Saddle Up, Boys, It's Time for Düsseldorf!

Düsseldorf kept us up at night. We were there for two nights, and it kept us up both nights in fact. This is a party town.

During our stay in mid-July, the city was lively with students and locals, many of whom seemed to have been transplanted from another country, but there were still locals. For a city of this size, the number of tourists was small. It was an odd mix of foreigners who knew the city well, a by-product of Düsseldorf's successful economy. The kind of party-goers who know how to party. We stopped by a few of the bars in the Alstadt, or Old Town, which is often called the "longest bar in the world" due to the fact that it has over 300 bars and clubs.

The specialty drink of Düsseldorf is the altbier, or Old Beer, which is brewed in a few of the larger pubs in the area. Most of these brewpubs serve only one beer, which servers carry in large numbers, poured in the traditional glasses, on enormous trays. Upon arriving at Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei, we weren't asked what we wanted, but two glasses of altbier were plopped down on the top of our high table. The waiter then took the pencil from behind his ear and made two strikes on my coaster. About fifteen minutes later, when my glass was empty (the traditional glasses are small), the waiter traded my glass for a full on and quickly drew another line on the coaster. When Dana and I decided to leave, he glanced at my coaster and told me how much we owed. With one beer to serve and the serving method down to perfection, it's no wonder that they can charge just 2 Euro a beer and still make a profit. It's an excellent deal for the customers, too, who can get as much of that malty goodness as they wish as quickly as they wish.

That night a group of rowdy Irish travelers in the room next too ours kept us up from 4AM until 5AM. Only when I pounded on the wall nearly hard enough to go through it did they simmer down. Surprisingly, this was the first time on our trip we were kept up by carousing neighbors.

Back in the Alstadt, the Old Town showed signs of the night before. Though it was late morning, the streets were empty. Of humans, that is. A few spots on the street had remnants of the partying from the night before. Bits dispelled here and there, if you know what I mean. We steared clear of the "Longest Bar in the World" until Düsseldorf's janitors could get a chance to clean it up.

The art scene is impressive in Düsseldorf. We weren't too impressed by the MTV dancers we saw practicing on the sidewalk, but the exhibits at Kunstmuseum K21 were better. The cloudy weather forced us inside. As good as the museum was, I enjoyed the bizarre statues scattered around the city even more. This is Germany, after all, so odd sculptures are to be expected. The fierce fountain of Triton on the canal Kö; the sculpture of a guy wearing an apron gesturing to a boy holding a sword; two bronze figures - one fat, one skinny - seemingly about to have a throw-down; the number of statues of "ordinary Germans" in full color and placed high up on pedestals... these were some of my favorites. Unfortunately, I could not find out much information about these statues. If you know of a site where I can find more information, please comment and let me know!

Night number two was disrupted by Americans on the street. Again, 4AM, this time with one rallying call: "Saddle up, boys, saddle up!"

Overall impression Düsseldorf: It would have been enough to spend one night. The food and beer were great, as was the artwork, but the city felt a bit grungy. Perhaps the seemingly transient nature of many of its residents has prevented it from developing a solid character of its own. To be fair, we were only there for two nights, and it doesn't help that our visit was preceded by stops in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, München, Bamberg, and Koblenz.

Düsseldorf in photo-reality. You will notice that we are having a great time in those photos. We don't regret having stopped there, but, simply put, our others destinations in Germany were even more enjoyable.