We explored Dusseldorf by day like tourists... and by night like locals!
We walked around the Rhine esplanade, Altstadt, the old town, and Konigsallee and did some shopping. It's strange for me shopping in the mall because most of the brands and signs are in English and the music in the store as well, it's only when I go to the cash register that I realise just how far away I am from home! But Thomas has been a great 24/7 translator and tour guide :)
At last I was able to find a decent coffee, and was impressed by my latte at Cafe Balthasar. The Dusseldorf city guide was able to point me in the right direction and I'm pretty sure they didn't use condensed milk this time!
Dusseldorf is much bigger than Munster, with around 1.4 million people in the city. It was a Saturday and the last weekend of the school holidays so perhaps this made it busier than usual but there were people everywhere! We saw over 10 different bucks/hens parties, with Dusseldorf having the longest bar in the world it seems to be an obvious choice! The longest bar in the world is actually made up of about 260 bars and pubs that are all next to each other in one street.
After having a BBQ with Thomas' old friends Arne and Steffi, locals of Dusseldorf, they showed us around to some nice bars out of the hundreds and hundreds to choose from. I tried the altbier served basically in the street, where the waiters just walk around with trays of beers and you have the choice of beer or no beer. They will bring you orange juice begrudgingly if you ask for it. The altbier is a dark beer but a lot milder in flavour compared to usual dark beers. (I've been told not to ask for altbier once I'm in Cologne (Koln) as the two cities are major rivals). We had shots of Killepitsch which is kind of like jägermeister except it has more of a liquorice and rum flavour - not the best shot I've ever had but was told it's a must from the small old pub 'Et Kabuffke' that actually serves drinks to customers outside through a hole in the window in winter!
But there is not even a glimpse of cold weather here at the moment, it was over 30 degrees and the heat is relentless! So different to in Sydney, even when you stand under a tree it is still boiling hot, the shade makes hardly any difference.
If I were a real princess, the King would definitely build me a castle like the Schloss Benrath (Benrath Castle). It's just outside of Dusseldorf on a 35h.a. lot of land with massive landscaped gardens, a pool that must have been well over 500m long and the castle is completely painted pink on the outside and the high ceilings and skirting boards inside have pink trimmings too. Amazing. If I can't have a house with a wharf one day, instead I'll have a pink castle. That would do me quite nicely.