Düsseldorf

Justin and I got up at a time of the morning that should be illegal. Thankfully we'd been able to get a mini cab because trying to find a cab at four in the morning would have been impossible. There was also no traffic, so we got to the airport in record time and discovered with a bunch of other people that Heathrow doesn't open until five. And no free wifi.

After checking luggage and getting past security, I then ambushed the people at the currency exchange to see if they had any 20 pence coins with the royal seal on the back. The coins reverse side all have part of the seal, and the only one that I was missing was the 20 p, and I was going to find it damn it. Justin was very embarrassed as I shamelessly went from exchanger to exchanger, but they had a good sense of humour about it and I finally got one.

All the coins under a pound make the seal, the pound has the seal in its entirety and I got a 2012 Charles Dickens memorial £2.

The flight from London was long enough for them to take off, throw a pack of peanuts at all of us, and land. The gods must have heard my frantic praying because our luggage landed with no problems and the cans of root beer I had bought for Mike and Risa in London were intact. We checked into the Maritim hotel which is located next to the airport, which I highly recommend as a fairly luxurious hotel for 100€ a night. We landed about two hours before Mike and Risa's train from Hamburg was due in, so we rested and sorted out their goodies before heading off. There's a train that runs from the airport to the main Hauptbahnhof downtown. It's in the basement and not on the second floor like the information desk will tell you. That's to the sky train which will, yes, eventually get you to a train that will take you downtown, but in our case, not before a Dutch family will BREAK the ticket machine before you can buy your tickets.

We finally made it to the Hauptbahnhof where we were going to meet Mike and Risa. After a few minutes of frantic searching, we meet in the middle of the station, much relieved. We stopped by the tourist office to pick a tourist card (free unlimited train and streetcar rides!) and a map. After a quick stop at a doner kebab place for lunch and a chat with the owners in a weird mixture of German and English (German being my third language and English being possibly their fourth or fifth), we eventually found Mike and Risa's hotel and started to wander the streets of Düsseldorf.

Düsseldorf is kind of boring, sadly. It got heavily bombed during the war and only a few city blocks of the old city remain. What has taken its place is pretty grim and utilitarian rather than cities like Berlin that have taken more of an artistic turn. There were still some interesting sights though. I forgot the camera, so all these pictures were taken on my phone.

The "famous" Golden Mule.

An old hospital

I think this was a bank, but it was a modern building meant to look old.

Königsallee (which means King's Avenue)

Rebuilt building to look like original architecture.

Dusseldorf was full of modern art.

St. Maximilian

Altstadt (Old town)

Rhine and a bridge across.

Food stalls next to the Rhine.

There were weird trees that lined the Rhine. I was curious as to what they looked like with leaves, they were peculiar bare.

Schlacht von Worringen (Battle of Worringen) to commemorate the battle that granted Düsseldorf its own town charter.

There was writing around the base of the statue.

St Lambertus, the twisted spire

It was hard to get a good picture here because Mike was making me laugh after I told him the origin of the word "testify." We bring out the inappropriate in each other.

Across the Rhine, traditional houses

Neanderkirche

Statue of Duke Johann Wilhelm, outside the Rathaus, would have been cooler without the construction.

Rathaus (City Hall)

We stopped in this chocolate shop/cafe that sold hot chocolates. This picture doesn't really do it justice as to how BIG it was. Think soup tureen. It was 60% cocao so it wasn't very sweet, but man, it made my blood sugar spike.

Mediahafen (Media Harbour)

The twisty metal building in the background was designed by Frank Gehry.

Dinner was sausages, cabbage, and potatoes. It was huge and I only got through about half.

We visited a few churches and walked along the Rhine. We stopped in a chocolate shop with an attached cafe and had a tureen of cocoa. I found a mini Bierstein to take home as a souvenir (it was hard to find much in the way of souvenirs). We took the street car out to the Mediahafen where was a gorgeous small park and awesome views of the Rhine. For dinner we went back to the Altstadt to eat from one of the stalls. I had some sort of wurst (I think it was Rostbratwurst) that came with cabbage and a massive amount of potatoes. It was good; the sausages were kind of like chipolatas and the potatoes were yummy, but Mike and Justin had to finish mine off because of the amount.

The tired four of us went back to Mike and Risa's hotel after a quick stop at a bakery and convenience store to find smarties. The smarties ended up being used as currency in a game of Three Dragon Ante while we munched on  Hörnchen (so good) and Stroopwafel, which I remember from Singapore and have since discovered at my local Korean store (yay!)

Twelve hours was not nearly enough time to catch up with my bff, but I was glad we'd made the side trip to see them. We parted ways with Justin and I going home and them heading off to Köln, which Risa then emailed me later and said it was WAY cooler than Düsseldorf. Oh well, there's always a next time.

Mike and Risa

Leaving the Dusseldorf airport. I'm very confused as to what they're (they'r?) supposed to be saying? Your Present? You're Present?