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Published: October 3rd 2007
So I’ve finally gotten around to telling you all about the rest of my ‘round-trip’ of Germany! Sorry about how long it’s been...I lost a bit of motivation somewhere along the way!
I left off in Berlin, having stayed longer than intended but still enjoying every second of it (except maybe when I was sick - not quite so enjoyable...)! Due to no reply to my request to surf a couch in Hamburg, from Berlin I took a LONG train ride to Düsseldorf. I think it was about 4 or 5 hours. And unfortunately I’d finished Harry Potter the night before! I did have another book to read, though, so I wasn’t COMPLETELY bored...plus I got some sleep in, as it was an early train too.
I was to stay in a youth hostel for this leg of the journey. It wasn’t actually in Düsseldorf, but rather in a town between Düsseldorf and Köln (Cologne) called Neuss (pronounced like the Aussie
nooice
as in ‘nice’. From the description on the website, the hostel didn’t seem that far away from Düsseldorf. Just a train and a bus ride (I know that sounds long said like that but it really sounded short the
Cargo ship on the Rheine
You may not be able to see from this pic, but I was really surprised at how fast the river flows! It's a huge river but is actually quite swift.way they described it...). So although my original plan was to stay in Düsseldorf for a bit before heading to the youth hostel I thought it would be nice to drop my bag off and have a shower, so I headed to the hostel first. It was probably THE best decision I’ve made on this trip so far. The hostel wasn’t close at all. The train ride itself took about half an hour, and then I couldn’t even find the bus stop where the bus actually went from. Then the bus trip took another 40 minutes! So actually it wasn’t really in Neuss, but on the border of Neuss and another town called Uedessheim - so pretty much the middle of nowhere! It was a nice place to stay though, so I can’t complain too much. It was right on the Rheine River.
Anyways, the decision to skip Düsseldorf for that day was fantastic, as by the time I got to the hostel it was about 2.30pm and check-in closed at 6 unless you notify them. And if I’d stayed in Düsseldorf I would never have given myself enough time to get there before 6 as I thought it would
The rebuilt 'ground-breaking' bridge
This was the bridge that was rebuilt using Teflon piles (see Interesting Fact #2) only take about 1/2hour from Düsseldorf!
It was a really nice youth hostel, small and really clean and comfortable, but quite strict - first of all with the check in time, and then they also had a curfew - you had to be back before 10pm cos that’s when they locked the house door. Never having stayed in a youth hostel I thought that, although it was a tiny bit early, it made sense, as, with people staying in rooms with strangers you didn’t want too much coming and going. Later I found out it was actually quite unusual to have such a curfew! Especially for a YOUTH hostel! For the first night I was to have only one other room-mate in the 4-bedded room. She was a Jamaican-born American who has lived in Freiburg for the last 7 years and was on her way to Scotland to finish her psychology studies! She was quite an interesting woman, and it was funny to discover that she lived in the city I’d be studying in, but unfortunately we didn’t exchange details at the end, and I can’t even remember her name!
The decision to go straight to the hostel did, however
An interesting building in Dusseldorf
How cool are the colourful 'people' climbing the buiding?! bring up one question: what would I do for the rest of the afternoon? There wasn’t much to do at the hostel itself and being in the middle of nowhere there wasn’t much to do within walking distance. In the end I decided I would catch the 40minute bus back into the centre of Neuss and have a bit of a look around there and maybe even buy another book since I’d run out of stuff to read and it didn’t look like there’d be much else to do there! :P
Another good decision as it was actually a really noice (excuse the pun) town (I guess it was probably even more of a city) with a really cool old town and lots of bakeries, which, for me, is the sign of a good town for me. :D I ended up buying the classic Moby Dick in German (!) and some food to take back to the hostel cos I didn’t want to pay more for their dinners and lunches. When I got back, though, I realised that it was actually forbidden to bring your own food, so it was a good excuse for me to go eat my cheese
More of the interesting architecture
These buildings are actually pretty famous world wide (although this was the first time I saw them... :P) pretzel (highly nutritious I know) down by the river. It was really beautiful (if not a bit cold) sitting reading Moby Dick on the Rheine River as the sun went down.
My plan from there was to then make a quick day trip over to Amsterdam (or really anywhere in Holland) the next day, as I was so close to the border. But after checking out the prices for train tickets on the internet I decided to just catch the train to Düsseldorf instead - that was expensive enough and I’d already spent a fair bit of money on train tickets for my trip so far. Sadly I had to give adding another country to my ‘countries I’ve visited’ list a miss, but Düsseldorf turned out to be quite nice. Plus my list is already pretty long! :P Düsseldorf is also situated on the Rheine River, so I decided to take the luxury of a boat tour a bit later in the evening. Most of the pictures I’ve seen of Düsseldorf were at night and they all look so beautiful, so I was hoping to take the boat tour once it was dark, but the last boat left at 6pm.
Plus I didn’t want to miss my curfew and face the wrath of the hostel superintendants! So I just wondered around a bit until 6.
Düsseldorf is actually a pretty big city. I never really realised this until I got there - it’s not one of the first cities I think of when I think of Germany, but it’s a pretty big business city. Being right on the Rheine allows for easy import and export and as mentioned before is right near the border to Holland and not too far from France either. And like almost all German cities it has a really nice old town. On the boat tour we also got to see a lot of interesting buildings designed by world-famous architects, but unfortunately I can’t remember their names! :P Sorry!
I really wanted to hang around a bit after the boat tour to see Düsseldorf at night, but thought I’d be best leaving pretty well straight away, just to be safe. Good job I did, too, as I ended up getting on an ‘S-Bahn’ instead of a normal train, and these trains always take twice as long as normal trains as they make stops almost every 2
Old vs new
The building in the foreground is I think an old parliament-related building. And the thing on top of the building in the background is a solar pannel! and I thought the building was a helicopter! :P minutes! I also got on a different line to usual, as I wanted to go to a different station in Neuss than the one I came in on, to find which was the quickest way to get to Köln (Cologne) the next day. It ended up not being the one that I wanted, though, so I ended up having to change trains. I got to the station I wanted only to discover the bus I needed wouldn’t leave for another 50 minutes. As there wasn’t really much else I could do I decided to wait. At about the time my bus was due to come, a ‘Maxi Taxi’ pulled up at the bus stop. I then noticed on the bus stop sign that the stop also served as a Maxi Taxi stop. What I didn’t quite grasp was that the sign actually said that the Maxi Taxis were in place INSTEAD of the normal buses. So I continued to wait for a bus that wasn’t actually going to come. After about 5 minutes, I decided to ask the driver where he was going. He said a place that sounded familiar to me, but that I didn’t really know where it
was. I then asked if a bus was due to come and he said,
no I don’t think so
. By this time it was already just after 9pm. My curfew was in under an hour! I panicked for a second before re-reading the sign and finally grasping the meaning. He then asked where I was going and when I told him he said
oh just come with me. It’s near where I’m going
so I got in and about 2 minutes later a lady came and we left. I had also read on the sign that you had to order these Maxi Taxis at least 30minutes in advance. So if that lady hadn’t pre-ordered that Maxi Taxi I probably wouldn’t have gotten back to my youth hostel in time! I got back into my room at 9:35. It was a close one! :P
Next morning I checked out and then made my way to Köln. Another big city on the Rheine! After leaving my bag in one of the lockers in the train station I stepped outside to see a large gothic cathedral. I remembered then that this cathedral is a major reason Köln is as well-known as it is. It was really big. (I’m trying hard not to say impressive! :P) I
felt really tired that day, though, so after a bit of walking around and walking down the old part of the town that is actually now the shopping strip, I decided to just sit by the river and wrote postcards. That was nice in itself. I felt a bit bad just sitting in one spot when I had a whole city to explore, but then I think it’s just as cool to be able to say
and Köln was where I sat on a bench (or actually a brick wall but bench sounds better. And I would’ve sat on one if there were any free. :P) next to the Rheine and wrote some postcards to my family back home
. And I had already explored a fair bit of the city and even witnessed a demonstration of a demonstration of what I think was 100s of bank employees marching for a higher income or better work conditions!
In the afternoon I caught a train to Heidelberg, known as one of the most romantic cities in Germany. My last stop on my round trip before returning to Munich. I was a little nervous as this was where I was to have my first experience of couch surfing. However the girl I was to be staying with seemed really nice, and as soon as we met at the train station, I knew that it would be fine. Her English was great, so I barely had
The cathedral in Cologne
This was the first thing I saw as I stepped out of the train station. Intimidating, isn't it? to speak a word of German! :D She was extremely friendly and even took me out that night. I hadn’t really been outside at night for the trip except for one night in Berlin and if you count the night in Neuss when I nearly missed my curfew, so it was quite nice. It really is a beautiful city. And the next day was the first really sunny day that I’d seen in a while, which was perfect for exploring the castle (or what’s left of it) that gives the city the name (or did the city give the castle the name? Either way, the castle is called ‘Heidelberg’, just like the city). It was really quite cool cos they left the castle in its ruined state after the war, but much of it is still intact. It is also the home of 'The Big Barrel', a big wine barrel in the king’s cellar. I could have paid 3Euros for a piece of paper saying
I visited the big barrel
, but as it was the first I’d heard of such a thing I thought I probably didn’t really need the proof. I figured people would believe me or just not really care. :P It
was really big though...
I must say that this city’s ‘old town’ is the nicest I’ve seen so far. And it’s so convenient as it just goes along one street - you don’t have to wind your way in and out of lots of different streets! :P It is also known as one of the longest shopping strips in Germany. I had a bit of a chuckle when I overheard one tour guide saying to his tour group
If you’re interested in shopping, it starts here (at the start of the street), and goes on...forever
. He wasn’t wrong! :P
And then all of a sudden my round trip of Germany was over, and I was on my train back to Munich. I really enjoyed the trip and was so fascinated by how different each city was. And I was even able to notice a bit of a change in the dialects in the different areas. I find it so interesting that a language can change so much within such a small area. Even separate villages have their own dialects! Amazing! I mean I know English also has a few different dialects, like Australian, British, American, South African, and so on, but you don’t find so much variation in one country. I know in Australia each state
has a few different words for different things, but even then there’s only a few, and our accent is still relatively the same. But apparently Bavarians can barely understand the people from Saxony! When some Bavarians speak, though, I can’t even understand ‘train station’! :P I’ve already learnt more about Germans, their country, and their language than is possible in a classroom.
And now to interesting fact #2:
Düsseldorf is the first place in the world to have used the technology of ‘Teflon piles’ (the things that hold brides up - I had to look it up!) to move bridges. In the old days there was only one bridge across the Rheine in Düsseldorf, so when the bridge became so worn out it could no longer safely hold traffic, they had to build the replacement bridge 50m upstream, then shift it using these Teflon piles so that they still had a bridge until the time came to swap! Now this way of rebuilding bridges is a world-wide sensation! And Düsseldorf now has more than one bridge across the Rheine. I know it’s a bit of a random fact, but I thought it was interesting...I’m sure you engineers will too. :P
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Benjamin
non-member comment
Hey Alyssa, I heard you actually met Svenja in Salzburg who knows me from germany. Small world. Have fun in freiburg ca ben