Oktober 16 - Dusseldorf

This morning, we got up and went directly to the Galleria Kaufhaus on Alexanderplatz for breakfast and also to buy our duvets. I think I might have mentioned this before, but in Germany (and likely most of Europe) each person normally gets their own duvet and no flat sheet...they have sheets that wrap the duvet and that essentially is your sheet! We loved them so much that we wanted to buy them there and ship them back.

Well...I think this department store has folks that know the least amount of English. This nice girl did really well and definately knows more English than I know German, but it was a bit of a trial. They helped us pick it all out, pay, and they are going to ship it. Let's hope it shows up!

Then, we went to buy me (Scott) a Freitag bag...I first noticed it in a design magazine I get and they take used vinyl lorrie tarps (a lorrie is the equivalent of a 18-wheeler but they use vinyl sides instead of aluminum sides) clean them up and then use that to make bags. They use used seatbelts (it feels pristine) for the strap and used innertubes for the welting. Awesome! I love it.

We went to the Deutsche Bahn office to reserve our seats for the train...only cost 3 euros each! Then took all of our luggage (it had grown in size) and lugged it to the U-bahn (underground) and then switched to the S-bahn (overground) and then went to the Deutsche Bahn platform.

Well, the one that Scott thought was the right platform. Wrong. I looked closely and noticed that we were standing at platform 2. Our train left from platform 14. In about 5 minutes. Platform 2 is at the bottom of this 5 story massive structure. I wonder where Platform 14 was??? The top!! Luckily we had explored most of the Hauptbahnhof (train station) trying to find Platform 2 in the first place that it was quite easy to find # 14. Found our seats, sat down, and enjoyed a nice 4 hour ride to Dusseldorf.

Dusseldorf rebuilt their Altstadt (Old City) with alleys and medieval nooks and crannies...filled with 200 bars and restaurants. After checking into our hotel, we walked through the streets and the riverside walk that was full of people watching the sunset. Dusseldorf is actually a mostly modern city with a good deal of money and, from what I could gather from the Altstadt crowd, a lot of business trade shows. We ate at a place with German food, but cooked by Croatians. It rocked!

Sadly, we both had a pretty sad mood because we had so many great memories from this trip and did not want it to end...

Then went for one of our final beers in Germany at this place that only serves one type of beer and it is out of an oak cask. It was sooo good! We said good night to Dusseldorf, walked back to our hotel and started to repack everything. Went to bed about 23:00 and ordered a 6:30 wake call (in german..."Konnen Sie mich auf half sieben wecken?" "Yah, ich kann das machen. Bis morgen."