A friend and i were planing a trip to our neighboring country Luxemburg and already fully planned out the 4 day itinary, however as a result of the current corona situation Luxemburg just happened to be declared as a high risk area only 1 week before our trip started. Since this took us by surprise and there was no leeway for planing now, it would mean this would be a spontanoues trip. The first definitive goal would be Frankfurt because it was the first checkpoint on our original trip. The tickets have been booked and we had a friend over there who was happily giving us shelter – so no way out and reject that hospitality.
In the past I’ve been to Frankfurt for some times already, but never actually for sightseeing purposes and those few impressions didn’t make it for me. And now here we are. Stepping out of the central station and making my way downtown to my friend at midnight, i did come across many friendly people, but also many drunks and ladies from the latenight service industry. For that one day pit stop we decided to go to the Schwanenheimer Dünen, a little field outside the town next to a wide green forrest area. Enjoyable walk but to be frank nothing much exciting to see there – a kid literally told her mom “There is nothing exciting to see here” which is a harsher statement than reality allows it but still true words to some extent.
The next stop would be Düsseldorf, where again we were allowed to sleep over at some friends house. I did not expect much from that city but was pleasently surprised and learned a lot. Düsseldorf is located at the river Rhein but everything actually started with a small village at the small small river Düssel – hence the name of the city: Düsseldorf. Sitenote: Historically there was always some rivality between Cologne and Duesseldorf, because in the 19th century Cologne started to abuse its power as a trading spot at the river and made goods more expensive downstream in Düsseldorf.
The first sightseeing spot we visited was the Kiefernstrasse. This alley looks like any other alley except for its slightly more colorful houses and occasionally you would see a poster calling for free rent and accomodiation as a basic right. In fact those houses at the Kiefernstrasse are all occupied properties. It has been explained to me, that in the late 20th century there was a shortage of affordable living space and administration even wanted to demolish those houses at the Kiefernstrasse to make room for industrial factories. People started occupieing the space as a form of protest even going as far as barricading themselves and defending the property with weapons. Today people who live here do have a contract for legal reasons but the rent is almost non existent and they only pay for water and electricity.
A very famous alley is also the Königsallee. Befitting the “King’s alley” it has a small water channel in the middle, expensive shops left and right and is surrounded by pompous looking buildings. According to wikipedia the origin of the name has a more funny aspect to it. During the revolutionary years in the 19th century, some townsmen threw horse apples at the king. As to lighten the mood and calm the king down people then renamed the alley to its now known name.
At lunchtime we went for japanese. Once in a while, i did hear about some infamous Japan day in Düsseldorf, but little did i know, that Düsseldorf is in fact a partner city of Chiba ( a city in the prefecture located in the north of Tokyo) and even has a small Japantown called Little Tokyo. Japantown might be too broad because it actually only comprises of a main street with japanese stores left and right and some other asia related stores in the back alley. Though not comparable to any Chinatown you might think of, it still felt like it had some other amosphere around it.
Fun Fact
I did learn a lot in Düsseldorf and one of those things was about beer. It appears, that if you finished your beverage and don’t put a lid on the glass, it gets automatically refilled. Not sure where that behaviour originated but as far as i know it definetely is not present in Dresden.
