Dusseldorf is the state capital of the Rhineland. Besides Cologne, it is the city I enjoyed most during my short stay here in West Germany and in my opinion it has the best Rhine River promenade compared to Cologne, Aachen and Bonn. There was a brief heavy snowfall after I exited the train station but thank God it did not last long. It was quite a long walk from the station to Medienhafen (Media Harbour) but I had a good reason to suffer. The Media Harbour, previously an old harbour with crumbling warehouses was given a facelift and is now dotted with boundary pushing architecture designed by award winning international architects and numerous pubs. I got to see it with my own eyes and I was not disappointed! There are Neuer Zollhoff, which is a combination of three dynamically curving buildings designed by Frank Gehry, Grand Bateau by Claude Vasconi that resembles an ocean liner, Colorium by William Alsop and my favourite, Invasion of flossies.
Invasion of Flossies
At the Medienhafen, there is Rhineturm (Rhine Tower) where one can have a good view of Dusseldorf and Rhine River from the top. From the tower, it was a very relaxing walk along Rhineuferpromenade to the Altstadt. In the old town, there is the Town Hall (Rathaus), Schlossturm (Palace Tower) in Burgplatz, St Lambertuskirche (St Lambert Church) and Andreaskirche. I stopped for lunch in Im Fuchschen which is one of the reason I planned my trip on Sunday. It was closed for 2 days prior to that. This restaurant is very famous among the locals and has good house brew beer called Altbeer and serves mean pork knuckle (Eisbein). I was shocked by the massive portion of the knuckle. The cheese mashed potatoes and sauerkraut was tasty too. There were several attempts where the waiter was trying to take away my dinner plate because he thought I could not possibly finish it...well, I did finish 95% of it..he he.
After lunch, I walked back to 14th century St Lamberturskirche to appreciate the delicately carved spiral tower (below). Later, I visited the Mah-und Gedenkstatte fur die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Memorial Exhibit to the Victims of Nazi Regime). It is free and of course it is all in German...Next is Andreaskirche, with life-size apostle sculptures.
Headed back to Cologne early because I wanted to visit the Scholaden Museum (Chocolate Museum) before it closes at 7pm. I detoured a bit to walk along the Hohenzollern brucke. The railway bridge is a love symbol of Cologne. Thousands of lovebirds professed their love by putting up locks along the long bridge. There is beautiful view of Rhine River from the bridge too.
I did not go up the Chocolate Museum (Euro 7 admission fee). I went to the chocolate gift shop at the ground floor of the museum instead. There are abundance of choices and I took some time to make up my mind. Bought Lauenstein wasabi chocolate which tastes amazing, Lindt chocolate with punch filling and with cognac filling (the latter tastes better) and small selection of truffles (the mango truffle is delicious!). I bought these chocolates as gifts to bring back during Chinese New Year...but they were already consumed in the past few days....I failed to resist!
I still feel very full from the huge eisbein at lunch so instead of dinner, I went out with Yenna for a drink. We had Radler beer in Biermuseum, a small pub near the Fischmarkt which plays a lot of Abba songs. Radler tastes somewhat similar to Shandy but with higher alcohol content. Love it!
In the hostel, we grabbed a lot of free printen at the counter to eat :) Then sleep...
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