Dusseldorf, Germany

June 11-12, 2003

At 8:55am we rolled out of bed in Cologne, allowing ourselves a quick five minutes to brush our teeth (for those of us who opted to) before we rushed down to the car in hopes to avoid a parking ticket. My $20/day budget doesn’t allow for such careless expenses.

The day’s agenda took us to Dusseldorf, Lemmer’s hometown. (Well actually, he’s from Hilden, right outside of the city). If I remember correctly, the travel time between Cologne and Dusseldorf was about 45 minutes to an hour, getting us into the city around 10:00am. Please note that thus far on the trip we probably hadn’t gotten out of bed earlier than noon or 1:00pm, so we were hurting at this early hour. For all of you who are thinking we are lazy bums, it’s only fair to mention that we were on “European summer time”… sunset at 10:30pm, dinner at 11:00pm, and then some great German beer to follow, which usually took us into the early hours of the morning. When we would see the sky getting light again from the sun rising we knew it was time to call it quits and say guten nacht.

To ensure that we wouldn’t fall asleep in the middle of our day’s sightseeing plans, we went straight to a café for our ceremonial coffee and tea. At midday we met Mr. Udo Schmid, Lemmer’s father, next to the old tower on the Rhine River. He was our tour guide for the day. Little did we know that he was a professional freelance tour guide for the city of Dusseldorf and that we were going to get the best tour we’d ever gotten of any city yet. Udo’s impeccable English and proper British accent made us feel as though we were royalty ourselves being given the grand tour.

The tour started with a leisurely 30-minute walk along the pedestrian boardwalk that hugs the Rhine. While strolling west towards the city’s modern side of town, we were told that the city was only 700 years old, which is very young, especially in comparison to its closest neighbor Cologne. However, despite their close proximity, there is no love lost between Dusseldorf and Cologne. The main point of dissention revolves around their respective beers, with each one claiming superiority. People from Cologne live by their Kurch beer, which is fairly golden, while those from Dusseldorf strictly drink Alt beir, meaning ‘old beer,’ and is a bit darker. To avoid getting on anyone’s bad side, we claimed to like both types of beer equally well. (Although Andy’s and my favorite was the softer Kulch)

So, after our leisurely walk alongside the Rhine River, we came upon the up-and-coming downtown section of the city. We never thought we’d like modern buildings so much, but these were awesome. For whatever reason the city has attracted some of the most renowned architects in the world. The U-shaped, all-glass building (In our photos) was awarded the best office building in all of Europe in 1999. The glass panels actually open to the outside, which efficiently cool the entire building in the summer. It’s difficult to describe all of its amazingly thought-through qualities and our photos don’t do the building justice, so I guess you’ll have to just see it for yourself. We actually weren’t supposed to take photos inside the building for security reasons as the office of the provincial prime minister is located on the top floor. Oops!

The buildings designed by the Californian architect (obviously) Frank O. Gehry were by far our favorites though. These are in the photos of the white buildings that look like something out of Alice in Wonderland. He actually built them with no flat surfaces; all the sides are either convex or concave, making you feel as though you had a few too many beers at the beirgarten. We could have spent the rest of the afternoon exploring these modern structures but we opted to relax a little at Udo’s favorite local brewery.

We thought we were cheese connoisseurs after trying all the cheeses we did in Marburg, but we were quickly humbled when Udo ordered us some Dusseldorf-style cheese. This cheese was melted into a puddle on the plate that resembled sauerkraut more than cheese. Its aroma competed with Andy’s socks after a few days of wear, but surprisingly its bitter, aged taste complimented the Alt bier nicely. Andy had one polite bite before reaching for the mustard (which was our favorite in all of Germany) and bread. I, however, kept shoveling it into my mouth along with everything else that was in front of us. I guess my mother’s rule of not being excused from the table until I ate everything on my plate is ingrained in me for life.

Still exhausted, and now stuffed, we said goodbye to downtown Dusseldorf and made our way to the Schmid’s house. We were warmly welcomed into their beautiful home and backyard garden by Lemmer’s mom, Patti. She had prepared a delicious meal for us, with the help of Lemmer’s excellent barbecuing skills. We were joined by one of Lemmer’s older sisters and her husband. It was nice to have a conversation where everyone was included since we all spoke English.

The dinner conversation mainly revolved around American politics and perspectives. It seemed as refreshing for Patty to be able to talk to Americans who shared some of her same views, as it was comforting for us to be able to talk to someone freely about our frustrations with the world’s current events and yet not have to defend the States and Americans in the same breath. The conversation inevitably trickled late into the evening before Andy and I began preparing our birthday gift for KelliJo. Lemmer and Mira muttered through a number of birthday songs and greetings in German before we decided on the easiest one to learn. We felt that singing to KJ in English would have been a cop out being that we were in Germany. So with our wine induced giggles, we whispered (since it was already midnight) Alles gute zum gebrutstag (Everything good for your birthday) while Mira captured us in the moment with the digital.

The next morning we were reluctant to leave after such a short one-night stay, but we were also anxious to see our friend Ben in Berlin, so we crammed back into the 2-door, cheese and all, and started the 6-hour journey east to Berlin.

Thank you so much Lemmer, Mira, Patti, and Udo for everything. Your generosity and kindness made our trip through western Germany very authentic and memorable. The laughs and ausfarhts will forever bond us. We hope to make it back to Germany soon, we’re in love with the country. Lemmer, you’re a magical person and dear friend. I can’t wait to find out on which continent or in which country I’ll see you next. Until then…