Playlist
Chris Rea - The Blue Jukebox
Otis Redding - Tell the Truth
Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Sound on Sound
And we're off - up at 4...
First though, the Daily Section, no 80 of 432 was section 137, from Chris Rea to Lou Reed...
Today’s choices were a little listened to LP from Mr Rea, some Otis Redding and an often overlooked classic by Bill Nelson, as he came out of Be Bop Deluxe…
Out...
...and a trundle down to the bus...
The driver saw us running across the road and waited for us - which was nice...
Through security an hour after rising...
...and, post breakfast, onto the plane a further two hours later...
Up and away, to what Ryanair call Düsseldorf, which is actually 90 minutes from Düsseldorf, a few yards from the Dutch border - but, it's cheap so, you know...
Landed on time and swiftly through passport control...
And outside, waiting on a bus to take us to another (replacement) bus (service) and, then, a train...
But no sign of the bus...
We had spent 166 Euros (£150) all told on rail tickets back in May to take us from Düsseldorf to Kassel on Friday coming, from Kassel to Bonn the following Wednesday, from Bonn to Düsseldorf the Monday after that and from Düsseldorf to Krefeld on the day before we were due to return home...
On asking at the info desk at the airport about the cost of the taxi, the lady advised that we could buy a "9 Euro ticket"...
"What's that?" I asked...
It turned out that, at the end of May, the German government announced the 9 Euro ticket, which allows anyone (even non-Germans) to buy one ticket for just 9 Euros which allows them to travel on all public transport (except Inter City trains) for the remainder of the month in which the ticket is bought - and that this was happening/had happened in June, July and August...
And so, £150 down the proverbial drain...
Galling...
We bought a 9 Euro ticket each and, while, over the course of the next 17 days we would enjoy travelling around on all sorts of trains, trams and undergrounds, obtaining travel that would normally cost, probably well over 500 Euros, there was no way of countering the loss of £150...
But, it was what it was and so, onwards...
The bus eventually arrived, taking us to Weeze itself...
...from where, another bus - packed to the gunwhales - took us to Krefeld...
...from where a slightly less busy train (but not the TEE), took us to Düsseldorf City, where we did not meet Iggy Pop or David Bowie...
Our hotel, the Lindenhof, was a short walk from the main station...
A lovely room...
...these, the views...
We were on Oststrasse, almost directly opposite the family run Schumacher brewery...
Quickly unpacked and then out to accustomise ourselves to the surroundings, including the first of many of these dotted around the city on top of advertising colonnades...
Along Ostrasse...
...we then turned towards the centre and enjoyed this building...
The Dreischeibenhaus, a 95-metre office building in August-Thyssen-Straße in the Hofgarten district...
It was also known as the Thyssen-Hochhaus, owing to its former use as the headquarters of the Thyssen...
Anyway, onwards...
Over the Konigsallee - apparently Germany's most exclusive shopping street...
...past Heinrich Heine Allee...
...and into the old town for an Altbier (or two, or three) at the Uerige brewery...
Other than when I took this pic, the waiters wandered around with their trays full of these small biers, putting them in front of anyone about to finish their previous drink...
An enjoyable setting indeed...
We moved on towards the riverside, past the rather green Old Harbour...
...before emerging to find the view of the famous tower and one of the bridges spanning the Rhine...
...the Exec Producer...
...and her beast, were on holiday...
We wandered up the promenade...
...to Burgplatz...
...then along past the rather grand looking Hyatt House Hotel...
..and the Stadthaus opposite it...
...to Grabbeplatz and Paul Klee Platz with its art galleries...
This map helped us work out where we'd wandered...
We continued said wandering...
...in the environs of the galleries...
...noting Beuys...
...and Conrad Schnitzler exhibitions...
...before deciding on a dinner venue, Beef Brothers on Hunsruckenstrasse...
...which provided lovely sustenance indeed to your two wanderers...
...who, post said sustenance, continued to wander, noting further Düsseldorf landmarks...
Back across the Konigsallee...
...and finally back to Oststrasse, a massive circuitous route having been taken, purely by chance as we had had no idea what we were doing...
A rest in the room...
Then, due to the heat, I popped out for drinks...
...and ice cream...
Good night everybody...
Highlight of the Day : Düsseldorf...
