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| Everyone out enjoying the holiday in Dusseldorf, on the Rhine |
When we were in Norway we met
Conny and Gerhart and ended up spending a number of fun days with them during
our travels. Yesterday we arrived at their home near Dusseldorf, and have been
spoilt rotten. Conny is a great cook and has prepared a number of traditional
German meals for us, have enjoyed them so much especially after shopping in
supermarkets and not knowing how to cook or use some of these products. We had
a lazy afternoon catching up and drinking a few “bubbles”…surprise, surprise.
This morning Gerhart took us on
a drive through this area, a treat for Ian sitting in the passenger seat. We
have had so many questions as we travelled through Germany so it was good to
get some of these answered by a “local”. We visited a local Schloss surrounded
by golden trees, passed by huge areas growing crops, small villages and then to
the complete opposite, which is such a sad sight. There is an enormous open
cast coal mine (one of about 8 in the region) where brown coal is mined, then
dried in huge kilns before being used to generate electricity. The fine dust
that is produced covers cars even this distance away. Evidently the coal is
expected to run out by 2022 when this blot on the landscape will be turned into
lakes and landscaped, but in the meantime it is not a pretty sight.
Arrived back to another wonderful
lunch of maultaschen prepared by Conny, a type of pasta filled with spinach and
herbs then cooked in a broth…so tasty. Then it was into the centre of
Dusseldorf, a 20-minute drive away for a walk along the Rhine watching all the
huge barges moving up and down. Today is a public holiday in Germany so the streets
were full of people out walking. The weather has been so clear and warm for the
past 4 days but this afternoon it changed, the temperatures are dropping and
the sky is grey.
Conny is cooking goose for
dinner, while lady muck sits and catches up on her blog! Tomorrow is an early
start as we leave at 7 to take Ruakiwi to a motorhome company to get a few
small jobs done.
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| The church in Gravenbroich, Neukirchen where Conny and Hitten live. |
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| Wonderful light in the Schloss grounds |
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| The stark sight of the huge coal mine. |
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| Out walking in Dusseldorf |
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| Ian, Hitten and Conny |
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| Dusseldorf's TV tower....reminds us of the Sky Tower in Auckland |
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| Guess what Ian spotted... |
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| ...and the Amphibious craft was in the marina. |
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| The wonderful Frank Gehry designed stainless steel covered building. |
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| Conny's Brezeln.. |
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| ..and the very tasty Maultaschen |
Comments
The stainless steel clad building somewhat reminiscent of the Len Lye Gallery in New Plymouth.
Had a good 4 days at the lake last week, catching up...will be back shortly with another list of things "to do".
Your garlic looking 3 times the size of mine at Careywood...don't know what I've done wrong!
Much love,
J