Sunday, October 21, 2007

DÜSSELDORF

IN THE MIDST - DECEMBER 2005

The last step of this German journey was Düsseldorf. The ladies went shopping, while I was strolling around in the midst...


"CHURCH AND FOUNTAIN. Walking from the Railway Station towards the Königsallee, I found the 1988 fountain by Heinz Mack, with the 3, 6 and 9 meter high concrete sails, at the Place of the German Unity (Platz der Deutschen Einheit); and the church, at Martin Luther Platz"



"KÖNIGSALLEE - KÖ, completed in 1804, is Düsseldorf's best known trademark and Germany's most sophisticated mile. It's considered one of the world's most luxurious boulevards"


"THE MINISTRY JUSTICE of the state North Rhine-Westphalia, located at Martin-Luther-Platz"


"IM FÜCHSCHEN is a Düsseldorfer institution. A brewery existed at the same place as early as 1640, and, although it did not bear the name "Füchschen", it was a popular meeting place. However, the bitter-fresh Füchschen Alt Bier has been brewed on Ratinger Straße since 1848 and with a fox sign adorning the house facade instead of a house number"


"ST. LAMBERTUS CHURCH, built in 1206 and enlarged between 1288 and 1394, is a real icon for the city. The tall spire of the church dominated the city for centuries and, despite present Düsseldorf's skyscrapers, it still stands out clearly from the opposite bank of the Rhine”


"BURGPLATZ AND SCHLOSSTURM - The castle of the Count of Berg stood at this place, before burning in 1872, and being completely demolished in 1888. Burgplatz - one of the most beautiful squares in Germany - is again situated directly on the Rhine, after the opening of the Rhine embankment tunnel in 1995. The old castle tower hosts the Shipping Museum, dedicated to navigation on the Rhine River"



"MARKTPLATZ was built between 1570 and 1573, redesigned in 1749 and reconstructed in 1958-1961. The Old City Hall, part of the town hall complex consisting of three buildings from different periods, and the Christmas market may be seen in the pictures. The Equestrian Statue of the Elector Jan Wellen (1658-1716) by Gabriel de Grupello (1711) dominates the square"


"FILMMUSEUM - Also closed on Mondays..."




"RHEINUFERPROMENADE - There is a new avenue in Düsseldorf: the Rhine embankment promenade, the most beautiful promenade on the Rhine, stretching over 1.5 km from Oberkassel bridge along the Altstadt to the parliament houses of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its construction fulfilled an old dream of the Düsseldorfers, as it sent under ground, unnoticed from above, more than 55.000 motor vehicles that used the B1 road daily. When the promenade was officially opened in June 1995, no wonder that one million people celebrated!"




"RHEINTURM - The Rhine Tower (built between 1979 and 1982 and located near the parliament building and the impressive Gehry towers) is an interesting building, with a nice view of the River, stretching as far as Cologne, when the fog allows you to see something..."


"REFLECTION – Leaving the Promenade and going into the old town again, I found the Spee's Graben, one of Düsseldorf's beautiful gardens. The name of the park near numerous museums and Ministries is derived from the palace Spee, the seat of the City Museum. Spee’s Ditch (Graben in German) was part of the fortifications of the Marie Amalie Bastion, and was transformed into a park in the early years of the 19th century”


"STREET SCULPTURE"


"ALTSTADT - The old town, with its narrow lanes, old churches, breweries and ancient pubs, is a must!"


"SEVENS Shopping Mall at KO is one of the most modern shopping destinations in Dusseldorf. It is named Sevens because of its seven floors, a cabalistic number also for its Japanese investor"


"KÖ AT NIGHT - Goodbye Düsseldorf"

39 comments:

Ming the Merciless said...

Konigsalee is a spectacular boulevard indeed. But Rhreinuferpromenade even more beautiful. Awesome photos!

Lakshmi said...

beautiful boulevard ..awesome pictures ..i liked the street sculpture

Tanya Ruka said...

Great pics :)
Ive always wanted to visit Germany around christmas.. schwarzwald market I think its called.. anyway thanks for these now I can pretend I have! :)

lv2scpbk said...

I bet that's a wonderful place to be at Christmas time. One of my favorite times of the year. I really like the first photo too with the church clock and fountain.

99 said...

Great pics GMG! The mist can be so romantic. Spee's Graben is very beautiful...

Ate logo

S-V-H said...

I loved to see Duesseldorf again. Thanks for all your great photos and the report!

Shionge said...

I was only there for a day back in year 1990 so I bet lots of changes now in Dusseldorf...thanks for sharing and I love your photos ":D

Miss Kim said...

I just love those misty photos with the tower. They're beautiful and very romantic. Thanks for sharing Germany with us!

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

So GMG, There you were! Always nice to see a photograph of you and your wife at the end.... I like Dusseldorff we have been there, not often but once in a while we go there... o You enjoyed staying there I quess?

:) Missing you & your blog,
I am back from my short trip to South of Italy, thanks for 'not forgetting me' I posted an overview of pictures from my holiday , soon more... Have a great sunday!!!

Greetings JoAnn:)

Marie said...

The photos are really very pretty but it seems to have been so cold up there that I am shaking ;-))

Anonymous said...

Nice pictures ! I love the two with the water reflecting...

The weather looks very...er... German though!

Ash said...

What a beautiful place. The mist looks lovely!

Aditi said...

a wonderful place to visit.. the pictures in the mist of the channel of water are quite beautiful

Peter said...

Düsseldorf, where I spent most of the weekdays during the last five working years... but I never took any photos like these ones! (I was not yet a blogger.) Did you walk far enough to see the Frank Gehry buildings south of the tower? Maybe you did not see them in the mist?

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, seems cool.

Joe joestain13@yahoo.com

CaBaCuRl said...

Some of those buildings you showed us were so old...and how wonderful that some of them are breweries!

Anonymous said...

WoW...some very beautifully captured shots once again from a very beautiful place...Excellent!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this nice report with beautyfull oictures

Cergie said...

Incroyble comme le brouillard enjolive Düsseldorf ! Je la reconnait à peine. La Fernsehturm est vraiment une apparition de rêve !
Et la König Allée ! Tu l'as bien captée lui donnant une allure si romantique alors que ce sont les champs Elysées de la ville
C'est en effet depuis un pont qu'il faut la photographier, masi tu y as vraiment excellé... Aidé par le temps pour l'humeur, le "mood"...

Happyone said...

Enjoyed looking at your photos. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment on my blog.

Cuckoo said...

Wow beautiful pictures. The mist looks so awesome.
Dusseldorf really looks so beautiful place.

Was it winter time ?

isa said...

We left Dusseldorf out of our itinerary...now I wish we hadn't!
Great, in-depth post!

Я нормально, спасибо! Откуда/kak Tы узнал русского языка?

A po Polsku mowisz tez?

lyliane six said...

Comme Peter, je suis tellement allée de fois à Dusseldorf, et je n'ai jamais rien photographié.Nous y avons mangé et bu du "zet"(le champagne allemand et du vrai aussi) plusieurs fois ensemble, notamment l'année dernière lors de la coupe du monde de foot.Je vois qu'ils ont déjà monté les marchés de Noël, j'y retourne mi décembre y conduire ma maman chez ma soeur(à Monchengladbach exatement)puis en janvier pour faire les soldes dans les grands magasins et bien sûr boire une bière sur la "queue" comme l'on dit.Mercredi à la télé il y a le match Marseille Porto, je ne vais pas le regarder, car Michel n'est pas là, il est parti au Japon et en Corée pour valider une voiture, mais je vais penser à vous en espérant que Porto gagne.

Kunterbunt said...

Ah, Düsseldorf ... I recognize some of the places though I'm not often there.

Kaiz said...

Wah...

I can see that you are still actively updating your blog your list of countries labels is increasing more and more...

I'm so jealous! =P

Keep it up! Oh, do you have any software to back up your blog? Pls tell me by commenting on my blog! I wanna back up my blog too in case....

Thanks! =)

leo said...

the 2nd and 3rd pictures of the boulevard, took my breath away!! beautifully caught!

Annie said...

The misty scenes are lovely. And I wish I'd gone to see the Rhine embankment promenade - that is very special.

travelphilippines said...

wonderful sights one thing i hate visiting this blog im greening in envy hehehe.

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

lovely place..i particularly loved the tower in fog.....but then i have a thing for fog and mist ...so there!!! :)

Anonymous said...

I don't recall ever looking at pictures of Düsseldorf. How gorgeous. Your photos are so good. The fog ones, and the boulevard especially. I'm so glad I saw these.

Anonymous said...

Ming,
Backpakker,
Thanks. Those are two fabulous boulevards!

Tanya,
«Weihnachtsmarkt», that is…Schwarzwald is Black Forest!

Lv2,
Central and Northern Europe is a great place to be in Christmas!

99,
Thanks.

Sue,
Thanks. Touched to see your comment on Zsolt’s…

Shionge,
True; there was a great change since 1990.

Kim,
Thanks. Great to see you here!

JoAnn,
Thanks. I’m going to check those pictures from Italy. They must be incredible!

Marie,
4º to 7º centigrade - that was the temperature!

Zhu,
That water was already a bit frozen…

Ash,
Aditi,
The mist helps the magic!

Peter,
We have a saying «Santos da porta não fazem milagres” (Home saints don’t do miracles). It’s always like this; you don’t pay attention to what is next door (except now with the daily photo…)! I’ve not walked that far to the media district. Shame!

Joe,
Thanks!

Cabacurl,
Breweries, yes, but no Foster’s!

Kalyan,
Standley,
Thanks.

Cergie,
Merci. C’est vrai que le brouillard a ajouté un petit peu de mystère… Fantasmagorique!

Happyone,
Thanks. You’re always welcome!

Cuckoo,
December 2005! End of autumn, according to the calendar…

Isabella,
It’s difficult to cover everything! For instance, no Polish here…

Lyliane,
Ah Sekt et les soldes en janvier; quelle programme!!! F.C.Porto n’a pas gagné, mais tout le monde a vu qu’il le méritait… Malheureusement les postes l’ont empêché… Merci pour le souhait! J’espère que Michel aura un bon séjour en Japon et Corée!

April,
For you, Düsseldorf is just around the corner!

Kaiz,
Hi! Glad to see you back here! I’ve no back up of the blog; just a copy of the html version of every post! But if Blogger goes down, don’t know how to recover…

Leo,
Thanks!

Annie,
You’re right about the embankment; it’s a wonderful walk, even in the mist!

Travelphilippines,
Don’t talk envy; I’m purple when I see your stunning islands… ;))

Moi,
I agree with you on mist and fog. Magic!

Ruth,
Glad to see you here, and thanks for the comment.

Sigma said...

Another wonderful post. I wonder if I can ever stop saying that in your blogspace!!
And I am surprised you can remember the details so very well after two years!
This looks a beautiful place, though the weather didn't look too well in these pics - looks cloudy and misty? I am amazed, and appreciate the efforts the town people put in creating the underground passage for vehicles, so that the beauty of the promenade could be restored.
And of course, the boulevard is mesmerizing.

Anonymous said...

Sigma,
Thanks! Don't know if you managed to see on TV, but today (Sunday, Oct.28, 2007) the Promenade (1.5 km covered with artificial snow) was the venue for the Ski World Cup cross-country. Amazing, and the Swedes won...

Pijush said...

Awesome shots Gil, the best one in the series. I like the foggy prespective and the you captured the landscape wonderfully. Nice post.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Pijush. The fog helped to put some mystery in town...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for some great pics of Düsseldorf - from your descriptions also it seems like a fab place to visit!
Greetings from Cape Town,
Pierre

Anonymous said...

Pierre,
Thanks! Düsseldorf is actually a quite interesting place to visit!

Ron said...

Hello Sir, I am so enjoying your blog. You have been to many places that I dream about. Germany is my favorite country in the world. I've been there once, but never to Dusseldorf. Seeing your pictures makes me want to go there right now. All of these pictures are awesome, but my favorite is the one with the water. Totally awesome!

Can't wait to read more of your places.

Anonymous said...

Ron,
Thanks! You're probably the first person I read saying that Germany is his favourite country... ;) I wouldn't say that (it's difficult to pick just one), but it's quite interesting, that's true!