193. Europe Bicycle Trip--Rheinufer Promenade, Rheinturm and a Taste of Beer From The Uerige Brewery

Rainer, Maren, Lukas, Ulla and I continued our tour of Dusseldorf . We had walked along Konigsallee and toward  Hofgarten and then Burgplatz and Marktplatz and made our way to the Rheinufer Promenade along the Rhine River.

A tour boat probably going from Dusseldorf to Koln. The city of Neuss is across the river. You can also see one of the 8 bridges that cross the Rhine at Dusseldorf.

View of the Rheinturm--a 240.5 meter high concrete telecommunications tower completed in 1981. It also houses a revolving restaurant and an observation deck at 170 meters. It is the tallest building in Dusseldorf.

Zoom shot of buildings in Neuss across the Rhine River

The Rheinufer Promenade  Is "the longest bar in the world". It boasts 250 pubs, restaurants and bars and lines the streets of the Old Town.

Ulla, Maren, Mary Ann and Rainer

It was so crowded with tourists and soccer fans that we decided to go away from the water to find a place to eat.

A lone sail boat in an inner canal

It made a nice background for a photo.

Dusseldorf has 9 bars that brew Altbier on the premises and Uerige is one of them. Altbier is usually a dark copper colour. It is brewed at a moderate temperature using a top-fermenting yeast which gives its flavour some fruitiness, but matured at a cooler temperature, which gives it a cleaner and crisper taste more like lager beer styles than is normal for top-fermented beers.

The Uerige Brewery at Berger Strasse 1

A team "warming up" for Germany's soccer match against Ghana later in the day.

I am not a beer drinker so I only had one little sip and then switched to a glass of apple juice.

Ulla, Rainer and Lukas enjoyed their dark Uerige while Maren and I drank our apple juice.

A couple of barrels inside the restaurant of the brewery.

Beer bottles on the wall

Mary Ann and Ulla with a happy, old couple

I also saw this street stunt in Konstanz. It attracts many onlookers.

I noticed some Dutch soccer fans with all the Germans and had my photo taken with them.

We stopped at a local restaurant and had pizza for lunch. There was quite a controversy over Rainer's chair being a little way past the white marking as that is for fire regulations to be able to access the place in case of fire. We moved our table the best we could to fit as small as possible.

My spinach and cheese pizza

Ulla, Mary Ann and Maren by a canal--It had been a very nice tour of a small section of Dusseldorf but it gave me a good picture of the fashion and tourist life there.

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192. Europe Bicycle Trip--The Fashion Capitol of Germany--Dusseldorf

Today is Saturday, June 21st and Day 66 of my 90 day stay in Europe. I am spending the weekend in Neuss with Rainer and Maren Kaulen and their children. I am resting after completing my bicycle tour of the Rhine River from Lake Constance (Bodenzee) to Neuss. It was an 18 day, and over 900 km trip including a 5 day stay in Heidelberg in the middle of the trip. It is the first official day of summer--hard to believe because I have had summer weather for so long on this trip. I woke up at about 8am instead of my usual 6am because the blinds make the room so dark. I showered, had breakfast with Rainer, Maren, Nils and his girl friend, Laura, hung up my laundry, worked on my journal and skyped my son, Matthew until we got cut off. At 12:30 , we picked up Maren's mother, Ulla and drove over to Dusseldorf which is on the other side of the Rhine River from Neuss.

Inside a shopping mall in Dusseldorf. Dusseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and has a population of 11 million people. It is an international business and financial center and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Culturally, Dusseldorf is known for its academy of fine arts, its pioneering influence on electronic/experimental music and its relatively large Japanese community. In the 7th and 8th centuries, some Germanic tribes made farming and fishing settlements at the point where the small river Dussel flows into the Rhine. It was from such settlements that the city of Dusseldorf grew. The first written mention of the town of Dusseldorf dates back to 1135. The city was a target of strategic bombing during WWII  with raids against the Ruhr industry in 1943 and raids against German oil facilities in 1945. The Allies easily captured Dussldorf on April 18th, 1945. The city's reconstruction proceeded at a frantic pace and Dusseldorf grew into a wealthy city of trade, administration and service industries.

Dusseldorf has Germany's busiest and upscale shopping street Konigsallee and Stadttor. Lots of people were shopping and the furniture (Stilwerk) and clothes prices were EXTREMELY expensive, especially for me as I am a Value Village shopper.

Photo opportunity by the park )Hofgarten) at the end of the shopping street--Lukas, Ulla, Mary Ann and Rainer

Many tourists

Iss was gar ist; trink was gar ist; sag was wahr ist---Eat what is cooked; drinking what is even; tell what is true

Outside Shisha Bar-I had never heard of this until last night in conversation. The hookah lounge (also called a shisha bar or den) is an establishment where patrons share shisha (flavored tobacco) from a communal hookah or nargile which is placed at each table. It originates from India and then spread west to Iran, Turkey and Egypt. This place also served food and drinks. I am not a smoker or even an advocate of it so I only took a photo.

City Hall (Rathaus) in the Marktplatz in the center of Dusseldorf's Old Town (Altstadt). It was originally built in the late 1950s , and then redesigned in the 18th and 20th centuries.

Grupello House was first constructed in 1706 and rebuilt in Neo-Renaissance style in the 1880's. Today it serves as the Plenary Hall.

Equestrian statue of Duke Johann Wilhelm (1658-1716) was created by Italian-Flemish artist  Gabriel de Grupello who previously lived in the Grupello House.

I am not sure if this jester has anything to do with the historical accounts of "cartwheelers" but I enjoyed getting my photo with him anyway.

                                                                                                                                                       

Close up

The marktplatz is a popular meeting point for residents of the city and for tourists in the summer at the cafes ' outdoor seating areas.

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Castle Tower in Burgplatz which was once the site of a baroque palace. Te palace burned down in 1872 and only the tower remains. The tower now houses the Navigation Museum.

A purple bicycle flower shop

191. Europe Bicycle Trip--902 km of Bicycling Along the Rhine River And Back to Neuss and the Kaulen Family

It was an overcast day and I was too early to go into any museums now and I didn't want to leave Silver alone so I decided to keep heading towards Neuss and the home of Rainer and Maren Kaulen who had been so wonderful to me 18 days ago.

I headed down toward the river and even there, the supports of the buildings were beautifully built.

This area of the Rhine is the beginning of lots of industry.

My plan is not to stay near the industrialized sections but to veer away toward the bicycle path along Highway 9.

I was able to take this bicycle-pedestrian bridge over a side section of the Rhine in the Neiler Hafen.. As I cycled from the river through Niehl and toward Nippes, I found that I was following another couple on bicycles pulling trailers. I followed them for a while until we all couldn't find anymore bicycle signs near a series of railroad tracks. The French couple  had a map and I had the GPS and using both, we were able to figure our way out of the train area.  Later in a small town, I thought we should go to the left and they went right. I stopped and verified the direction with a German man and found that I was correct. The French couple had to turn around and eventually were behind me and I translated to them that we had to go this way for 1 km until we would see a big tree and then we would have to go right. Now I was leading. But as we went through the streets, they eventually disappeared down a side street and I never saw them again. Maybe they needed some groceries. I made it out of the small town and then was in the countryside when it started to drizzle and I landed up putting on and taking off my rain gear twice. I also hurt my arm when my bicycle hit the side bar of some bicycle gates on the pathway. I was busy unwrapping a candy to eat and was riding with one hand. I hoped that the arm wasn't broken. It really hurt!  Later in a small town, I met up with a small group of male cyclists heading to Neuss but after a while I decided to keep going along Highway 9 and they must have continued along the industrial part of the Rhine because I did not see them again also.

As I approached Neuss, I could see some of the tree damage from a very bad storm that they had almost 2 weeks ago just after I had taken the train to Lake Constance (Bodenzee). I was thankful that Maren had helped me get the train ticket to go because if I had decided to bicycle south from here, I would have been caught in that same storm. In this section, the whole bicycle path is covered by branches and I had to go out on the road for a distance to go around all of it.

It looked like a tornado had gone through the area.

Past Dormagen and before Uedesheim, The Rhine River and Highway 9 come close to each other and I was able to get my last photo of the mighty Rhine River under a dark,dreary sky.

I came to the city of Neuss just before lunch time. I was lost for a little while because some of the bicycle paths were still closed because of the bad storm but finally my GPS helped me locate Meertal Street. Just as I bicycled to the address, maren came home on her bicycle and greeted me with a big hug. Rainer was home because yesterday was a holiday called Corpus Christie so he took today, Friday, off to make it a long weekend. Nils has his girlfriend, Laura over for a visit for a few days as she will leave soon to be an exchange student in New Jersey, USA for a year. Lukas was at school and had an art project to do this weekendand Silja would be leaving this afternoon for a weekend of camping. it will be her first time sleeping in a tent away from home.

                                                                                                                                                                                     

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Maren's best friend, Anje came over with art supplies for Lukas to use. She is a high school Math and German teacher who has 2 daughters, aged 11 and 9. Her daughter has been friends with Silja since they were toddlers. Anje's mother  was born in the Netherlands, so Anje and I talked Dutch with each other for a while. It felt great to use my Dutch again. After lunch, I had a nap and I couldn't believe how tired I was.

In the afternoon, Rainer and Lukas were going to go out for a run and I said that I wanted a before and after photo.

Lots of sweat!

In the evening, Maren showed me photos of Nils 18th birthday party and Rainer's BIG 50th birthday party. The backyard party turned out great with the weather cooperating perfectly. This candy was made with a photo of the 3 children holding a big 50. I had prayed for all Maren's plans to turn out and my prayers were answered. I thanked the Lord tat night for a safe and enjoyable trip of 18 days and over 900 km. along the Rhine River in Germany. The weather had been fantastic and He had sent angels to help me day after day.

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190. Europe Bicycle Trip--Romanisch-Germanisches Museum, Museum Ludwig and Kaiser Freidrich III Equestrian St F

The Cologne Cathedral is located by a big open square with other important sights.

Layout of the square

The German Roman Period Museum--This museum which opened in 1974 has a large collection of artifacts from the Roman settlement of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, on which modern Cologne is built. The museum was built on the site of a 3rd century villa. The villa was discovered in 1941 during construction of an air raid shelter. It also protects a large Dionysus mosaic remains (220/230 AD.)  in its original place in the basement and in this respect is an archeological site.

Some of these stones are beautifully sculpted.

Columns

Dom Hotel-traditional 5 star luxury hotel in the square by the cathedral

Plaque for Side portal of the Roman North Gate

Side Portal of the Roman North gate--The Roman North gate was built when the colony was founded in 50 AD. The outer side of the central archway bore the city's name: CCAA  Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. One of the side portals was rebuilt in 1971 above the visibly preserved remains of the Roman city gate and wall.

I asked a passerby to take my photo but the top of the arch got cut off.

The Ludwig Museum--This museum established in 1976  houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. The museum is named after chocolate magnate Peter Ludwig who agreed to endow 350 modern artworks valued at 45 million dollars.

The museum was still closed this early in the morning so I only took a few photos from the outside. I love how I captured myself taking a photo of the busts in the window.

A separate statue near the church

As I left, I noticed this horse and rider statue

Kaiser Freidrich III equestrian statue--He lived from 1831-1888 and was the German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 years

Nice RED bicycles