Chasing Summer –

What is hopefully my last stop in Germany before I head back to Belfast to get on the boat is Dusseldorf.

For those of you who have been following along, the Odysey, my future cruise home is almost 4 months late. I’ve been making the most of traveling around Europe, but I’m tired of carry-on living and trying to plan where to go. Since we never know more than a week at a time, I’ve tried to stay close and have actually returned to Belfast three times for more delays.

The boat passed its sea trials on Wednesday/Thursday, and everyone is hopeful that we can get on board by Tuesday and maybe sail on Wednesday, but my expectations are low. I do have a flight back to Belfast on Tuesday- so fingers crossed, I actually get to go straight to boarding the boat.

But I digress, Sunday in Dusseldorf is pretty low-key. As with the rest of Germany, not much of anything is open on Sundays, so it is a little bit of a forced rest.

Looking at the walking maps, it doesn’t seem like there is much to see here and within about 2 hours I pretty much made it through everything, so I spent some of my time walking along the canal with its amazing fountains and bridges, and sitting at a park watching ducks, geese and swans.

Like everywhere else in Germany, there is some pretty cool architecture, but some of it is more modern than I visited in other places.

There is the usual old town with the rathouse, or town hall, and a few old breweries that sell their beer in smaller glasses that don’t stop coming until you put a coaster on top of the glass. This could get dangerous.

There is also the typical river promenade. This one was different because the used book market is held there. There are thousands of books of every genre and subject. Most in German, of course, but even a decent English section was there.

It is the weekend, so there were also food trucks and live bands playing in several spots.

I almost forgot about the churches. While I went past a couple, it was Sunday, so visits were out for most as they were having services inside. I did go into one later in the afternoon.

Dusseldorf also has its share of cool buildings and statues.

Dusseldorf was a nice and relaxing place to spend a couple of days.

Sadly, in the middle of the night, we received a message to extend our hotels for another week and that the company would not be helping us secure any lodgings.

I already had a ticket to Dublin and looking at hotel prices I just couldn’t justify staying in Ireland and with only a few days left on my schengen visa I decided to fly back to Canada until the boat actually leaves Belfast.