I’m going to have to recount the last 10 days as a gadabout mostly
backwards. After a brief summary, let’s start with the last
four. In the records, the first weekend in October has never been so warm.
I attended a ‘physics school’ on plasmonics and nanoantennas
in Bad Honnef organized by the DPG (Deutsches Physikalische Gesselschaft)
Sunday through Friday. A 'school' is like a conference where the presentations are mostly intended to be somewhat tutorial and helpful for students and researchers who are advanced and early in their career. Only one talk happens at once and the day is heavily scheduled. Bad Honnef is a tiny town a little bit south of Bonn and across the river among more steep nested vineyards in the bends of the Rhein. One can travel there in less than two hours by a train that follows the Rhein from Mainz, which includes some time on the regional rail. Allow an extra hour to miss a train, if you're me.
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| The cities from Heidelberg to Düsseldorf line the Rhein. Traveling to Bad Honnef took almost two hours because I transferred to regional rail in Koblenz (50 minutes from Mainz), which is much slower. I took a direct Inter-City train to return to Mainz from Düsseldorf which took only 2 hrs, 11 minutes. |
On the first
night, I met Stephan, who had been in his Ph.D. in Zürich for 5 days; time in Ph.D. now doubled on paper. The school ended on
Friday, and he and his colleague, Yasmina, in her Ph.D. for 4 months now, were
visiting Düsseldorf until their flight home on Monday. Monday (today) is a holiday in Germany (but
not in Switzerland). Both are from southern Germany and had never visited Düsseldorf.
Stephan
informally extended an invitation, but I had to check with the whole party. Yasmina happened to sit down next to me after
wandering in for the second of two lectures on Friday morning, the last of the
school.
‘Stephan
tells me you’re going to Düsseldorf today’ I said.
‘Yes,
we’re going to Düsseldorf’ she replied.
‘Is it
ok if I also go?’
Her
eyes widened, ‘To Düsseldorf?’ I nodded, I had no plans for the weekend.
A
surprised shrug, followed by ‘Sure.’ Excellent
I
called the hostel they planned to stay at.
All full, they said. Well, I’ll
go there, store my stuff in their room, and if I can’t find a room nearby, I’ll
head back to Mainz at night, no problem, I thought.
Around
1pm, we hiked out of the DPG building and toward one of the two train stations
flanking Bad Honnef. From there, we
shared a group ticket through Bonn, connecting in Köln (Cologne) (nine minutes
to switch from platform 9 to 2), then arriving in Düsseldorf
Hauptbahnhoff. From Hauptbahnhoff, we
purchased a group ticket for the regional rail, Stephan inquired directions
from the locals, and we headed to the hostel.
Stephan and Yasmina negotiated with the receptionist for quite some
time, hopefully not only my behalf, I thought.
Turns out, their reservation had gotten confused, and while all three of
us could have a bed for Friday night, they were also out of a place for the
remainder of the weekend. Nonetheless,
we settled in for Friday, and took to the Altstadt (Old City) by the Rhein. Most cities/towns in Germany have a section
called Altstadt, with narrow cobblestoned roads that no one drives on, lined
with some hybrid of quaint, rustic, and Gothic architecture, shops, and
bars.
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| Our hostel, the following morning |
Düsseldorf is the artsy and fashion
capital of Germany, featuring statues that look like humans, humans that look like statues, broad allees of high end designers and trendy
shops where consumers already donned in the latest styles tap into the hottest of the
next minute. Shops are
closed by night when the bars and clubs on adjacent streets awaken even more to
conglomerate into ‘the world’s longest bar’.
On first glance, the attitude on the street is materialistic and social
and strongly contrasting to Mainz. The
high aspect ratio people and atmosphere along the river side lawn, bars, and
cafes contrasts the pragmatic feel and casual appearance of Mainz. The skinny jeans, trendy accessories, and
roller skating in leggings, hot pants, or swim suits hint at a combination of
Seattle, San Diego, and Rice Village.
The contrast grows starker in Altstadt past nightfall. I’m thinking Seattle, plus Florida resorts,
plus Jersey Shore.
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| Statues that look like humans, at the tram stop |
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| Outside of Hauptbahnhoff |
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| Humans that look like statues. We were outside this bier haus at night |
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| Coin operated toilet |
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| Even the geese take the tram |
After lounging, a refreshment, and
a nap on the lawn, we strolled past the bars and shore side restaurants to sit
on the steps in front of the Dom. Yasmina
had a ligament in her knee repaired 6 weeks ago and I had an ankle repaired 31
months ago. Stephan insistently gathered
a baguette, smoked salmon, and some red wine to arrive just in time for the
sunset, that the church bells decided to accompany. Once the sunset, we headed into Altstadt,
first to the supermarket for a third bottle of wine, and some snacks, and then
to loiter with the locals outside a brewery with some Alt, the beer locally
brewed there. Apparently, Düsseldorf and
Köln don’t really like each other; you should never ask for Kölsch in
Düsseldorf nor should you ask for Alt in Köln.
Yasmina offered cashews to passersby in exchange for opinions of
Stephan’s red pants, leading to a night long friendship between three middle
aged women taking a break from their families across the river for a girls’
night out.
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| The curvy sidewalk, notice the red pants |
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| See the church tower down yonder, we sat by there for our sunset dinner |
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| View from the lawn |
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| I'm not sure where they're putting this car |
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| Tap for dogs |
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| Blurry, but notice the red pants and roller blades |
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| I like shadows, especially on a colorful wall |
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| Ready! |
Saturday morning we were without a place for the night. Over an hour, Stephan and Yasmina researched and called local hostels and inexpensive hotels, eventually securing a room in a hotel that was more conveniently located near the Stadtmitte (city center). We migrated there, agreed on the evening’s activities of sushi to go, sunset, and dancing, then split for shopping and wandering. Stephan craved designer socks, Yasmina searched for shoes, I wanted photos and ice cream, so we agreed to meet at the hotel to drop off our loot before venturing into the nightlife.
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| The streets of Altstadt were packed |
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Furs
|
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| Check out the red dalmation boot |
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| A hamburger, assembled from cake |
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| People going to mass seemed ready for clubbing |
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You tell me, then we'll both know
|
A successful economic center, Düsseldorf
unsurprisingly has a Japanese quarter, finding high quality sushi was no
problem, and the restaurant even took 10% off if you took it to go. The sun had just set when we arrived at the
steps. Nonetheless, the colors of the
sky, sushi, and wine had the same spectacular content feeling from the night
before. Stephan found recommendations
for clubs from small groups of young local females while Yasmina and I shared a
table with two locals closer to our age who educated us on Düsseldorf ,
jewelry, and other places I should go in Europe with the perfect gallery of
cocktails.
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| Same bridge, different night |
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| Gallery of cocktails |
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Ghost?
|
Upon realizing the time was half past midnight, the three of us decided between some options for clubs that Stephan had researched in conversation, among them ‘Pretty Vacant’ and ‘Anaconda Bar’. Stephan couldn’t understand why Yasmina and I scoffed at ‘Anaconda Bar’. We headed to ‘Pretty Vacant’ and were among the first five people there. Yasmina couldn’t stop telling Stephan the place was ‘Pretty Vacant’. We nonetheless rocked out to The Clash, Franz Ferdinand, something grungy, something more rock like, some version of all that in German, and a splash of Kraftwerk, a new favorite of mine, originally from Düsseldorf (since 1970). The place was packed by the time we left at half past three. Yasmina and I stopped for Pommes before strolling home along the tracks for the tram, which don’t run for a few hours every night.
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| 'Pretty Vacant' |
Sunday started at half past
noon. We returned to the corner of Japanese Quarter for a coffee at this toy store/cafe. We split again in the afternoon so
Stephan could read on the lawn by the river, Yasmina could decide on shoes she
had considered the previous day, and I could indulge my tendencies to roam
without guidance in an unfamiliar place.
I might have roamed through the red light district, quite tame and unpopulated by day, and into Volksgarten, a large park on the south side of the city. I didn’t know how far south or how far from our meeting place it was until I looked at the map later.
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| Guess what's under the bridge?!? |
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| That's what's under the bridge! |
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| Volksgarten, where dozens of people rode bikes, lawn bowled, had BBQs, read and tanned. |
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| Of course I had ice cream for lunch again |
For once, I sought guidance from people in the park and in the train stations for the combination of trains I needed to take to get back to Altstadt by the Rhein, where I would meet Stephan and Yasmina for a final viewing of the sun on the same steps we watched it from the previous nights and goodbyes, as I had determined on Friday that I would return to Mainz on Sunday night.
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| In accurate shot with my 'long' arm, yet genuine. I now have friends in Zürich! |
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| Viele Gruß Düsseldorf |
Today, I’m drafting this posting
from Mainz-Kastel, the town directly over the bridge from Mainz (see 'Weekend in the Rain: Part II'). I biked over here to meet part of my research group and our electron microscopy counterparts earlier for a
barbeque. The sun has settled again,
just 2.5 hours to the south by train along the same river from the previous night's sunset theater. Today's photos are shown in reverse order.
