Germany was a rather blank spot for the both of us. We had been to Köln and Bremerhaven, but that was it. It’s a neighbouring country for us and I saw loads of wonderfull pictures by one of my travel addicted friends – Shira – who has been to Germany often. Time to explore Germany some more, we thought!
We started of in Düsseldorf. Our friends Sandra & Tim live there and they were very keen on showing us their city. And so we set of in March 2014 for a weekend over.
They live a bit outside of the actually city centre and first took us to Schloss Benrath, which is near the Garath area, where they live.
Map of the area.
The main building.
Schloss Benrath was designed as a pleasure castle for the elector Palatine and his wife and was constructed between 1755 and 1770. Nowadays the main buildings host two museums, which we skipped (not a good combination with a dog & a 3 year old toddler). The whole complex has been proposed as a Unesco World Heritage site, which would make us very happy 😉
Start of the hunting park.
The weather was excellent, so we instead enjoyed a stroll around the huge castle parc, which was designed as hunting grounds. Entrance to the park is free You can also buy in this park the best spotting scope under 300 to make your hunting even better.
A lot of locals enjoying the lovely spring weather!
All parties involved loved the walk 😉
Closer to the main building again.
The castle also has a great cafe where you can eat lovely salads or flammkuchen (a bit of a pizza like crust, but not with a tomato sauce, more with toppings like mushrooms, onions and cheese – a regional speciality). Prices are fair and the food was great. You do need some time on your hands, so don’t eat there if it’s for a quick lunch 😉
For desert we went of to Yomaro, a frozen yoghurt place not far from the castle. We can highly recommend it!
Yum!
In the late afternoon we headed to the city centre, where the Rheinturm was on our list. Other German cities have one as well, like Berlin or Stuttgart. You can go up the tower to an altitude of 168m to see stunning views of the surrounding area and have a drink or a bite as well. The entrance fee is €5 (Febe got in for free) and well worth it.
Big Rheinturm, small girl!
Gazing at the miniature world below.
Mum & Febe!
On a clear day you can see quite far!
Architecture below is quite stunning 🙂
And the views on the Rhine are superb. Notice all the sunbathers?
More Rhine & Düsseldorf Altstadt (= Old Town).
Can’t get enough of it…
The whole area surrounding the Rheinturm is quite nice for a stroll. It was a great first day out in Düsseldorf!
Spot little Febe…
Sunset along the banks of the Rhine.
Sunset.
Rheinturm location.
As I said before, our friends live in Garath. It’s an area that was mainly built in the 1970’s and a very green area. Outside their appartment building is a forest, which was the nicest way to start off our day.
Two happy walkers!
Afterwards we set off into the city centre again, for a walk in the Altstadt. We started off at Königsallee, which is a very posh shopping street. Not for our budget, but perfect for a Sunday morning stroll. The river Kö makes it a great street to walk around and you can park your car there for free on a Sunday. The perfect spot for a city walk!
Königsallee.
A bridge on Königsallee.
Detail of a street lantern.
Kaufhaus Horten – dismantled in the 1980’s to be rebuilt again only a few feet away the original spot, to make way for public transport.
Detail of the entrance.
Stunning buildings – we loved the architecture there.
We continued our walk and passed through a small art project, showing a series of small pictures alongside a wall in a tunnel. All pictures have one main colour, best viewed from afar.
Small pics!
Shown from afar.
And a little further away. Febe loved it (though not all pics are for little eyes 😉 ).
We continued our walk alongside some of the art museums and the banks of the Rhine again. To end our weekend we had lunch at a local brewery house, called ‘Brauerei Zur Uel’ (Ratinger Str.). The breweries in Düsseldorf all serve nice food. We picked the mixed grill and didn’t regret it one bit!
Yum!
We returned to Düsseldorf in the summer of 2014 as well, on our slightly larger Germany trip. More about this great city in a later blogpost….
-A-
