I had eight days that I didn’t know what to with after leaving Croatia and before Thanksgiving happened back in the USA so I decided to explore the German Rhineland for the first time. It was a great fit because Split has direct flights to Düsseldorf (one of only four cities during the off-season). Conveniently, Cologne is just 20 miles south of Düsseldorf and was the main draw to me this trip. Bonn was tacked on at the end and facilitated en route planned meetup with my friend Ben who I had seen just weeks before in Bremen.
Düsseldorf was an exciting destination because I had no expectations ahead of time. As luck would have it, I arrived the night before the annual one-day Carnival celebration; while the normal Carnival celebration is in February, on November 11th each year there is a one day Carnival event with street celebrations and people partying in costumes. It’s like the precursor to what follows three months later. Imagine my surprise to unexpectedly wander into a cohort of Germany cheerleaders line dancing and throwing each other in the air in front of a local pub. I took some fun photos of the festivities across a few venues while kicking myself for not knowing ahead of time this thing was happening — won’t make that mistake again. A nice tease for Cologne — multiple Düsseldorf locals told me that I should be in Cologne for the celebration instead — apparently it is ten times better there.
Düsseldorf has some truly fantastic contemporary art museums. My favorite was the K21. I added a collection of some of my favorite pieces here.
Also very cool was a museum of classic cars for sale. You can see some of my favorites here.
The highlight of my two days in Düsseldorf was attending a variety show featuring music, dancing, acrobats and a crazy old man juggling ping pong balls with his mouth. Hard to explain but thoroughly entertaining. My seat was in the front row, but I shared a 4-top table with three German strangers who, while gracious, had heads that ruined my otherwise ideal photo shooting angle; nevertheless here is a rundown of the show at the Apollo.
If you haven’t yet considered Düsseldorf as a destination — reconsider!
