DUSSELDORF: THE PLACE I LEARNT ABOUT BEERS AND SCHOKOLADE

Dusseldorf is the capital state of Germany, famous for it being an international business and financial centre. According to Wikipedia, Dusseldorf is currently Germany's seventh largest city.

Interestingly, although this is the second time visiting Germany, but I have no knowledge about this beautiful country. Hence I sort to find out more about the place by meeting this new friend from Malaysia - Zheng Yang.

This friend of mine introduced me to a fine restaurant in Dusseldorf - Schweine Janes. You can easily take a 20 min walk to the restaurant from Düsseldorf Hbf or take the train to the nearest station Heinr.-Heine-Allee.

Before meeting up my fellow Malaysian friend for dinner, we spent the evening around eating.

If you're a big fan of seafood, you can try mussels in Germany, wine tastes pretty fine with spaghetti too. But make sure you don't get too tipsy. At the end of the meal I was feeling rather excited, probably because the meal was too good.

Cheers to great food and greater company

This was the place we decided to crash to have lunch. It's hidden in the alleys, but you'll manage to find many similar restaurants serving great food.

Good To Know: Düsseldorf’s Altstadt (Old Town) is often referred to as ‘the longest bar in the world’ due to the concentration of over 300 bars and clubs in the relatively small area. Interesting right?

Gelato seems like a good option for dessert, well technically everytime i visit Europe, gelato will be on my list. Today pistachio seems like a very optimistic choice. :D

Day 1 ended pretty well, we had food and catched up on good-old times among charming penangnites and took a late night stroll across the embankment of Rhine River. Second serving of beer was also on the menu. By the time I arrived at the hotel, I was sober enough to shower and I dozed off straight away to my comfortable bed.

Day 2

Waking up to the beautiful view and cozy weather is just amazing. Just in time to catch up on a warm breakfast and get ready to head out.

The streets are filled with autum leaves, they are not entirely red but it's pretty something.

We headed over to Düsseldorf Hbf to catch the next earliest train to Koln.

Weather seems okay, the cathedral is pretty amazing from the outside.

The interior is spectacular, but I couldn't read German. So I ended up just walking around blindly.

And so I did my homework after, as usual. So here's some quick facts about the Cologne Cathedral:

1. The building of the cathedral stated back in 1246, and was completed 632 years later in 1880.

2. Now why was the cathedral built? Because it was built to house the Three Wise Men's Shrine.

3. The height of the nothern tower of the Cologne Cathedral is 157,38 meters. That's like 15km high. Gees.

4. Did you know that the Cologne Cathedral was made the tallest building in the world between 1880 to 1884. After that the Washington Monument became the world's tallest building followed by the Eiffel Tower.

5. The Cologne Cathedral was hit by 14 bombs during World War II (that lasted from 1939 to 1945), but the building did not fall. It was believed that the Cathedral was not completely destroyed by bombs because it was served as easily recognised landmarks for pilots.

Pretty cool isn't it? Source: Cologne Cathedral from http://www.colognecathedral.net/Cologne-Cathedral-Facts.html

Here's a pretty cool picture displayed outside the cathedral showing the historical cathedral.

We continued our stroll to the famous Love Lock bridge, along with padlocks with different sizes, colour and shapes. Many of them have been elaborately designed; often engraved, painted, adorned, or decorated with home-made stickers.

Love locks has been a romantic custom of Cologne, couples lock their padlocks on the railings of Hohenzollern Bridge, then throw the key into Rhine River for everlasting love. Here's the scarecrow and his pigeon friends overlooking the beautiful river.

Later on we went up to KölnTriangle obervation deck to look at the panaromic view of Koln. Such a beautiful city. Soon it started drizzling, so after a few pictures we sought to escape in order to avoid the rain.

On the observation deck, the glass panels shows you where exactly are the locations of the famous landmarks. There you don't have to worry not knowing what buildings are you looking at.

On the way back, here's another shot of the pinnacle of the Cologne Cathedral.

On the side note - the musician is way too fashionista. I like his style.

Needed coffee to last the evening, here's a fine boost of Latte. :)

Late lunch at the local supermarket. Why are the portions in Europe always so big, My stomach cannot handle too much food. Heh ;)

And we headed back to Dusseldorf to get some Argentinian food, hmm. What's better than a good way to end the night.

Gute Nacht, Dusseldorf!

PS: I learnt a new German word today - Schokolade. Yes and because I learnt it to confess my love for chocolates. :D Till then!