After Mom and I left Losser, we drove back to Düsseldorf to see a little bit of Germany. The drive back to the airport was fine, although I'm not sure if we would have gotten the car started if it hadn't been for Mark Weirath. The car didn't have a traditional key, but rather one of those nifty cards that just needs to be near the car to be running. The German directions state that you should press the brake at the same time that you are pressing the power button. Of course, that was in German, so that didn't really help us. Since the car was already started by the rental car when we go it, we had never had to start the car. We were at a loss as to what to do until Mark translated. I can only imagine if we had stopped off on the way to Losser. We might still be there trying to figure it out.
Dropping off the car at the airport proved to be equally as difficult. The bitch on the GPS directed us to some random corner, nowhere near the car rental agency. Then, after Mom asked for directions, we went to the Europecar lot and were let in the gate. Little did we know that the lot was closed, nobody was there, and the exit gate wouldn't open up to let us *out* of the lot. So, Mom stayed in the car and I hoofed to the airport.
I explained to the nice German lady at the rental agency what had happened. Apparently, it wasn't the first time it happened, so she said we could leave the car there. She didn't have anyone to drop me back off at the lot, so I hoofed it back to the lot, picked up Mom and then we hoofed it back to the airport. On that third trip back, I decided we were taking a taxi to our hotel. I didn't want to have to deal with public transportation. We weren't really batting 1000 in our travel experiences for that day and I didn't want to push it any further.
Our hotel room wasn't ready yet, so we walked around the city. Sadly, we really hadn't done any planning or research on Düsseldorf. Thank God for Google (both Maps and Translate)!
We hadn't really eaten anything since breakfast (more of the bread and chocolate sprinkles), so we decided to go this little bakery that I did happen to read about. It was called Cafe Heinemann and was supposedly the Pope's favorite pastry shop (presumably the Pope Emeritus).
After that, we did a bit of wandering (one of my favorite things). We walked north to along the Königsallee. This is a canal that runs through part of the city. On one side of the canals is a lot of ritzy shopping (think Chanel) and on the other side is fancy hotels.
We made our way over to the Rhine and then ended up in Burgplatz. There is a statue there called Stadterhebungsmonument that was built to commemorate the Battle of Worringen in 1288. The pictures below don't do it justice, but there was a lot going on there. There
After wandering down by the Rhine, we went to Altstadt ("Old Town"). It is known as the longest bar in the world because it has over 300 bars. When in Rome...
Dropping off the car at the airport proved to be equally as difficult. The bitch on the GPS directed us to some random corner, nowhere near the car rental agency. Then, after Mom asked for directions, we went to the Europecar lot and were let in the gate. Little did we know that the lot was closed, nobody was there, and the exit gate wouldn't open up to let us *out* of the lot. So, Mom stayed in the car and I hoofed to the airport.
I explained to the nice German lady at the rental agency what had happened. Apparently, it wasn't the first time it happened, so she said we could leave the car there. She didn't have anyone to drop me back off at the lot, so I hoofed it back to the lot, picked up Mom and then we hoofed it back to the airport. On that third trip back, I decided we were taking a taxi to our hotel. I didn't want to have to deal with public transportation. We weren't really batting 1000 in our travel experiences for that day and I didn't want to push it any further.
Our hotel room wasn't ready yet, so we walked around the city. Sadly, we really hadn't done any planning or research on Düsseldorf. Thank God for Google (both Maps and Translate)!
We hadn't really eaten anything since breakfast (more of the bread and chocolate sprinkles), so we decided to go this little bakery that I did happen to read about. It was called Cafe Heinemann and was supposedly the Pope's favorite pastry shop (presumably the Pope Emeritus).
After that, we did a bit of wandering (one of my favorite things). We walked north to along the Königsallee. This is a canal that runs through part of the city. On one side of the canals is a lot of ritzy shopping (think Chanel) and on the other side is fancy hotels.
View of Königsallee from one of the bridges
It was Sunday and raining, so the shops were closed and there weren't many people out, but the walk along the canal was relaxing.
We made our way over to the Rhine and then ended up in Burgplatz. There is a statue there called Stadterhebungsmonument that was built to commemorate the Battle of Worringen in 1288. The pictures below don't do it justice, but there was a lot going on there. There
Stadterhebungsmonument
Check out the skulls
After wandering down by the Rhine, we went to Altstadt ("Old Town"). It is known as the longest bar in the world because it has over 300 bars. When in Rome...
Mom and our beers
While we were sitting at the bar, it started pouring. We watched the rain for a little while and enjoyed people watching, but we started getting tired, so we headed back to our hotel.
We went to a traditional German place for dinner. The food was good, but the menu was entirely in German, so I had to use Google Translate to find something to eat. Mom was a bit worried I was going to go hungry, but it all turned out OK.
Yum...
Düsseldorf was nice. The people weren't as outwardly friendly as some other cities, but nobody was rude. As Mom said, they just didn't seem happy. It may not be fair to say because we were there on a Sunday when a lot of things were closed, but I didn't get the feeling there was a lot to do. When I looked up "things to do in Düsseldorf" on TripAdvisor, one of the top 20 things to see was the airport. Hmm...not a resounding endorsement for the city.
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