Dusseldorf

It's great to be back in Europe for the holiday season, especially with German Christmas markets such a short drive away.  After last year in Prague, we thought that we'd return to the German roots.  All of our Dutch friends have always talked about how nice Dusseldorf is.   Honestly, I was very skeptical.   I've driven through the Ruhr many times on the way south and from the highway it always feels like a scarred, industrial landscape.  It is the heart of German manufacturing and from all of the factories and smoke stacks, it always felt more like an area to avoid rather than seek out for Christmas markets.  But, I also needed to meet with a new colleague of mine from Frankfurt and he suggested that we go to the office in Dusseldorf as a 1/2 way point.  Expecting 1970's decaying Pittsburgh, I reluctantly agreed and booked a hotel for the weekend.   Driving through the rats-nest of autobahns, chemical factories, and smokestacks, I really thought I had made a mistake.  But as we got deeper and deeper into the city, it quickly became clear how wrong I was about Dusseldorf!  This is a rich, progressive, modern, and extremely healthy, vibrant city.  And the Christmas markets were unparallelled....even with Prague.  Fantastic!

View from the 17th floor of our office building on the banks of the Rhine.

It's not London, but the wheel dominates the old city skyline.  It sure looked permanent to me.

The old city center was rebuilt after the war in it's original fashion.  I've never seen so much shopping in my life!  It went on and on and on and on.   And the markets were fantastic!   This year's street food was Wild Boar stew, sauteed mushrooms, and of course bratworst.

We put on 23 kilometers walking the city and markets.   I'm glad we have an office here....I'll definitely be back.