Düsseldorf

Our first day in Dusseldorf was fab. We headed into the old town after dropping off our luggage. It was ridiculously hot and down on the Rhine promenade there was very little shade, but it's a wonderful town to wander around. We passed St Nicholas Church which has a famed twisted spire, and a Japanese food market, and the statues representing the founding of the city and some cartwheeling kids - apparently cartwheeling is historically associated with Dusseldorf. At Uerige, a traditional brewery of Dusseldorf speciality Alt Bier, we gave the local delicacies a try. Like Cologne, they mark your bill on the beer mats, including our order of German bar snacks - I had mett (smoked pork mince on bread) and B had liver sausage, a type of terrine and the mett too. Given the heat, we also treated ourselves to a rather fancy ice cream!

After a siesta out of the sun, we headed back into town. Passing the high-end Köningsallee, or Kö, there was a cycle race taking place, doing laps of the road at great speed! We wandered through some of the other breweries of Alt Bier, including zum Schlussel and Olbermann. On the way back, the race had finished but not the festivities, and we watched a band performing everything from Snow Patrol to the Pogues (and lots of German songs we didn't know!), whilst swathes of green parakeets flew down the allee!Les mer