Dusseldorf
I’ve been to Dusseldorf probably 5 or 6 times in the last 20 years but Sunday was the first time I had the opportunity to walk along the Rhine during the day. Being a Sunday, there were plenty of folks out and about, enjoying the marvellous weather and sipping a coffee, a beer or a cocktail, depending on the mood.
This photo seems to capture the moment so well; a busker playing his piano (I hope he has a reasonable road crew!) with a crowd simply listening, watching the river flow past. The river being something of a simile for life on this pleasant Sunday morning; calm but still inexorably flowing along.
I hiked along the river front and then ducked back into the Aldstadt and came across zum Schiffchen (literally translated as ‘The Small Boat’) has been in operation for almost 400 years.
The part I like most is ‘Napoleon’s Corner’; so called as Napoleon and his general staff are known to have celebrated with beers after a victory parade through the streets of Dusseldorf back in 1811. You can’t buy that sort of history!
The Dusseldorf Altstadt was a curious mix of people; students filming and photographing themselves outside of the Art Museum; well dressed, middle aged folks just leaving their early morning church services; tourists (I heard accents from France, the US, Australia as well as Germany) swarming through the streets. All of us seemed to spend some time in Königsallee. Königsallee is the heart of the expensive shopping district in Dusseldorf; but of course, being Sunday, none of the stores are open so most of us happily admired the fountains along the moat in the centre of Königsallee. In this picture you can see the Triton Fountain; quite breath taking and spectacular in its image.
Schloss Benrath
From downtown Dusseldorf I caught the 74 tram (about 25 minutes travel time) to Schloss Benrath. One thing Germany does spectacularly well is to preserve its monuments and palaces; Schloss Benrath is no exception. This view across the lake captures the scale of this wonderful palace built between 1755 and 1770.
There are tours through the palace complex but they are conducted in German and it was such a nice day that I felt like staying out in the fresh air. And am I glad I did! Not only do the Germans maintain these sorts of buildings well but they also manage the gardens and grounds beautifully. This image is taken from the rear of the central palace building and gives you some idea of the scope and beauty of the grounds.
I'm not sure that the pictures will be able to justice to the magnificence of the gardens that surround the palace. The brutality of winter is forgotten as the trees and undergrowth are now fully green; overflowing with green; a verdancy that seems to defy belief. Perhaps the green of the forest is brighter due to the brightness of the sun against such a blue sky. What a day! Warm to hot but with a breeze so cooling that it dissipates the heat to a pleasant warmth.
The foliage now so heavy that the trees screen off various corners of the park. I can hear kids laughing and playing in a clearing behind one copse of trees nearby. Interestingly, little kids seem to laugh and play in a universal language. Listening to them, these kids could be in Australia or China or the US; the universality of happy kids at play.
The only plants in flower are the rhododendrons like this one in the picture; the only colour is purple but their size would seem to be as large as any I’ve seen in the wilds of Silvan or Olinda back in my home state of Victoria.
By the way, the picture with the duck may seem a little incongruous. But the bird is remote controlled too!
I liked being here; just a pleasant day in the sunshine. Maybe subliminally I decided not to do the palace tour so I’d have an excuse to come back and enjoy this wonderful place another time. Another lovely Sunday in this intriguing place.
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a wonderful job with your blog. We really can live the day with you. As you say, there are spots you come across where real history has happened like "Napoleon's Corner" - that's the history that money can't buy. We have found that the French also have been putting a lot of time, effort, and money into trying to preserve a lot of their history. In Australia, stone-masonry is a dying art if it ever existed, but there the trade is much in demand in France and we saw a couple of schools bringing on the next batch of stone artists. The other side of that is, and it is probably the same in Germany, that most buildings have scaffolding around them while maintenance is being done on one part or another. Thanks a million again for taking us with you.