Hi Again From Dusseldorf -
Okay, let’s take the challenge and attempt to describe Dusseldorf. Overwhelmingly, I come back to Dusseldorf is like a big city in the United States. At the end of a tram line where the tram made a circle turnaround through some woods in an older neighborhood, I could see a slight bit of Boston. Oh so slight. There are areas of 1950s and 1960s buildings that look a little like they might be Soviet style. So, it’s not a stretch to say in spots Dusseldorf looks like what you’d expect in the old Soviet Bloc. There are many wide streets with boulevards and tram lines, so that all says post-World War II, and some of those streets remind me of Detroit or Cleveland. Oh, there are street signs on corners, identifying streets (no such thing in France). And, lots of intersections exactly like the U.S., with the famous French (and British) roundabouts nowhere to be seen here in Dusseldorf. Much of the housing construction is the yypically European 3-4 story building with street level retail and housing above, trying to use the style from hundreds of years previously. But, so much of it is from the 50s and 60s that they caught a less than wonderful architectural period, and much of it is dreary and gray, rather than architecturally detailed and beautiful (say Paris). There are some much older buildings that survived World War II, but I don’t think many would think that German style was quite as captivating as some of the French style. The Rhine River is muddy with lots of barges and if you blinked you’d believe you were standing under the arch in St. Louis. It was spooky. The Old Town (which over in France means hundreds and hundreds of years old (in big cities and little villages) is something we haven’t seen in The Netherlands and Germany, and certainly not in Dusseldorf. The Old Town here in Dusseldorf is charming and lively, but it looks like they tried to copy what had been there prior to the war, and you just can’t quite capture those old buildings with new construction. Also, there are many places, downtown and out in the neighborhoods (see Marz and the kids on a corner and the two photos showing a neighborhood transit stop) that look like Canada, especially Edmonton (check those hard to find photos of Edmonton neighborhoods on line – ha!). Tonight we ate at a neighborhood Italian restaurant that featured pizza. It could have been in the U.S. We had lunch at a chain restaurant that was located in Old Town. A fairly varied menu and inside it looked like an American restaurant. No such restaurants in the south of France and not that much of it in Paris. Keaka and I had schnitzel for lunch. Breaded pork served with cole slaw and French fries. It was an American plate. It came with a basket of rolls with ketchup and mayonnaise. The folks next to us were putting ketchup on their rolls. Interesting. So, I guess you could say that Dusseldorf is a conglomeration and feels as much like a North American city as a European city.
Our ferris wheel ride gave us some terrific views. The photos show two modern bridges over the Rhine. You get a look at some older rooftops and some new high rises. Interestingly, there are about ten modern high rises spread out along the river and inland, as opposed to being bunched in a downtown setting. The photos show that they’ve done a nice job creating a walking area along the waterfront. The subways are very modern and clean. I think the subways are all new within the last twenty years (see photo of Keaka in a subway station, with Sophia trying to calm down off to the right). Then, you’ve got the photos of a transit turnaround about 20 minutes out from central Dusseldorf.
The transit system is unbelievable. I still don’t get where all of these cities get the funds to build these sophisticated systems. The need is there in most places (tight spaces, little parking and few people with cars), though Dusseldorf has more open space for parking. Today, we went through some nice areas of single family homes (looked like the U.S.) on the tram and some very well dressed people were getting on and off the tram. You’d never see that in the U.S. The mass transit makes so much sense. In the U.S. they always hold up Portland as an example of modern mass transit. The Portland system is less than 10% the size of the system in Dusseldorf, and the Portland trains crawl along, while trains here in Dusseldorf (and other European cities) are moving faster 50 feet from a station than a Portland train is moving on its longest straightaway. Okay, I’m a transit and train freak. We took the train yesterday, I was on three transit trains today and will be on two trainstomorrow . It doesn’t get any better.
We’ll soon be checking out the castle.
Happy New Year!
The Wilsons
