This morning after breakfast, we decided to hit up the flea market, which is only open on Saturdays. Some people wanted to get guitars, camera lenses, bikes, and various other things. I decided I’d come along though I wasn’t interested in buying anything. After that, we went to the Köln Hauptbahnhof to buy train tickets to Düsseldorf. Since we had 9 people, we bought 2 weekend group tickets (Schoenes Wochenende tickets) that work for 5 people each. The cost came out to 9 euros per person to go to Düsseldorf. Not bad!
When we arrived at Düsseldorf, we walked toward the huge telcommunications tower in the sky in order to get to the Medienhafen (Media Harbor). Along the way, we came to Königsallee, which is one of the most expensive shopping strips in all of Europe. There were all kinds of expensive shops here and a beautiful canal that splits the two sides of the strip. Here we also saw a lot of expensive cars. Plenty of Porsche 911s, a Mercedes CLR-AMG, a Ferrari, and an Astin Martin DBS. One of the biggest things we noticed in Düsseldorf is that the people there are really well dressed, drive expensive cars, and don’t drink in the streets. It is known for being an extremely wealthy city.
Once we made it to the big tower, we looked inside to try to ride to the top for a view of the city, which cost 3.10 euros. We decided against it because it was a cloudy, somewhat cold day, and since we are going back there for class on Monday, we figured we would try again then, when the weather improves. Right in that same area, we found a park with some strangely shaped bushes and rock figures, and we decided to take a break and toss the frisbee for a while. After that, we went the rest of the way to the Medienhafen, which was a harbor right along the Rhein River. Here the architecture was amazing. The hotels and buildings were very modern looking and many of them were odd shapes and colors. After that, we decided to walk along the Rhein river toward the Altstadt (the older, more central part of town).
Along the river, there were tents that served beer and food, mostly for tourists. We saw the strangest thing ever on the opposite bank of the river. Sheep! There was a herd of sheep drinking from the river….in the middle of the city. It was bizarre. Once we got into the Altstadt, we found a sculpture that appeared to be depicting the apocalypse, but I can’t be sure. A German came up to us and told us that he couldn’t understand the story written on the sculpture because it was in an old German dialect.
The Altstadt had incredible architecture just like the Medienhafen, but it was completely different and very old. In the heart of the Altstadt, there’s over 250 breweries within a few blocks. For that, it has the nickname “The longest bar in the world”. Some of the people in our group heard of a brewery called Brauerei zum Schluessel that is highly regarded as one of the best in the city, so we decided to go there for dinner. I ordered Bayerisch Weisswuerste (a type of pork wurst) with Bretzel (pretzel) included, and an Original Schluessel altbier. The food was great, but the beer was amazing. In Köln, the style of beer the breweries brew is koelsch, but in Düsseldorf, the breweries brew a darker, heavier style called altbier. I, as well as the rest of the group, decided we like altbier much better than koelsch.
After dinner we went into a huge store similar to Macy’s called Kaufhof. Some of the group wanted to buy new wallets, since the euros are taller than dollars and stick out of our American wallets, and because here you need a wallet with a coin pouch, because we’re always carrying around lots of coins. After that, we stopped at another brewery called Schumacher and we tried their beer too. It wasn’t quite as good as Schluessel, but it was still great.
Once it started getting colder once the sun went down, and after we had gotten tired of walking, half of us decided to take the trains back to Köln. When we got back to the hostel, I started writing this. I think we might be watching a movie later. Tomorrow the plan is to visit Aachen, a small city near the border of France with very old architecture and a cathedral that has Charlemagne’s original throne when he was Holy Roman Emperor. I hope we get a chance to sit on it J.
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