Day 1 (June 4th into June 5th)

In laws picked us up at the house and drove us to the airport along with Fuzzy. We had a 4:30 PM flight to Frankfurt, Germany (seats 1a and 1c). I watched Rocky Balboa which was better than I expected. Both Al and I didn't sleep well. Flight was a little bumpy but the food was good. I had a Bloody Mary and two Warsteiner beers. We arrived in Frankfurt at 8:00 AM local time on June 5th. We then had connecting flight to Dusseldorf at 8:40 AM. Flight time from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf was 35 minutes. Total flight time from Atlanta to Dusseldorf was 10 hrs and 18 minutes. We looked for a cab at the airport that took credit cards and it took about 30 minutes to get to the Schaper Apartment. Our apartment is about 400 square feet with a separate bathroom and a little kitchenette area (see above picture). There is no AC so you have to open up the windows and use fans. We walked near Al's office and found a restaurant to have lunch at. This was our first German meal. We looked at the menu and had no clue what it said. We asked the waitress for chicken or beef dishes. I ended up having warm sliced chicken over sliced potatoes with vinegar and pumpkin oil. Al had asparagus with melted cheese on a toasted rye bread. Al then went to work and I walked around for 4.5 hours. I went to the Hofgarden and all over the east side of town. I started to price out prepaid cell phones since our US phones didn't work in Germany. I met Al back at the apartment and we ate dinner down the block at Casa Luigi. It was a good meal and Luigi came over and said hello. I had a tuna dish with a sweet and spicy sauce along with a salad and Veltin Beer (beer was just ok). We walked around the promenade on the Rhine and then went back to the room and passed out.

Day 2 (June 6th)

Tough night sleeping because we had to leave the windows open to get some cool air into the room. Early in the morning we heard cars on the street and loud garbage trucks (recall.com trucks). We walked down the street and found a little cafe to have breakfast at which consisted on camambert cheese on a nutty roll with an orangina drink. I walked Al to her office and then went food shopping. I had no clue what anything was unless the picture on the product was pretty clear. I paid for everything but didn't realize then didn't give me bags for my groceries. I ended up paying for a brown paper bag (.25 euros). After dropping the groceries off, I walked south of the apartment and went to the Standehauspark. It was a nice park with a bunch of ducks walking around. I took some pictures here. There was also a museum nearby called the K21. I went inside to see that it was a contempary museum and that tonight was "free" night from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. This was for both K21 and K20 (Picasso exhibit). I continued south and then went to the RheinTurn which is a tall skinny observation building with a restaurant on top. I continued walking and went to the Medienhafen area which is a converted old wharf section with very interesting buildings some of them designed by Frank Gehry. There was one very interesting building with large plastic people with webbed hands and feet that were crawling up the building (see above picture). This area looked like an inlet off the Rhine river. There was also a park along side this area that was nice. I then followed this up to the promenade on the Rhine and stopped for lunch at the Gosch Syct restaurant. I had a cold shrimp in creme sause on a roll with a beer (Frankenheim Alt; very good). It was a beautiful day along the Rhine as I sat and ate lunch. The sun was out and there was a nice cool breeze as I watched the boats and people go by. The restaurant played good American music. I needed to use the restroom at the restaurant but it cost .30 euros. I only had .25 euros and the attendant took it. The mug I was drinking from was pretty nice and would go well with the collection at home. I asked the waiter if I could pay for the mug but he said "no, you can just take it". It was cracked so I took the ash tray instead. I finally motivated and got up and walked around the rest of the promenade. I asked about the boat rides from Dusseldorf to Cologne and they said it would take from 5-7 hours and I could drive there in 30 minutes. It was long day of walking from 10 AM to 6 PM. Al met me back at the apartment at 6:45 PM. Since it was the 1st Wednesday of the month it was free night at the K20 and K21 museums which were open late until 10:00 PM. We decided to go to the K20 since they were having a Picasso exhibit. The exhibit was good but it was Picasso's late years of art and very strange. We checked out the rest of the museum, but nothing spectatular. We then walked around the old town looking for a restaurant. There are 100's of restaurants and bars to choose from with huge numbers of people walking around. Alot of people were out tonight probably because tomorrow was a Catholic holiday and businesses were closed. We ended up going to a Tapa's restaurant expecting to have Tapas but since we didn't understand any of the items on the menu we ended up each picking an entree from the menu. I got a seafood platter with salmon, 2 big prawns and 2 white fish (I didn't know what they were). I asked for a beer and in the translation the waiter brought me two beers. One was a small one (.2 ml) of Gatz beer (ok amber beer) and the other one was a large beer (.5 ml) of Altstat which tasted strange (like lemonade and beer). I ended up finding out that they mix sprite with the beer. Neither beer was great but of course I drank them both. All through dinner we watched hundred's of people walk on the street (no cars allowed). There was a German soccer game on so that probably helped add to the choas in the streets. We aslo noticed groups of people all wearing the same shirt and/or wearing strange clothing, i.e. Bee antenae or a guy holding a ball and chain. We found out that they were bachelor(ette) parties. People from all over come to Dusseldorf to party (both young and old). Everybody drinks beer and it is legal to walk around with an open beer. We headed home after dinner

Day 3 (June 7th)

We slept late until 11:00 AM and had breakfast in (cereal for me and a cheese sandwich for Al). W put our walking shoes on and went to the main train station (Hauptbonhauf) to look into some weekend trips. We were thinking about going to Amsterdam this weekend but the tickets were over 200 Euros for 2nd class tickets. They had a special for the next weekend for 104 Euros on 1st class to Amsterdam so we got them. We also looked into getting tickets to Berlin but there was a late return train and we decided that we would rather drive. The we decided to walk to a park a few miles south of the train station. We got a little lost but ended up there. At first we were in a cemetery (actually very nice) but saw that the park was connected to the cemetery (a little strange). On the map it actually showed little "crosses" on the park to distinguish the cemetery. When we finally made it to the park section we got an ice cream cone and saw a little animal petting zoo. They had goats, sheep, ducks and a big schwein (pig). We hung over there for a while then walked around the park. We came upon an interesting area that had little "cottages" with beautiful gardens. We didn't know if they were permanent or vacation homes. We meandered through the rest of the park and finally came out after walking for a long time. We then walked over to the Rheinturn (tall building) area and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. The waiter didn't speak English so again we "winged" it and ordered something safe. I had a nice black pasta with shrimp in a creamy spicy sauce and a couple of beers (called Deisel; pretty good) and a bruschetta. Al had the risotto and a Chardonnay. We were both exhausted after dinnner so we headed back to the apartment after a long day. At the apartment, Al did some research on spa's and I flipped thru the tv channels and fell asleep. Another tough night of sleeping (noise and heat).

Day 4 (June 8th)

Woke up and went to our "usual" place for breakfast. I had the Camembert cheese on a nut roll, chocolate milk and I tried the apple flugel (it was ok). Dropped Al off at work and went to the supermarket. This time I was prepared with my grocery bag. I bought some flavored water for Al, cheese, paper towels and laundry detergent. Went back to the apartment and asked Sarah (office manager) to show me the exercise room, sauna and washing machines in the building. My goal for the day was to figure our transportation for the weekend. I went to the backyard of the apartment since I couldn't get a good wireless connection from the room. The backyard is very nice with a couple of chairs, a table and flowers. I researched rental cars. We were thinking about going to Belgium or Luxembourg tomorrow. The best rental company seemed to be Avis which has an office not that far from the apartment. I needed to find a car with automatic transmission and A/C (not all cars have it). I met Al for lunch and 12:30 PM at her office. She invited a friend, JT who works with her and is from Dallas originally but who has been here for approximately a year. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had chicken in a red curry paste with vegetables and white rice. I drank a Frankenheim Alt beer (nice). Actually this was the 1st time we went to a restaurant that had an English menu. I walked Al back to the office and then went to the Avis store. At Avis, I asked for a car with automatic transmission but he didn't have any. I haven't driven a stick in 25 years and never practiced enough to be good. He told me I could check back later and maybe an automatic would be available. I then walked over to the train station to find out prices to go to Brugge (225 Euros), Luxembourg (237 Euros), Koln (23 Euros) and Aachen (31.50 Euros). The trains are pricey if you don't reserve one a number of days in advance. I then walked back to Avis to see if an automatic was available but no luck. I still needed a cell phone so I found the cell phone store that had quoted me the lowest price for a prepaid phone. I bought a new phone with 5 Euros of talk time for 14.99 Euros (.29 Euros per minute). They even threw in a camouflage carrying case. Came back to the apartment to update my travel log and then called Avis. I asked for an automatic and she told me a Mercedes was available (c class, nice!!!!). She quoted me 197 Euros. When I told her I was able to get a price of 166 Euros on the Internet she said ok, let me see if there is a special price. She came back with 134 Euros. I said "Book it". She gave me a reservation number and hopefully it will work out all right tomorrow. Now we need to figure out where we are going. Al came home at 5:45 PM and I told her about the car. After doing some research in my Europe book it looked like there was more to do in Belgium than Luxembourg. Al agreed with my decision so we thought it would be best to drive to Brugge first and stay overnight, then try to hit Ghent and Brussels on the way back. We looked on line and found a nice hotel in Brugge (called Romantik Pandhotel). We called and they had a room available for 180 Euros. We were all set with a room now. We then researched a place for dinner in Dusseldorf and found an authentic German restaurant called Hausbrauerei Zum Schlussel. As we went to the restaurant the street were packed with thousands of people partying. The restaurant was sort of like a brew pub with the brewery vats in the back. They served two types of beers (full strength and half and half) from a real keg at the bar. We sat down and luckily the waiter brought us English menus. Al chose the saurbraten (roast beef in a sauce with potatoes and cabbage) and I picked the meat loaf. The waiter didn't speak English and he was a grumpy big dude. He started talking to me in German and both he and I knew I had no clue what he was saying. He brought out Al's white wine and my beer (.20 ml) along with an applesauce bowl for Al and a salad for me. My salad was more like a coleslaw than a salad. When the main course came out Al got her saurbratern but he screwed mine up and I got a big pancake/crepe with bacon on it. I wasn't about to send it back and deal with that hassle so bon apetit. It actually wasn't bad. We hung out and had a few more drinks and watched the people in the streets. After dinner we walked around a little and then headed home.

Day 5 (June 9th): Belgium

We got ready and packed up for our weekend trip to Belgium. We walked over to Avis and got our car. It wasn't the Mercedes but instead a BMW X3 (2007) automatic with navigation system. I drove back to the apratment to get our bags and then hit the road. Driving was definitely strange. The signs and streets were difficult to manuever through. Thank G-d for the Nav system. We listed to the German CD during our ride to Brugge which took about 2 hr 45 mins. We made it there by 11:30 AM. Parking on the street was a pain so we had to put it in the private garage for the hotel. We stayed at the Pand Hotel and got upgraded to a bigger room (the room was not that big but it had a nice jacuzzi bathtub). It was too early to check in so we dropped our bags off and started to walk the streets. The location of the hotel was great and close to everything. We got some recommendations for lunch and walked around until we found one we liked. The restaurant we ate at was called Carpe Diem. I had a seafood crepe (very good) with a white Belgian beer. Al had a "vegetarian" lasagne that ended up having ham (schwein breath) in it. After lunch we walked around to a nice park with a lake and then went to the half moon brewery. This is the only local beer (Bruge Zut). The tour was interesting and the guide told us that tourism is the main source of income for the city. Hundreds of years ago (1400's - 1500's) the wealthy lived in Brugge but then ended up leaving and the city hasn't changed much since then and now it is their claim to fame. After the one hour tour we had a couple of beers (or at least I did). We spent the next few hours walking around the city and marveling at the beautiful old architecture. We saw some windmills along the canal and a number of churches and museums. We headed back to the main market area and had dinner at one of the local restaurants. I had a pot of mussels with a big beer (liter). Al had my cheese croquette and a steak. For dessert we had a chocolate mousse. On the way back to the hotel after dinner we found a nice bar with a bunch of beers on tap. I started talkinig to the waiter and owner about the beers while Al went to the restroom. I tried a cherry beer that was very sour and ended up having a Duivel beer which was very nice. After that we headed back to the room and I took a relaxing jacuzzi bath. Al was excited that they had Law and Order on TV in English.

Day 6 (June 10th): Belgium

We woke up at the hotel and walked to the main square to have breakfast. We both had waffles and a bottle of water (the bottle of water cost $10). We then got some Belgium chocolate and checked out. Since the parking garage was so small getting the car out big challenge. We drove to Ghent which took about 40 minutes. Ghent was similar to Brugge in that it had canals but it was not as nice/clean. There were many old, interesting buildings and one castle. We walked around and got some chocolate truffles and checked out the old city. After a while we stopped and had lunch on the canal. Al had a "true" vegetarian lasagne and I had a seafound pasta and a chocolate milkshake (I had to drive). Lunch was ok and then we headed back to the car. We had parked in a lot and I had no idea how to pay. Luckily I saw someone and she explained where to pay and how to do it. Even the simpliest things are difficult in another language. We headed out of Ghent around 3:30 PM and drove to Brussels which took 40 minutes. The Nav system was great and we took it to the center of the city where we parked in a parking garage. Brussels is the largest city in Belgium and a lot of people speak French. It was a little dirty and there were lots of people walking around the old city. There was a nice shopping gallery, a lots of streets with many restaurants of all types of on them (waiters try to solicit you to come eat at their restaurant). We walked around and checked out the interesting sites and stores (lots of chocolate stores). We went to the Grand' Place which is a big square with very intricate old buildings surrounding it. This is the main site in Brussels. It was time to eat again and we found a restaurant on the Grand' Place. Al had an onion soup and salad and I had a bowl of mussells. I wasn't that hungry since we had eaten lunch not that long ago. Food was ok. The mussells are a common delicacy in Belgium. We walked around after dinner looking for a Belgium waffle which Al was craving. She got one with chocolate and whipped cream. It was hot and the center was soft. Pretty tasty. We then walked around and found the Brussells Grand Casino. I had to stop in and get a chip. They wouldn't let me in because I had shorts on (I would return). When we got our car and tried to leave the parking garage we had a difficult time. What we didn't know was that you had to pay at a machine that wasn't next to the exit. We found this out the hard way. then as we were sitting in the car by exit baracade the reverse buzzer on the car started going off but I wasn't moving. I looked in the rear view mirror and there was a guy with his face right up against the back of the car. I had no idea what the heck he was doing. We finally got out of the garage and the worked our way around the tight streets and found the infamous Petit Julien. This is a small black sculpture of a child peeing. I took a picture from the car. We then found our way back to the casino. I had already changed into long pants back in the parking garage. Before I could enter the casino I had to show them my passport so I can be signed up as a member. This took 10 minutes and then I walked into the main casino. It was pretty small with slots, blackjack and roulette. I didn't see any craps tables eventhough I didn't have time to play since Al was waiting back in the car. I went over to the cashier and paid for a 2 Euro chip. I was a nice orange one with Brussells Casino stamped on it. My first European one for the collection. I hustled back to the car and we headed back to Dusseldorf. It was about a 2 1/4 hour drive and the rain didn't help. In Dusseldorf we dropped our bags back at our apartment and returned the car to Avis. We had to park illegally because there was no place to leave the car. We walked back to the apartment and got there around 11:15 PM. Solid weekend. Breakfast in Brugge, lunch in Ghent and dinner in Brussells. No way we could have accomplished all that driving without the Nav system.

Day 7 (June 11th)

Woke up and had breakfast at our usual spot on the corner but today we were joined by Rajni (Al's colleague). After breakfast I walked around town during the day and went over to Avis to make sure everything worked out with the car and got a receipt. I also found out that they have a standard weekend offer to rent a G class (luxury) car for 132 Euros. You get to pick up the car on Friday after 12:00 PM and return it by 9:00 AM on Monday. I reserved a car for June 22 to go to Berlin. I then walked over to the cellphone place and found out that my cell wasn't working because I didn't have a SIM card in it. I had lunch with Al, Rajni and a new guy from Seoul, Korea named YH. They all worked for Citibank and staying in Dusseldorf for a couple of months. We went to a restaurant near work and sat outside. I had beef and pasta with a beer. Walked around after lunch and headed back to the apartment. Met Al back at our room later on and had dinner with Rajni and YH. We walked to the promenade on the Rhine and ate dinner on the river. I had a shrimp dish and a couple of big beers (nice Heifweizens). The shrimp were large but still in their shells (doesn't seem like any of the restaurants remove the shell for you). Food was nothing special. Rajni was still hungry since he had a funky fish dish that looked like it was barely cooked. We walked around and stopped at a Lebanese restaurant and had ice cream and baklava (very tasty). We then headed back to the apartment.