It’s been way too long since my last post. Life just got in the way and the end of the (school) year madness was insane.
But summer officially started and on Tuesday me and my two girls landed in Germany for our annual visit.
Today, still suffering jet lag, we spent the day in Düsseldorf (capitol of the state NRW). It’s beautifully located on the River “Rhein”, the 10th longest river in Europe. We spent the day shopping, strolling through the old town and having late lunch on the promenade.
Düsseldorf considers itself as quite fancy. It has a huge boulevard, the “Königsallee” (short “the Kö”) with all the fancy stores along mostly one side (Aigner, Boss, Chanel, Dior, Hermes…). In my early twenties I spent a lot of nights in the old town and partying is still the thing to do here. Today again you could see that my fellow Germans love to sit outside. Even though the weather is rather average, it was about 68° today but with the sun out it was pleasant and all the cafés, breweries and restaurants were packed. They love having an “Altbier” (special beer of Düsseldorf) or an Aperol Spritz, eating good food and having a good time. In our restaurant you could choose from 8 different kinds of “Spritz” which is THE summer drink here. That’s what we did, too.
Another very german thing is recycling. We are passionate about separating our garbage in multiple groups: paper, bio-waste, “Grüner Punkt” (which includes plastic, metal and other food packaging like milk boxes) and glass. We even sort the glass into the different colors and since you actually can drink in public in Germany, you apparently need these big glass recycling containers in the middle of Düsseldorfs old town. And for your convenience there is a public bathroom right next to them. So after drinking the beer, you can throw the bottle away and use the restroom right after. Germany practicality at its best!
Braunglas = brown glass
Grünglas = green glass
Weissglas = white glass
Prost!
