With Sonja's sister incapacitated thanks to a broken leg it was decided to abandon our original travel plans, and so we drove four hundred clicks north to spend the holidays with our families. But in order to get in some "us-time" we booked a very nice hotel close to the old city core of Düsseldorf.
Düsseldorf is another German city making it under the top ten of the Mercer Quality of Living survey. With a population of 600.000 it is one of the biggest cities in Germany. It is known for trade fairs and fashion shows, its international airport, its carnival, and Altbier ("old beer"), a dark regional ale.
On Christmas Day we went out for a stroll in the Medienhafen (Media Harbour), a fancy lifestyle district defined by post modern architecture, among these the twisted buildings Neuer Zollhof by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, who also created the EMP in Seattle.
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| Neuer Zollhof by Frank Gehry |
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| Invasion of the coloured aliens. (Flossies) |
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| Some made it to the roof. They seem friendly, though. |
We had seen enough of the modern stuff, and ventured out to have Alt-Bier in the famous Altstadt (Old city core). When in Rome...
Note: Never ever order a Kölsch (a blond lager from the rival city Cologne) when in Düsseldorf.
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| Cheers with Schlüssel Alt |
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| Alt goes well with potato pancakes. |
Close to our hotel we found Cafe Florian, a bistro with all-day breakfast and local specialties (it's kale harvest).
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| Cafe Florian - highly recommended |
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| Cheapest gas station in the region |
Although the low gas prices have us worry a little due to its impact on the world economy, we were pleased to find the cheapest gas station so close to where Sonja's family lives. It only took us two fillings there and back driving almost 2,000 km in five days.
love your pictures.
ReplyDeleteyes, gas is pretty cheap everywhere. we had 94.9 canadian cents as lowest in Williams Lake on our trip. looks like you had some nice days. happy new year for you :-)
It is almost scary, in Alberta they had 70 cts, as taxes are much lower. I wonder what impact it will have on the economy.
DeleteBeautiful city. One of the things that has always struck me about Europe is its willingness to build creative, unique buildings. Compared to Ottawa with its Eastern-block-like concrete boxes everywhere it's very refreshing.
ReplyDeleteCanajun, there are many cities in Germany which are plain ugly and formerly rebuilt with "eastern block" buildings after WWII. But we chose not to visit them ;-)
DeleteAnd Düsseldorf is also the capital city of the federal state of Nordrhine Westphalia, hence needs to be a bit more representative...
While the post modern architecture along Media Harbor was amusing....I think I like the traditional German architecture better! That Altbier looks tasty.
ReplyDeleteDom, same here. I like the old brick architecture in the Altstadt.
DeleteThat looks fun. I like the old city, too- not very enthusiastic about "crumpled" architecture. How was the beer?
ReplyDeleteI am with you on this. The beer was pretty good I guess, not that I am a connoisseur... When having a choice I would rather have a glass of wine.
DeleteInteresting architecture, both the old and new.
ReplyDeleteSonja - I too prefer the picturesque, older buildings especially in the evening with the lights that you captured.
ReplyDeleteFun. Nice to see a little snow too.
ReplyDeleteI liike the older buildings compared to the more modern, but at least these aren't pink like the EMP.
It looks like you had a lovely Christmas. Dusseldorf looks intriguing. Your blog is better than a travel guide. Seriously.
ReplyDelete