I'll start off with a bit of whining. The last week and a half were pretty hot here in Heidelberg. Temperatures were mostly in 90s (F) and it has been pretty humid. Additionally, the home behind us has been in the process of being demolished to make way for constructing student housing next summer (don't be surprised if you hear about us moving after that!). So, we have heat and humidity, lots of noise and concrete dust. Oh, and mosquitoes that come in when it cools down a little and the windows come open at night (as is typical in Germany, there is no a/c--we have one small unit on loan--which is lovely on the hottest of days, but really could not be used with all the concrete dust flying).
So Saturday was predicted to be (and was!) the hottest day of the year with temps reaching 107. And we were awakened by power tools trying to get going before the worst of the heat, at the ungodly weekend hour of 6:30.
So, there were were Saturday morning, lying there trying not to melt and whining and asking each other what to do for the day. We could go to a movie (A/C!)--but there is nothing showing we are even remotely interested in. We could go to a public pool, along with pretty much every other German. Or, we could find a hotel with air conditioning and a pool and go off an an adventure. Guess what won? If you said, "adventure" give yourself a gold star!
So, after a bit of internet sleuthing, we found a good rate at the Marriot Renaissance hotel in Dusseldorf (about 2 1/2 hours North-where it was also supposed to be about 10 degrees cooler). It was exciting to find a room available at a hotel with a/c (that cuts the number by about 90%) and with a pool on the first weekend of what I understand to be the only two weeks of the summer that ALL public school children in the country are off from school. Many factories are in shut down this week and next as well. It is HIGH season here, so a bargain was a thrill.
So, we packed up a bag, threw together a cooler of snacks and drinks, and headed north.
It was too hot for sight seeing, but we knew that Rio's favourite brand was having a 50% off sale and were hoping to find a store that had his coveted jacket, so we stopped at a mall outside of Koln. Most of the malls have air conditioning--it should be noted that it is "comfortable to tolerable" in temperature--not the ice cold, bring a jacket, type of a/c that is common place in the US. Near Koln we did not find the jacket (actually we never did) but we DID find a good deal on a shirt each for Rio and I. We tried again near Dusseldorf (it was like mall alley out there! We do notice more and more huge shopping malls going in--I am a bit ambivalent about them). In Dusseldorf we hit the jackpot! While they did not have the jacket, they WERE just marking things down to 75% off (a rarity in Germany) and Rio made out like a bandit. Here is heading into the hotel with all of his bags:
After all that shopping, and taking our time, we were checking into the hotel at about 7:45, planning to take a swim and then head out for a late dinner (in hopes that it would cool down before we were eating). We were disappointed to find out that the pool closes at 8:00. That seemed awfully early for a hotel pool! Upon asking (politely) we were given late check out for the next day so that we could at least use the pool in the morning. We sat in our blessedly cool room for a bit and finally headed out to eat around 9:00ish. It was still pretty hot out, but we were tired of being so sedentary so we decided to walk to an Italian restaurant that was about 2 km away and had good reviews. It got pretty warm walking, but the place WAS good and reasonably priced, so that made up for it somewhat.
It was after 11:00 by the time we made it back to the hotel, and it was still over 90 degrees! There was a cool front forecast to roll in and we kept hoping it would arrive. Not yet. Oh well, we DID have a/c for the night.
With no mosquitoes, cool air and no concrete dust we all slept better than we had in over a week--and we didn't even wake until 10:00 on Sunday morning. We headed right up to the rooftop indoor pool, and when we went out on the terrace, we found that the clouds we could see really did bring cooler weather and it was only about 80!!!
The cooler weather meant we could spend the day sigh seeing as we headed back south.
After picking up a McDonald's Menu for Rio (14 year old boys need more than a croissant to make it to a late lunch), we went downtown Dusseldorf to check out the cool, modern architecture that it is known for.
Dusseldorf was hit very heavy during World War II. At one point 700 bombers attacked the city in just one night. As a result, this is not a place to see classic, old German architecture. Instead, it is a place to see, new, modern and sleek buildings. The place to see is the MedianHafen (media harbor) where the river is lined with buildings that are works of modern art.
(the 3 "twisted" buildings above were designed by Frank Gehry--for those Disney fans among you, this is the same architect who designed The Walt Disney Concert hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra).
(It's amazing how much adding some plastic people add interest to the one "ho-hum" building in the area!).
It was a very cool area. It was also packed pretty densely into one small spot--and nothing much else in Dusseldorf held interest for us. So, after about an hour we headed to the car to drive down for a very different architectural experience: the cathedral in Koln (Cologne).
Somehow we have managed to live here nearly 5 years without visiting the most visited tourist attraction in the entire country, even though it is only 2 hours up the road. We rectified that over-site with our stop at the Koln Cathedral yesterday (funny how "Cologne" sounds "wrong" to my ears after hearing the German name for so long) .
The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe, and has the second highest spires in the world (Ulm's being the tallest). The building was one of the sole survivors of an otherwise flattened city during WWII, which means the mammoth structure feels a bit out of place surrounded by plenty of newness. It was hit over 70 times during the war (though never knocked down, possibly because its usefulness as a landmark for allied airmen) and you could see areas where repairs had been made, and some small spires that are completely missing, etc.
(I so wish it were possible to keep it all clean at once--do you see how that recently cleaned lower left corner gleams?)
The main level is free to enter, and was pretty crowded (only St Peter's Basicalla has been more so in my experience--but then again, it WAS a Sunday in late July). I was not able to get very good photos without the flash. There are very lovely arches and stained glass windows. The mosaic floors in the rear of the sanctuary were the highlights for me, though.
It took us a bit to find the ticket office and entrance to be able to climb the spire. You have to go back outside the church and around to the right, and then DOWN the stairs (so that you can pay to climb up and up--why add more stairs?). The cost to climb up is 3 Euro per person, with a family price of 6 Euro.
There are 533 steps to the top viewing platform. Of those, over 350 are original, uneven stone steps going up in a spiral, in an enclosed (and very stuffy) tower. You need to be in a good shape, and steady on your feet to make it all the way up, and back down (there is not a separate stairwell, passing each other can be tricky, the inside of the steps is very narrow and has no banister). I am enough out of shape that I had to stop to rest, squeezing against the wall in every doorway we passed.
About 1/2 of the way up there is a one way walk through, with a wider area with some benches (woo-hoo) that allows you to get an up close view of the bells. None of my photos from the area came out, but it was fascinating (though loud when they rang one for the quarter hour; we made sure to continue before 3:00 o 'clock came!).
At about 2/3 of the way, the spiral staircase lets out into a large square room above the bells. There is a stone bench all the way around to rest on, and finally some good, fresh air. After catching your breath, the last 146 steps are modern, metal stairs (this set IS one way, with more tightly enclosed stone steps to spiral down on) that go up in this enclosed space, and let out very high up! The entire walkway around the top is enclosed in fencing, and all areas that people can touch are, disappointingly covered in graffiti. I have no comprehension of how someone can want to deface a work of beauty by writing there names--that level of arrogance is beyond me.
My favourite part of the vantage point, were the views of the cathedral itself.
But the views of the city were pretty cool too!
Here is the view from the ground, looking straight up the spire that we climbed to get those photos:
It took everything I had to deal with that height for so long!
It was about 3:30 and we had not had lunch yet, so we headed off to an Italian place (yes, more Italian!) that had good reviews and was nearby, but not right on the pedestrian zone--which meant it felt about a million miles away from the throngs of tourists.
After a lovely lunch out in a gorgeous courtyard full of flowers, we stopped to pick up some dessert, simply because we have never seen a Dunkin Donuts in Germany and the novelty factor having something we have not had in so long was high!
Our adventure was not finished yet! We still had one more stop on our way home-but I think I will write about Limburg tomorrow; it is getting late and this post is getting long.
--Hadley
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