No more sausages, please

We have to go home eventually and after searching for flights we found the cheapest route was from Frankfurt, Germany to Wilmington, North Carolina. So off to Dusseldorf we go. Our quick bus trip was a little longer than we expected due to some idiot trying to smuggle weed into the country. Pot is legal in the Netherlands but not in Germany, so don’t you think the border patrol might be looking for something like this? The police never did figure out who was responsible even after “arresting the entire bus”, threatening fines and making a lot of noise. After a few hours we escaped or maybe we were let go, anyway the bus took off without the cops and with everyone on board. Beware the Romanian bus lines.

We have less than two weeks left on our trip and decided to take it easy and make a few stops before we needed to catch our flight to the states and Dusseldorf was on the way. It is known for its modern architecture, good food and local Alt beer. The modern architecture was incredible, it is amazing what you can do with a little (actually a lot) of imagination. The adaptive reuse of the older buildings and incorporating them with the newer buildings is eye popping. If only the clock tower is salvageable, don’t tear it down keep it and it build something around it. No need to rip the old rail tracks or scrap all the cranes in the harbors, make it art, use it for something beside an eyesore. Anyway you get the idea; if only New Orleans would open its eyes we could definitely make use of our forgotten riverside.

The food here was so good here and we ate like swine. I don’t even like sausages but still ate my fair share. Sauerkraut is like nothing you’ve ever tasted anywhere else. The beer they are famous for is known as “Alt”, don’t know so don’t ask, but it is really good and we went to many different places to check the quality. Dusseldorf is also known for its shopping but that really has nothing to do with us, since we don’t even have any souvenirs in our packs.

Cologne was the next stop down the tracks so we stopped in for a few days. It is known for its famous Gothic cathedral. It took 600 years to build and when you see it, you understand why. Of course this was one of our stops and climbing the 509 steps up to the tower was mandatory. It is surrounded by cafes, beer gardens, museums and all things touristy. The local beer here was “Kolsch” and was served in skinny 200ml glasses (extremely small), so we were able to put down about ten of them with no problem.

Next stop on the line, Frankfurt. A nice train ride through the country and we made our final stop in Europe. This is a business kind of town not real big on the tourist scene. We were able to enjoy a Thai cultural festival, which is odd considering how much time we spent there. We hoofed it all over the city on both banks of the river checking out what we could. We probably had too many sausages but who counts anymore. The beer tasting continued and we did our fair share of sampling the brews. A good friend from Germany said this about German people, “We’re not angry! We’re just efficient and don’t waste time with unnecessary social stuff.” She truly could not have said it any better. We ran out of sights and the batteries in our cameras are kaput so now we are headed back to the United States of America.

In about 24 hours we will be saying hello to the parental units. Our trip hasn’t ended yet; we won’t consider it over till we reach our home in New Orleans, Louisiana.

We are already talking about what is next, this ain’t over…

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