We decided Saturday would be a good day to go so that we could do a little shopping, sightseeing and eating. We started out visiting our friend's bike shop to catch up with them and check out their store. Shockingly, we left the store without any major purchases. Although I think Jim was trying to fi
gure out a way to justify buying a new helmet, but even he couldn't work out a logical argument so knew it was futile to try to convince me.
gure out a way to justify buying a new helmet, but even he couldn't work out a logical argument so knew it was futile to try to convince me. We decided to park the car near Robert's Bistro which is located along the Rhine river in the Medienhafen (harbor) area. This area has recently changed from an industrial looking harbor to a more modern warehouse district with some very cool architecture. Frank Gehry is the architect of a number of buildings in the Medienhafen but my favorite was the Neuer Zollhof building to the left.
I originally wanted to visit a few museums and check out the Schloss Benrath which is about 10k from Dusseldorf. However, our late start to the day altered our plans a bit so we decided to just explore the Altstadt and then head over to the high end shopping street of Koenigsallee.
After walking for about 30 minutes and seeing the area get increasingly more industrial, we discovered that we had been walking in the wrong direction. It was rainy and a bit chilly so I had been in a hurry to get moving and didn't take the time to orient myself. We were making great time though, just in the wrong direction. Luckily, the city is quite compact so we were still able to see a lot of the city in the 2 hours of daylight that we had left after getting lost.
We
visited St. Lambertuskirche and Andreaskirche in the altstadt. Both churches had elaborate nativity scenes surrounded by evergreens. Each church probably had at least 20-30 trees around the nativity. Andreaskirche reminded me a lot of the Frauenkirche in Munich with its white ornate stucco ceilings but on a much smaller scale. After wandering around the Alstadt and having a currywurst at the market, we decided to head over to Koenigsallee. Koenigsallee is a gorgeous street with a canal, lined with trees running through the middle of it. It has all of the glitz and glamour of high end shopping in Paris or London. Dusseldorf is now my favorite place to get my big city, urban living fix.
We headed back to Robert's Bistro around 6:30, hoping to miss the crowds. It was still packed with people but we were lucky enough to get one of the last 2 spots at a long table.Unfortunately, the restaurant hadn't acquired any more ambiance since our last visit. It still had cafeteria seating, florescent lighting and the non-existent decor that I remembered, but the lamb was just as delicious as the last time.
I am excited to come back to Dusseldorf when the leaves are back on the trees and the sun has decided to come out of hibernation. I think it will be a beautiful city in the spring and can't wait to go back.
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