Duesseldorf: the extended version

pre-iPod near death
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hello everyone, this is Austin from the other side of the globe!  It is day 3 and we have traveled thousands of miles... planes and trains, busses, taxis and subways...!  It seems like we are constantly on the go.

On our way to Benrath Castle while changing trains, Rachel's iPod flew out of my pocket and slid across the platform... under the train... thank goodness the train wasn't moving...!  I did not have time to think about what I was about to do.  I got down on my belly, reached down underneath the train, and pulled the iPod to safety!!  Crisis averted!!!

Rachel and I were attacked by thousands of hungry geese the size of osteriches!

killer geese of benrath
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One of the neatest things we've gotten to see so far was the Benrath castle where Rachel and I were attacked by thousands of hungry geese the size of osteriches!  After feeding them some crackers, we walked all around the beautiffuly manicured grounds and then caught a free tram ride back to the hostel.

That evening, we walked downtown where we dined on french fries, mayonnaise, beer, hot chocolate and green absynth.  It was wonderful!  Stay tuned, thank you for reading!  Good night and good luck.

Austin & Schloss Benrath
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Rachel's entry:

So we managed to drag ourselves out of bed in time to miss the train we were planning on taking from Berlin to Düsseldorf. It worked out though because we had time to figure out how to validate our train passes, and to get me breakfast, so all’s well that ends well! Once we got to Düsseldorf, we found our way to the busses and trekked through the city in search of our hostel. We actually found it pretty easily, so that was nice. The atmosphere was way better than the hostel in Berlin, much cozier. Austin immediately crawled out the bedroom window onto the roof and sat watching the kindergarten kids next door playing in the yard. I crawled out with him for a bit and we just enjoyed the sound of kids laughing… it was really nice.

walking back to the hostel
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After we made our beds (in case we didn’t get back until late so we wouldn’t have to try doing that in the dark on top bunks without waking up any roommates that may be sleeping!) we headed out with our maps to find the Benrath castle.  Turns out “castle” was a little bit of an overstatement, but we found it, and while the museums were all closed, the park behind it was open so we still got to check it out… it was way cooler than the museums would have been anyhow. We walked around forever which was really really nice. On the way back to the hostel we stopped to find a padlock for the lockers in the hostel so we could lock our bags up and be able to take off for the evening (my shoulders were at the point of protest that I was pretty sure they were going to actually separate from my body entirely… we struggled through a broken German description of what we were looking for (I asked for a “schloss” and they looked at me like I was crazy… then when they figured out what I was looking for I asked what it was called, to which they promptly responded “schloss!”… mayonnaise, anyone??)

We got back to the hostel and packed up a locker with all of our stuff, secured it with our new schloss and headed into Altstadt which is the older downtown area… which also turned out to be the Rodeo Drive of Düsseldorf… it was insanely rich shopping. We were looking for a seafood restaurant that the girl at the hostel had recommended and instead found a “Holländische Frites” place… which of course decided it.  We each had a patat met frikandel (fries with a type of sausage) and mayo all around… it was delicious :o) Afterwards we found “the world’s longest bar” which is a street that is lined on both sides with various bars and restaurants. We settled in for a bit (at a table right under the outdoor heaters… and even then I still needed a hot chocolate to warm up!!!) and just chilled out for awhile, people watching, it was really nice.

Once we finally got too cold to sit around anymore, we walked back to the hostel and climbed into bed… since we had an early morning train to catch to Brussels!! day 03 photos at: http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?user_id=21524&tmpl=54&event=215022&album_id=215066