It's back to the school grind, but before Easter Vacation ended I spent an awesome long weekend in Düsseldorf. I visited some family friends who really showed me the town and made for a great time. I got to experience a wide range of things from trying gold-plated Currywurst to exploring the hidden staircases in the local castle.
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| Now that's my kind of karats! |
Thankfully the weather couldn't have been better. It felt like summer walking around the Altstadt along with all the other locals and tourists enjoying their ice cream or Alts while watching the Jamaican acrobatic street performers do impressive/nerve-wracking flips.
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| Beautiful evening to watch some amateur Cirque du Soleil. |
Speaking of, Düsseldorf is a very diverse city. If you're downtown, in the span of about five minutes a half dozen different languages can be overheard. In the Königsallee (or Kö for short), the shopping district where you'll find your Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and Gucci, there are many chic tourists from Dubai stocking up on their favorite brands. There are posters all over promoting the big firework show coming up put on by the local Japanese community, the largest Japanese community in Germany. Like practically all German cities there's a solid Turkish community. And then there are the many many tourists that visit Düsseldorf from all around the world.
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| Woman vs. Food: Haxen Edition |
I was given a culinary tour of the "Dorf an der Düssel" (as it was so quaintly called back in its infancy several hundred years ago). In addition to the luxurious and delicious Currywurst sampling, I took on Schweinshaxe, also known as pig knuckle. Although tasty, this "not so wee little piggy" made me feel like one of Düsseldorf's earlier residents, the barbaric Germanic tribesmen.
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| I spy one Neanderthal that's been doing Cross Fit! |
Going along with the theme of primitive ancestors, we checked out the Neanderthal Museum just outside of Düsseldorf. It's located where the first Neanderthal fossils were discovered in a cave. The terminology Neanderthal comes from the valley where these remnants were found, which is called Neandertal. Neander is the last name of a 17th century pastor and Tal is German for valley. Wala you've got your Neanderthal!
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| The homo sapiens part of the exhibit was especially realistic. |
It's fascinating the findings scientists have gotten from studying the Neanderthals. All of us have a bit of them in our DNA, which means we all have the same great (times two thousand or so) grandparents. It was also interesting thinking about how much information our Neanderthal buddies just knew. I mean, they didn't exactly have a handy iPhone to look things up or add to Notes. Storytelling has been so innate and vital to our existence even before we'd gotten the hang of fire.
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| Listening to some ancient stories explaining life taken from different cultures. |
While we were on the road, we took a short trip over to neighboring Wuppertal to check out the one-of-a-kind Schwebebahn! In German schweben means to hover or be poised above something, which is totally logical because that's what the good ol' Schwebebahn does. The rock in the Wupper valley is too hard to build a subway, so they just flipped everything upside-down. The Schwebebahn runs right above the Wupper river through the long, narrow city. It's pretty neat viewing Wuppertal from what feels like its spinal chord.
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| Running through Wuppertal since 1901. |
Schloss Benrath was on the sightseeing list as well. It's a castle that was built in the 1700s for the ruling Kurfürst (a regional ruler kind of similar to a king or duke) who intended it be used by his wife once she was a widow. On the tour we were informed that even though the castle was the architect's masterpiece, the Kurfürst and his wife only spent a total of a few hours in the building-- ever. It's a shame, too, because it's a pretty intricate place. There's even a concealed room above the main dining area for the musicians to play unseen while the music just magically floated down to the guests below.
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| The castle is over four stories tall inside. |
The castle is surrounded by a large, beautiful park that is well used. We saw a Turkish wedding taking their photos next to the castle as well as a troop of Disney princesses. And while Schloss Benrath may seem old coming from the 18th-century, we visited an even older town my last day in Düsseldorf. It's called Zons and is from medieval times. We took a ferry to get there (along with a hundred of our friends on bikes). The complete town wall in still up, which brought up imagery in my mind of Hagar the Horrible scaling walls that looked just like Zons'.
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| Medieval town Zons! Population 5,000-ish (circa 2014) |
Düsseldorf is such an interesting city and I feel like I got a great tour. The history, the food, the people-- it all adds up to a city full of experiences and I had some pretty unforgettable ones! Until next time, Dorf an der Düssel.