Germany Arrival our First Week

We put the rig in storage, grab a ride to the airport in Phoenix, Arizona and jump on a plane to Dusseldorf, Germany for at least a month’s stay. Though this is a working trip, we will have time for sightseeing and fun.

Talk about fun. The trip starts off just fine. We arrive at the airport on time, catch our first plane on time and arrive at O’hare right on time. However, our connecting flight to Dublin is delayed for two hours. Not so bad, we can deal. Turns out we are missing our connecting flight in Dublin and are being rescheduled. How nice of them. Oops, sorry this is going to give us a ten-hour layover in Dublin. Rather than jinx the trip anymore by taking a quick trip into Ireland to kill time, we take advantage of complimentary passes to the airport lounge and grab a couple of hours of sleep.

But you can’t go to Ireland and not have a Guinness. As luck would have it, we are able to go to the Guinness store in the airport and enjoy a FREE glass! Yay!

Arriving at our hotel at close to 10:30 at night, we didn’t really get to see any of the surrounding town, though even if it was daylight I’m not sure we would have seen much anyway trying to navigate the streets. The guy who is showing us how to use the Mercedes (yeah, a Mercedes) gives us a 30 second tour. That’s all well and good but talk about hi-tech. We drive a Jeep with crank windows. This car is over the top. At least in Germany they drive on the right side of the road.

With the sun shining on our first day, I took these pictures from our hotel room window. My “backyard” for the next month or so.

Yeah, this is the ICE train, the super fast one, but it goes slow through town.

Okay, I’m jet-lagging, time for a nap and some transcribing.

Day 2

Both of us are feeling a little better today, more rested. With my work done it’s time go out and do some exploring and try to get lost. Like that will be hard.

I made a few observations that I thought were different and the same from America. They like rooftop gardens in the city downtown apartments, or they don’t clean their gutters and just let the trees and weeds grow. Either way, it looks nice.

Some streets are very narrow and the cars have to park on the sidewalks sometimes. Heck, they DRIVE on the sidewalks too! I almost got run over by someone pulling onto the sidewalk to drive. Like out west where if there isn’t a fence blocking you or a sign telling you not too its all okay. In Germany, if the car will go on it they will drive on it. I did find that in some places they do put up deterrents. I try to walk on these kinds of sidewalks.

Just when I thought it was safe to walk on the sidewalks again, I almost get run over by bicyclist. Apparently, because some of the roads are so narrow, the bike paths are located on the sidewalks. They even have their own lane marked on the sidewalks. Yeah, don’t walk in between the white lines, the bicyclist think you are human bowling pin!

Day 4

Now that the rain has stopped it is time to go out exploring my little world of Dusseldorf again. The Rhine River is my destination where I hope to grab a coffee and bench to read a book and do some people watching. Armed with all of my sidewalk-savvy knowledge I arrive at the river without a hitch. First observation, rivers are the same no matter where you go. The surrounding structures are what make this one unique.

There is an impressive mosaic covering the wall of the promenade.

On the promenade deck there are “permanent” street vendor stands where you can grab a burger, bratwurst, fries, coffee and of course beer. These people are all decked out in winter wear. Me, I’m in a long-sleeve shirt and a light sweater. Hmm.

You can stroll along the boardwalk by the river, sit on a bench, take a boat ride, or eat a meal in a Ferris wheel car while you take in the sites. I opt for the bench, a coffee and some book reading.

The weekend is approaching and I can’t wait to get out and explore with John. I wonder what we will find?