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Beer and Football
ok, so the pic doesn't really capture it, but the football (soccer of course) is on the big screen behind me. Thanks to the ridiculously fast Highways, we were in Dusseldorf in no time. We were spending the night with an American expat couple (Ana and John) and they were home to meet us when we arrived. We spent a few hours chatting about their reasons for moving to Germany and cultural differences, and then went for a walk down to watch the sun set over the Rhine as it was a beautiful evening. Lots of people were about as it's near the Altstadt (Old Town) which is full of bars and restaurants, and Germany were playing in the Euro Cup (Football) tonight.
Once the sun finally set (somewhere around 9:30pm) we wandered back and sat in a restaurant to eat some pizza and watch the rest of the game. Along the way stopping to watch an amusing altercation between a VERY loud, drunk german and a couple of waiters. No idea what he was saying, but he was clearly upset but everyone else nearby seemed to think it was hilarious. Germany won the game, so it was a noisy walk/subway home with lots of partying on the streets.
Our reason for coming to Dusseldorf (and to Frankfurt next) were
Couch Surfing Party
Hanging out in the yard. mainly so Nena could get a feel for the history of that side of her family. Her Dad used to live in Dusseldorf, and his Aunt still lived in a monastery near Frankfurt. Chris was hoping to go for a quick lap or two around the
Nurburgring while in this region too.
The next day we spent the morning attempting to find some couch surfing hosts for Paris. It's hard when travelling to be spontaneous and just go where you want, but also to be able to afford this attitude. Trains tend to be MUCH more expensive when left to the last moment, and accomodation can be hard to find. We sent off around eight requests for a couch, and then went in search of Nena's Dad's childhood home on our way to meet our next
car pool provider.
Unfortunately it appears the house isn't there anymore. All we could find was a used car lot. We walked on from there to meet our driver and then went to Frankfurt. Our driver was young and she had spent some time in Australia so spoke English very well and was happy to chat. She was also very generous and drove
Couch Surfing Party
A few Spanish supporters. Definitely happy by now. :) us to our hosts house (even though it was a way out of the city and the traffic was pretty bad).
As we got to the house, preparations for a party were underway. The local couch-surfing group is quite active and our host (John) was hosting a party for everyone with food to eat, drinks to drink, and two football games to watch on two different TVs. It was great to meet so many people from a wide variety of cultures who were all happy to chat. Chris spent some time chatting to a guy who is currently studying for his PhD looking into Bee Neuropsychology and how their ability to navigate and communicate is affected by environmental factors such as pesticides. As you may know, the bees are in decline worldwide and this could spell disaster given that so many plants are polinated by bees.
The next day we found that pretty well all of our couch requests for Paris had been declined due to Paris being a pretty popular place in Spring/Summer (really?). We sent out some more, and then got a lift into the city centre with John (despite this making him late for work).
CS Brekkie
Us having breakfast with John (the awesome host) and Yoko (another surfer who spent the night at John's). Frankfurt has a very beautiful central market area, with lots of old buildings (yeay - more old things!), and also some ultra modern freaky new ones (a shopping centre with what appears to be some weird white hole/vortex through it). We wandered into the undercover food market which had a great range of tasty treats (but was a bit expensive and had some super pushy salespeople).
With the help of our awesome host John, Nena found out that her great-Aunt would be able to see her, but not for a couple of days. The next day John had some work to do, and Nena and I weren't sure what to do. John very generously offerred the use of his car (and even said it was ok to drive to the Nurburgring which was 230km away!). Unfortunately it was a pretty wet day with lots of showers so Chris decided he didn't feel like hurtling around "The Green Hell" as The Nurburgring is known. Instead we both went to the local Health Spa called a Thermae. It was pretty impressive with multiple pools at different temperatures (though none as hot as the ones in Japan or New Zealand!), several saunas
Old Town Centre
The interesting thing here is that the statue representing justice is not wearing a blindfold. What to make of that? and spas, and in true European fashion a clothing optional cafe! There were also beds located under heat lamps, a solarium, and a restaurant. Most of it was included in the entry price which was only 13 euro for a couple of hours. The saunas were insanely hot. We went in the coldest one which was at 60 degrees C! There were ones that were over 100C! I would've thought you'd get instant second degree burns in that temperature. To paraphrase Obelix: "These Germans are Crazy".
The following day Nena and John drove out to the monastery, while Chris stayed at home attempting to get accomodation in Paris (and finding a way to get there). Chris spent a pretty frustrating day trying to organise things, broken up by a nice walk through a very old and protected Apple plantation just across the road. The best thing was hearing and then seeing a woodpecker at work. That was a first!
After failing to find any decent accomodation in Paris, a friend suggested using airbnb, which is similar to couch surfing except you pay for it. Cheaper than a hostel, and more interesting as you live with a local. We
Sign
Do not hold hands with children? Mum and kids banned? booked a bed for five nights, and then went back to organising the travel.
We had found a ride on the car pooling site which seemed perfect (Frankfurt to Paris for 40 euro, compared with about three times as much on the train), but the driver wasn't answering phone calls or messages. We woke up early resigned to catching the train, but John (our saviour) called the number again from his phone, had a quick chat in German and had organised the ride for us! With no time for long goodbyes, we quickly ran out the door to catch a bus then train to get into the city and meet the driver.
When we got to the meeting spot we stopped to look around for the female driver we had booked with. Then a guy came up to us and asked us if we were waiting for our ride to Paris. err yeah, but it was with Juliette we said. "Oh yeah, that's my girl". We figured this must be the ride, and were ushered over to two people mover vans that were pretty well full of other passengers. We got crammed into one and then away we
Shopping Centre
Awesome architecture. Crazy. went. Further along the driver kept pulling in to service stations, driving around, swearing and then leaving. Eventually in one he stopped so we could all get out and use the toilet. The driver then got angry with one of the other passengers who was taking too long. He stopped at a few more service stations, and then finally found what he wanted - one that had autogas. When we got out of the car we noticed that the car had had some bodgy gas conversion. So, we guess this was some weird illegal taxi operation, and I'm not sure how they make money from it as they only charged us 35 euro each (six passengers), they paid around 30 euro in tolls, and of course went through a fair bit of fuel. Odd.
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