Blogs from Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Hello! I hope everyone is having a happy start to their New Year! I must admit, New Year’s is not my favorite holiday. I think everyone has a holiday that just does not treat them well year after year after year and New Year’s always seems to be mine. However, I broke the curse this year! Hopefully it sticks. Getting off the train I wasn’t exactly sure where to meet Jana. I got a German SIM card, but it keeps saying I’m roaming and my phone just is not cooperating here in Germany so I didn’t really have any way to reach her, so I just waited and watched all of the people going by looking for her bright blonde hair. It was SO exciting to see her! I honestly can’t believe it has been ... read more

Last time I wrote I was getting ready for 10 days of cycling through the borderlands of Germany and Poland. Er, that seems like a lifetime ago. Well, since then I've been there and done that, and from what I can remember, it was enjoyable (when the weather was agreeable). Really. I have a vague recollection of us being somewhere around Berlin. I know I was in Poland because I was paying with zlotys for a couple of days. I know the places I overnighted because I made a point of writing it down. The rest though is all a bit of a blur. I've been racking my brain to understand why and come up with a theory. Here goes... For the last 18 years I've done these types of bike trips on my own. Suffice ... read more

Vi tog fra Paris kl. 16.30 og skulle forberede os paa 6 forskellige toge den foelgende nat. Alle togene var virkelig flotte og med naesten ingen mennesker, saa vi kunne slaenge os i saederne. Vi fik da ogsaa lidt soevn undervejs, specielt paa en banegaard hvor vi skulle vente i 3 timer. Morgen-snacks blev indtaget paa en McDonalds i Metz, hvor vi skulle vente i 40 minutter. Vi ankom til Düsseldorf med morgenmylderet og fandt vores fine hostel. Rigtig hyggeligt sted med gode faciliteter og soede mennesker! Vi kunne faa vores vaerelse allerede, men valgte at saette taskerne og drage paa opdagelse i Düsseldorf. Vi fandt hurtigt den beroemte shoppinggade KÖ, som havde alt hvad hjertet begaere. Ved middagstid fandt vi et supermarked og handlede ind til en laekker graesk salat. Efterfoelgende tog vi os en ... read more

Meu ano já começou turbulento: numa das maiores festas de ano novo do mundo! Chamada Sensation White, essa festa tem no mundo inteiro, famosa pelos DJs que tocam, pelo ambiente e luzes, e pelo curioso fato que todos tem que estar vestidos de branco. "Oh!" foi a resposta dos gringos quando falei que no Brasil, é normal que muita gente passe a virada de branco. E depois eles comentaram que essa prática seria meio impossível na Alemanha, me explicando: Pois, no ano novo, se as pessoas comemorarem nas ruas (o que é muito comum aqui), QUANDO que elas vao achar um casaco gigante de inverno todo branco? Pois lembrem-se, aqui estava fazendo uns -2°,-1°.. por isso entao, o fato de se vestir de branco no Reveillón por aqui é algo "kool". literalmente! ahá! :( Aconteceram várias ... read more

on the morning of 11 Oct. this is a short pictureless blog cos I can't be bothered feeding the craven masses all the time! I have ended up spending 3 nights in Dusseldorf. The reasons have been very personal, due to the loss of my father's brother, Uncle Gordon, here in a Lancaster bomber on 23 April 1944. I was able to visit where his plane allegedly came down and eat at a very good Italian restaurant only a 100m. or so from there. The weather has been absolutely glorious here - blue skies and no cloud altho general forecast temps are plummeting overnight and otherwise - about 4 deg. in a week so Winter is def. on the way. However with this kind of weather who can care? So much better than grey old Amsterdam. ... read more

Today was a very very long day, we had to catch a 6 hour train to Berlin and we were horribly hung over and had 2 max 3 hours sleep. Our train journey was a complete disaster, we had noisy kids on the train and topped with trying to sleep and a conductor announcing stops in four languages we didn’t get much sleep. On arrival in Berlin we had pretty strict instructions about how to find our hostel , thank goodness for that cause we were acting like drunken idiots and so found our trains and things rather quickly. The hostel made us wait for check in and that was the last thing we wanted, all we wanted to do was sleep  needless to say we got into our room and crashed out watching chuck ... read more

Today was about rest and relaxation... as Gail was still sick and we just needed a day to totally relax. We went to Dusseldorf and booked our 37 hour train... yes that right from Slovakia to Athens... no idea how we making that one! We then went to the movies and saw Bruno... and after the effort spent getting to the movie house and the effort spent to make sure the movie was English! Well the movie was the biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen! So it was a good hour or two that we just relaxed did nothing and rested our tired bodies. After that we went back to Aarons and got given the best food we have had in ages.... I have no idea what you made for us Aaron all I ... read more

Dusseldorf, Germany is a cool little city. Well, I did only get to see Phillips halle (to see Nine Inch Nails (NIN) play), the main station and also my hostel, as I was only there for a day and a half and just met heaps of peeps and spoke crap in the hostel. First night I arrived around 7pm spoke to a guy from America for about 2 hours and then went to bed. Next day I lazed around met a few guys from Norway and a guy from Canada. The guys from Norway gave me some snus (pouch of tobacco like substance you tuck under your lip and the nicotine is released through your gum in to your blood stream), it was ok I guess. I was getting extremely excited about seeing NIN play, and ... read more