Bilk at a glance

My apartment -- as seen in the first picture -- is pink. Not only that, but it is next to a nail salon and directly opposite a bakery called 'Kamps'. Make of that what you will.

Bilk is the name of the neighbourhood itself, and its about five to ten minutes south of the 'stadtzentrum' by train. The buildings here are all five, six or seven residential apartments. And they tend to be either Baroque in style, or plainly rendered yet painted in the same Baroque pastelly colours - blue, pinks, greens. It's all very agreeable.

The nearby park, about a five minute walk from my apartment, is full of red squirrels and some odd looking ducks.

The neighbourhood has a Berlin-esque feel about it, which certainly isn't true of the other parts of Düsseldorf that I've seen so far. The buildings, the trams, the S-Bahn could all be straight out of Prenzlauer Berg. But also the street life seems to have something 'Berlin' about it. People just seem to be out and about for no particular reason. The cars seem to be parked irregularly and a bit haphazardly. Things down on the street are ever so slightly disheveled, which is in direct contradiction to backdrop of the Baroque style apartments. I think that is what gives it its charm, for charm it certainly has.Read more