Further in Germany
In addition to attending the boat show we spent some time walking in Düsseldorf. Jørn from Dragonfly, who goes to this show every year had given us a tip that we should stay near the Altstadt, the original part of Düsseldorf. Train service is good and you can get to the show in a few minutes, so why stay out in the suburbs by the show?
There is a lovely riverside walk along the Rhine to get from the exhibition center back into the Düsseldorf Altstadt. It’s not exactly tourist season, but I can imagine that in spring this area is quite lively. There’s lots of cafes and bars and restaurants along the streets, all of them have outside seating when the weather permits. While we were there it was clear, but very cold, and the outside seating was only in use by the waiters and cooks and some customers taking smoke breaks.
Fun fact: Düsseldorf has the largest Japanese population in Germany. Our hotel was between Altstadt and the part of town they call “Little Tokyo.” We haven’t yet found good sushi in Valencia (Suggestions welcome), and most of the Japanese restaurants we’ve found are not run by Japanese people. So we were interested to find that the receptionist at the hotel was Japanese and had some recommendations for good sushi and ramen that were walking distance from the hotel. She also recommended some Korean BBQ places, and since traveling to Seoul for work many years ago I have loved Korean food. With our list in hand we started planning our dinners in Düsseldorf!
First order of business was to go to a genuine German bierhall. Our list from the concierge/receptionist at the hotel included Uerige, highly recommended as the authentic experience. We came in and were seated in a room that looked straight out of the Middle Ages. Dark wooden wall panels. We were immediately given two beers, and the waiter marked the coasters to show how many we had. We never had to ask for another, as soon as our glasses were empty, another would show up and be recorded on the beer mat. I approve of this system. I had a Schnitzel, because why not? Liz had a sausage. Both delicious. The beer was fantastic. We felt like we had truly arrived in Germany.
We also enjoyed Gogi a Korean BBQ, and Nagomi, an extremely good Japanese restaurant. Both were busy and crowded, but worth it to make reservations!
It’s been a longtime dream of Liz’s to visit Berlin, so while in Germany we figured a little train trip might be worth it. The High Speed Train, called the ICE, takes only about 4 hours from Düsseldorf, so we booked seats and return flights from Berlin to Valencia, allowing a 4 day visit to Berlin. Despite my 5 years of High School and college German, I’d never spent any time in Germany other than a long layover in Frankfurt on my way to Cape Town while building Sage in South Africa. Despite my last German practice being about 40 years ago, I was surprised how much I could understand if I tuned in.
We did the usual first time tourist things. We purchased tickets for one of the “hop on hop off” tourist busses. There are 4 different companies that offer these tours, and normally we’d rather walk, but given the weather we were pretty happy with this optional way to see the city. It was way too cold for this California boy, but Liz, being originally from Kansas, was happy when it snowed on us on the way back to the hotel after the second dinner in town. We purchased a 48 hour open pass so we could take full advantage, and it became our mode of transport for the next few days. After that we bought a 24 hour metro pass to get around.
We began with walk from our hotel to Checkpoint Charlie, the border crossing point from East Berlin into the US sector. Nearby there were remnants of the wall, and the stop to “hop on” the red tour bus. A few stops in we hopped off at the TV tower, the tallest building in Germany. The top was obscured in the low clouds, so we didn’t feel the need to take the elevator to the observation deck for the “breathtaking view” promised in the brocure. Nearby was the DDR museum, which is a very interesting privately run small tourist museum.
We visited “museum island,” a UNESCO world heritage site in the middle of the River Spee which houses the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the National Gallery, and the German History museum. For €24 you can get a day pass to all of the museums on the island. It’s a great deal, and hanging out in museums is a great thing to do on cold snowy days. The history museum was closed for renovations, which was disappointing, but the Altes and Neues museums were both excellent, focusing on antiquities. The National Gallery was more focused on German art, and was quite good as well.
On the final day we went to the East Side Gallery, which is the longest section of the Berlin Wall that still stands. In 1990, while the rest of the wall was being torn down, artists covered this section with murals, and it was left as a gallery. In 2009 they had to restore the wall, and the artists were all invited to re-paint their murals. All but 5 did. The spaces of the ones who didn’t participate were re-painted in the original colors of the wall, grey and white. It’s a striking amount of art, and it’s longer than I expected. The area has many outdoor parks and bars which, when the weather is good, would be packed, but in January it was freezing cold and we made our visit to the gallery short so we could find a cafe to warm up in. After freezing in Berlin, I was ready to return to the relative warmth of winter in Valencia.
All in all the trip to Germany was a great success, but we were eager to get out of the icy north and back to the relatively balmy weather of Valencia.