RED RIDING HOOD

Hop on, hop off with a friend by Thalys train. From lovely Brussels to the city in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area.

Upon the arrival we realized there are this iconic statues of Dusseldorf citizens everywhere:

We discovered pretty soon why this city is all in business and industry, with the buildings like this:

Anyhow, we continued towards the city center. The reformator’s church was somehow interesting for us because of the statues of fallen angels in front. So we entered, but yet reformator’s church are not welth decorated at all.

So that was the Martin Luther Platz, or square in english with the statue of the emperator or Kaiser Wilhem Denkmal flanked by the two angels of peace and war.

As we were hungry, we continued walking towards the Old town. We decided to  go to local restaurants, beer hauses: Hausbrauereien to eat and drink local.

Boy we had fun there! We soon discovered their local beer: Altbier, a top-fermented, dark beer.

There, the “Köbesse” (local dialect: waiters) may be somewhat harsh but they are warm hearted. If your beer glass is empty the next Alt comes without you even having to order it. This put is in trouble later afternoon when we ended with sightseeing and sat for one last Alt. Boy, it was a never ending story almost leading us to miss the train towards Brussels. So, the message is: Be careful! 🙂

Small tip, foreign guests might not know that there is rivalry between the citizens of Düsseldorf and their neighbours in Cologne. So never ever order a Kölsch (a light beer brewed in Cologne) in Düsseldorf. 🙂

The typical Hausbrauerei decorations are usually talking about the relation between the  wife at home and her husband after some time spend in the Brauerei. 🙂

The Old Town of Düsseldorf is famous by bars, restaurants, brewery inns, good weekend parties etc. hence it is called the longest bar of the world. 

The Old town has some interesting decorations and statues as well hiding the secrets of its citizens in the past.

The main square and the City Hall and kinds in the middle of city happenings. The building dates from the 16th century.

We were caught into the city parade with the traditional clothes and orchestra. What a lovely Saturday it was! 🙂

As we walked around, we ended on the food market. Please look at this booth: I never saw more species of potato, in my life!

At the southern end of the river Rhine promenade is the newest landmark of the city. It was nice to walk around even though te cold wind freezed our faces.

Actually, this is how the place looked like before and how it changed to nowadays modernity, sometimes not by its own will since the World War II caused the biggest changes of the veduta of the city.

The new funky place down the river Rhine is called Media Harbour. The former harbour was transformed in a quarter with restaurants, bars, coffee shops, discotheques and hotels. Its flair is based on the mixture of new modern buildings like depots, quay walls and industrial surroundings that stand side by side with modern architecture.

The Königsallee is an urban boulevard in Düsseldorf,  with a landscaped canal that runs along its center, as well as the fashion showrooms and luxury retail stores located along its sides.

By the end of the 18th century, Düsseldorf was a small baroque town and capital of the Grand Duchy of Berg. But the Duke decided to give room for a more generous urban plan.