We left Paris to go to our last stop on our holiday, 4 nights in the German city of Dusseldorf on the Rhine River. Our last breakfast was near Gare de Nord Station and we said au revoir to Paris and France.We travelled on the Red Eurostar train, a 4 1/2 hour train journey. We maxed out at 300kph through the French countryside, but once we crossed the border into Belgium and then Germany it was a lot slower. We had morning tea onboard to pass the time as it was a little too early for beers!

We checked into our apartment and headed out to explore. Our first meal was our much loved curry wurst and frites and after that we needed a beer, so off to the Altstradt, or Old Town we went. The old town covers only about half a square kilometer and is known as “The longest bar in the world” courtesy of a song made famous by a Dusseldorf Rock Band.

In the small area of the Old Town there are more than260 bars/breweries and restaurants, so you can never go hungry or thirsty, and we did not! The beer that Dusseldorf is famous for is called Alt Beer, a traditional hand made craft beer, so of course we needed to sample one or two or more! A lot of the breweries and bars have long wooden tables or standing room only high tables where the “Kobe’s” or waiters do not ask what you want, you just get a beer “slammed down “ in front of you! Then it continues unless you place a coaster over your glass. That means enough!! They mark your coaster with the number of beers you have had. The waiters are notoriously brusque, or as Rhonda called them “ grumpy old men”!

For dinner on our first night we were of course longing for some more German food. We walked around the Old Town for a good 40 minutes coming across Italian, Lebanese, Argentinian, Spanish, Cuban, columbian, Japanese, and American food. Finally we found exactly what we wanted, the Augustiner Beer Garden. The good old veal schnitzel with cranberries and the great poatato salad. It was fabulous.

The next day we did a small self guided walking tour through the Old Town. Greg liked the sculpture called “Dispute”, he thought it was a reflection of himself 3 months ago and now, after copious amounts of alcohol and food.

We came across the Saint Lambertus Church, the oldest church in the city parts of which date back to 1206. Its most notable feature is the twisted spire. In 1815 lightening struck and caused a fire and it was rebuilt from unseasoned timber which when dried caused it to twist. The Stadterheburgs Monument marks the 700th anniversary of the city’s foundation. It consists of 485 individual pieces and depicts the history of Dusseldorf.

Beside the Konigsallee, the Kings Avenue, which is the main shopping mall there is an 580 meter moat through which water from the Dussel River flows. There are 3 bridges on the Konigsallee and the banks are lined with chestnut trees.

The Rathaus, Town Hall has stood on the Marktplatz for 450 years and is quite an impressive building.

We have seen statues on the top of columns throughout the town, and discovered that they are called Stylites. There are apparently 10 of them all depicting different individuals. Our mission was to find them all, and it was a fail, but we did manage to find a few.

We also found this cute “dude” and came home to translate! “This fairytale will probably never come true. Life teaches to be smart and save”. Al least that was how Google translated it!

We had walked quite a bit so needed to rest up and “do lunch”. We discovered the previous night that there is a Japanese Quarter in Dusseldorf so when in Germany, one has a Japanese lunch!!!! It was delicious.

The Rhine Promenade runs 1.5 kilometers along the Rhine and up until 1995 it was a very busy main road, much better now!

We were in need of a good cappuccino so we sussed out a cafe in the so called “Bohemian suburb” of Flingen called Cafe Huftgold, a vintage style cafe that boasted of its home made cakes. We must say that the cappuccino was great and “Grandpas apple pie was dam good too.

We have also had a great meal at home cooked by Herr Gregory. The Weiss wurst and mustard sauce , with the slaw and spud salad (compliments of the supermarket) was bloody

good considering the very limited cooking facilities in the apartment. We also had to venture out for another curry wurst and the order name on the receipt we were given was Bob Marley. Quite amusing.

We have walked many kms averaging over 10 kms per day so Greg’s knees are looking forward to a rest on the plane. We have enjoyed the different architecture of the German buildings whilst we have wandered and also the wrought iron signs that are everywhere.

Before we sign off for the last time, a couple of interesting observations for you about our stay in Dusseldorf. The beer , the schnitzel, the spud salad and the curry wurst have been great. As for the pedestrian crossings, that’s another story. They only let you cross half the road before you have to wait another 5 minutes to cross the other half of the road. In Greg’s words…it is bloody stupid and bloody annoying! We have come across an extraordinary amount of mature aged homeless men sitting in the streets drinking beer and rummaging through rubbish bins. Actually it is quite sad. Finally they say the French are arrogant but our experience is that the Germans are far more arrogant and rude than the French and they do not like tourists. ( That does not include you, Renata and Wolfey!)

We have had a fabulous time, even though our weather has not been as good as we were hoping.
Flights are booked for next year as is some of the accommodation.

Barney kept us safe and performed well throughout his nearly 9000 kilometers.

The bags are packed, we are “sort of” ready to come home, but not looking forward to the 30 hour trip. BUT we are looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up to tell you those stories that we just couldn’t put on the blog!

Until next year

Adios, au revoir auf weidersehen

Lots of love

Greg and Rhonda

xxx