll. They belong to a group that has made a day trip to Bonn. "We come from Nordhorn, which is very close to Lingen, the hottest place of the week in Germany," says Dieter Wolf. On the really hot days, they went into their backyards at most, "now you can finally sit outside again". Didar Singh from the beer garden Am Alten Zoll is also happy that the heat wave is over for the time being. "On the very hot days there were fewer visitors here. But they drank three or four instead of just one spritzer," reports Singh.

12 noon: Gabriele Müller stands on Münsterplatz and listens to the music of the wind quartet "Neva Brass" with other passers-by. The musicians come twice a year from their hometown St. Petersburg to Germany and are already well known in the pedestrian zone of Bonn. "We arrived yesterday. We had already heard about the heat wave, we couldn't have played at 40 degrees," says Viacheslav Minnikov. The musicians are walking through the city center all day long. Their repertoire includes excerpts from various operas, film music and jazz.

1 pm: A queue forms in front of the ice cream parlor La Dolce Vita on the Marktplatz. Also here, one is glad that the temperatures have tumbled: "At 40 degrees, fewer customers come to the ice cream shop," says employee Daniel Ottmann. This doesn't mean less work for his team, because at 40 degrees the ice cream has to be handled more carefully: "Then we have to place a special glass pane on the ice cream chest to protect the ice cream from the heat," explains Ottmann.

3 p.m.: It is not as humid as in the morning. Madita Rundmann is with some friends on an E-Scooter on the way to the Beer Exchange. "We are celebrating my birthday", says Rundmann and is happy that even friends from Brazil came to Bonn to celebrate. At the Beer Exchange, the group visits some of the 85 stands where they are faced with the agony of choosing over 700 types of beer. "At the moment we have very good Beer Exchange weather. It's dry and not too hot," says Saskia Külzer from the Nolden company. Looking towards the sky, she adds: "We hope that we will be spared from the storm even today". On Friday one was plagued by heat. "But given the weather conditions, we were very satisfied with the number of visitors," says Külzer. We have a much larger water supply than usual for the festival visitors," Külzer said.

4 p.m.: The German Weather Service warns of heavy thunderstorms and heavy rain in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district. The first lightning bolts can already be seen in the distance. The thunderstorm passes Bonn.

6 p.m.: The Haus der Geschichte ( history museum) closes, Barbara Galonska is off work. Looking back on the past days she says: "On the days of the heatwave, we had even more visitors than on other vacation days. Around 2,000 visitors came every day during the hot week. Many had called beforehand and asked whether the museum was air-conditioned, which they could confirm, the receptionist in the Haus der Geschichte reports.

8 p.m.: The last of the stores close in Bonn city. After the previous days of extreme heat, the city was more lively again. "People want to walk around again," says Claudia Justen from the Wunderbar store. "We retailers on Friedrichstraße have already considered whether one should have a siesta on such hot days as the ones we just experienced. For example, you could open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., then close for a few hours and open again in the evening," says Justen.

(Orig. text: Sebastian Flick; Translation: ck)