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.
.JPG)
