Then there was Germany... Chapter 5

Dusseldorf has the best standard of living in Germany. It has a sweet Altstadt, third largest Japanese community in Europe after London and Paris, and a funky waterfront.

We started off by heading out towards the Altstadt but stopped by the famous Königsallee (King's Avenue). This is the capital of the Dusseldorf high end shopping scene. The canal and the bridges over it are built based on Seine in Paris. The "Kö", as its affectionately called, is the highest rents for shops in Germany.

After circling around the Old town for about 20 minutes, we found the parking. Old building and streets lined with cafes and small shops. The Dusseldorf Altstadt is known as the longest bar in the world (längste theke der Welt). This small Old Town has more than 300 bars and discotheques and there is one street which has bars lined up opening to the streets.

We walked around for a bit, got into a chocolate shop and had some really good hot chocolate from a local cafe and proceeded on to the waterfront. The water front near Altstadt was also lined with cafes and bars. Had this been summer, I am sure it would packed with people, but we could walk traffic-free on this cold Sunday morning.

Walking on the waterfront, we had an amazing view of the modern Dusseldorf. The waterfront is further highlighted by the tall tower and the weird looking Frank Gehry buildings down at the Dusseldorf harbour. We had a great time spending the day walking on the waterfront, stopping by the local cafes and shops.

Finally, it was that time in a trip again. We were on our way back to the airport, but not before the last hint of drama. We took the airport exit and then realized that we hadn't filled up the gas tank. Frantically looking for an airport, with a near empty gas tank, we came across this old deserted looking gas station. Of course it being Sunday, there is no one at the station and its credit card only with all instructions only in German. Don't know what we did or how much we paid, we did manage to get to a full tank.

Dusseldorf airport is the third busiest airport in Germany after Munich and Frankfurt and is much better looking. We returned the car at the rental car place and walked around the duty free shops for a bit, grabbed a bite to eat and boarded our plane. Before we knew it, the pilot announced the landing and we were back in English speaking land. Well, almost. We were back in London.

Little did we know that our trip was still a few hours away from ending. We got home around 10:30 at night only to find out that we were locked out since our lock was acting up and our key no longer worked. We spent the next couple of hours, being very well taken care of, at our next door Neighbours' place waiting for the locksmith. Finally it was 1am before we were able to get into our apartment.

Quite an eventful end to an eventful and fun trip trip and it was nice to be back home.