Auf Wiedersehen Pet
The Final Chapter of the Germany Blog
By The Bass and The Kritter
When at home, Kathy and I like nothing more than lying in bed, on our day's off and indulging in a binge of whatever T.V show we are hooked on at that particular time. Due to numerous factors, (Us running dangerously low on Cash, Everything in Dusseldorf closing on a sunday) we decided to lie in the hotel room and simply watch a 13 episode streak of the ridiculously entertaining T.V series, Kid Nation, on the laptop. We had stocked up the day previous, with all manners of jellys, chocolates and crispy goodies and were good to go for our binge.
About 6 episode's in we found the marathon becoming a bit too much so we decided to go for a leisurely stroll. We decided to just head from our hotel towards the old t.v tower and not use any map's or anything. It was a great little adventure and we got to see alot of sight's we may not have seen, had we not run out of cash. There are some really interesting building's just outside of the media harbour in Dusseldorf, one of the more notable had a series of about fifteen seperate stairwell's leading up the outside of it, and was vaguely reminescent of something from an Escher painting.
Continuing on towards the T.V tower, we wound up in a massive park, that seemed totally hidden and secluded. It may have contained plenty of wasp's and some crazy homeless guy's but nothing could detract from it's inherent beauty. We spent about an hour just walking around snapping shot's of almost everything in the park, save the wasp's or homeless guy's. After we headed on our way, Kat's feet began to really hurt her so we had to turn off at the T.V tower and make tracks for the hotel. At the Apollo variete there happened to be a huge Olympic Sport's fair in action, so we paused to watch some of the funnier spectacles, like the kid's in Sumo suit's fighting. That was top class entertainment. It didn't take long for us to get back to the hotel, where we resumed our marathon of Kid Nation, but not before we cracked open a bottle of Rose Wine and had some intimate times. Nice. Isn't that the part that honeymoon's are all about. I then promptly fell asleep. Ha ha.
Monday... Our final day in the beautiful city. Not only that, but we were meeting Shin, who had arranged a way for us to visit Cologne and go to a traditional Japanese karaoke bar, all for just forty euro's. Top notch! The benefit's of having a Japanese tour guide/friend in Dusseldorf rock. The train journey to Cologne was much shorter than I expected, coming in at just under half an hour. As we were approaching, I caught my first glimpse of the monstrous Dom Cathedral, the largest Cathedral in Europe. Yowch, that's a big church!!
Hopping off the train I desperately needed to.. ahem, make use of the facilitys. We found a nearby brewery, where I relieved myself and promptly proceeded to start filling myself back up again, by ordering one of Cologne's famous Kolsch style beers. The first I had was called Gaffel Kolsh and was really crisp and tasty. This would not be the last Kolsch I would have in Cologne. We took some time to take a look around the inside of the Dom Cathedral. Seriously there is no point in me trying to write how huge this place is. Being inside it really make's you feel completely insignificant... which is what I'm sure the catholic church intended.
In all seriousness though, the scale of the place is impossible to get across in a blog. It's even hard to ring the point home through photo's. This place is huge. We spent all of about forty five minutes looking all over the Cathedral taking in all the sight's including a huge gold coffin, which I jokingly alluded to Shin, belonged to Michael Jackson, which set him off laughing like a hyena. It cost money to journey to the top of the Cathedral and there was no elevator, so we decided to carry on and take in some more free sight's around Cologne.
On our way out of the Cathedral we got caught up in the frenzy being caused by a troupe of Brazilian Capoeira Dancers. They were unreal, the skill and speed which they performed brought me back to Eddy Gordo from the Tekken series and on one or two occasion's I even shouted out stuff like “You lose!” and “Round 2... FIGHT!”. I was mad to stay and watch but Kat was ushering us onward's. We headed down Cologne's main street. It was kind of like a gigantic version of Grafton Street in Dublin, filled with all your usual chain store's and restaurant's.
We stopped into another Kolsch brewery which happened to have a super futuristic toilet. On said toilet, you push a button, a thing come's out and clean's your seat for you. I felt like I was part of the jetson's or something, “Rosie, please wipe down the seat for me before I place my buttock's down on it!”. Ha Ha. The Kolsch itself was called Fruh, and it was pretty decent, although the difference between Kolsch and Altbier is that most Kolsch taste's pretty much the same, so there would be no point in me now trying to discern the subtle difference's. All I can say is that it was good, easy to drink and very light and crispy.
Onward's we ventured and made our way through a french market, before I was stopped dead in my track's. This is the point where I drop all my pretentious way's and become an out and out tourist. OH MY GOD! HARD ROCK CAFE! Ha ha. For anyone who is into music, especially rock, Hard Rock cafe is always an exciting sight. In hard rock you get to not only have tasty food and beer's but you also get to look at some classy guitar's, outfits, platinum album's belonging to many of the world's premier recording artists. We sat outside Hard Rock Cafe in the sunshine and had ourselve's a nice cold glass of Sion Kolsch beer. Weird to say but it reminded me alot of Kirin beer.
After creaming myself in front of the guitar wall, and giving serious contemplation to robbing a few of them, we carried on our adventure. We took a stroll down by the Rhein and saw some more incredible architecture, including the huge suspension bridge we came over to get to Cologne. We were going to go across to the other side, but Kathy's feet had begun to give her trouble so we decided to head back to the Cologne Central Station and hop on the train back to Dusseldorf. We had spent about 4 to 5 hour's in Cologne, bought a few drinks and out of the 40 euro's, we still had about 20 euro's left. Not bad.
Back in Dusseldorf, Shintaro lived up to his agreement and took us to the Karaoke bar above his restaurant. Usually, in Karaoke bar's you have to pay a fee just to use the table, but Shin negotiated with the lady that owned the place, and she conceded that since it was off peak, she would not issue the usual charge. It was terrifying. I have played gig's, sang, played bass, read poetry, performed in play's and much more, in front of large group's of people, but performing Jeremy by Pearl Jam in front of just Kathy and Shintaro was the most terrifying experience I've had in my life.
Shintaro hopped up and did a few song's in Japanese, a couple of which I recognised, such as the ending theme to Spirited Away. He has an incredibly powerful voice, and seeing him sing helped alleviate my nerves. Other song's I performed included Twisted Transistor by Korn, Mosh by Eminem, Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake and Misery by Green Day. Jeez, once you got me started and the nerve's were gone you couldn't stop me. Myself and Shintaro performed two duets which were hilarious, one was Two become one by the Spice Girls ??!?? Ha ha, this was priceless. The other was Smell's like teen spirit.
I enjoyed a few beer's and then we left the Karaoke house and headed back to the hotel. We sat down at the italian takeaway, situated just around the corner from the hotel, and shared a pizza with Shintaro. We mostly ate in silence. I know that on my part it was because I was welling with emotions (Yes, I am a big girl), realising that I wouldn't get to see Shintaro until at least November.
So much to reflect on of our time in Dusseldorf. All I will say is this. We met some amazing people, Ate some amazing cuisine, formed lifelong friendships, saw some unbelievable sight's and both myself and Kathy agreed that we would not change a moment of our honeymoon, for the world. We said our farewell's to Shintaro, It was difficult but I can't wait to have him over in November.
Fare Thee Well, Dusseldorf,
You are now officially one of my favorite place's in the world.
Sorry if the end of the blog seem's a little rushed, but I'm mad to get started on some new material. Coming up next are some review's. I would like to thank everyone who read this blog as in your own way, I feel that you shared our honeymoon with us and I hope you enjoyed the journey.
Sexy Drug's and Sausage Roll's
Peace Out,
P.Bass and K.Critter
Posts
