The time telling city

So after all the mayhem of Oktoberfest at Munich which ended in the wee hours of the morning, with less then 3 hours sleep tucked in under our belt, we were on our way to the city of Dusseldorf, circa 500 kms from Munich.

We used the German rideshare web site ‘Mitfahrzentrale’ to get to Dusseldorf and boy, we saved quite a fair bit of dough that would have otherwise been spent on the very expensive Euro-rail trains. We got driven there by a lovely German girl from Dusseldorf who was also a fellow photographer so there was plenty to chat during the ride.

Chapter 1: The Mozzarellas or the Pancettas as we know them

I had met Chiara in Milan when we surfed together at Niccolo’s house, and from the moment we met madness had ensued which eventually did end up leading us to Dusseldorf. Now people behave significantly different when around their partners as opposed to when they are alone – but thankfully Chiara proved to be one of those rare instances where her madness only seemed to intensify with Franceso around her.

I have unconditional love for this couple who call themselves ‘The Mozzarellas’ (probably to stick on to their Italian identity) and post my visit to Ddorf I’ve rechristened them ‘The Pancettas’ for they both have the ‘hands of god’ when it comes to making pasta with pancetta in it. To date, it’s been the best pasta I’ve ever had.

Not only did we delve into our gastronomical fetishes, we also spent a whole night out limbering around the streets of the ‘Longest Bar’ – a series of bars right next to each other in the center of town, armed with our weapon of choice for the night – a coke bottle, half emptied, and replaced with Havana Club rum. Fine night ’twas indeed

Con Los Pancettas

Chapter 2: The Sights

Now Dusseldorf is not on every tourist’s list of places to see in Germany, but we were pleasantly surprised with what this little city had to offer. Plenty of parks to stroll about and a stunning harbour definitely made our visit worthwhile.

The Rheinturm – the time telling tower stands tall above this city and seemed to remind everyone around constantly of their precious life seconds ticking away – so folks, the message once again is – follow you dreams, your passion, no matter what they are, believe in yourself for you’ve just got 23953535315353433333333 seconds to live!

The brilliant Ddorf skyline with the Rheinturm on the left

The Aluminium clad Neuer Zollhof structure

The Facts