• Tom Banks
  • Tom Banks

Düsseldorf to Duisburg by Bike

A short but fine adventure by Tom Read more
  • Trip start
    November 29, 2015

    Düsseldorf

    November 29, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    It's cold and breezy, particularly by the Rhine. I'm wearing a coat, a hat and gloves, so covered up pretty well, but the wind still bites on my face and nose. I head over to the harbour, then follow the river down through the Altstadt till I get to the Rheinpark.

    Stopping for a moment in the Rheinpark, I take a picture of the courts with my bike in the foreground. Düsseldorf and the Rhine area had been occupied by Napoleon and were part of the French empire. At the treaty of Lunéville, however, Napoleon surrendered Düsseldorf and it was returned to German hands. With Napoleon still on the throne in Paris, an eagle was erected on the court building, facing towards Paris and serving as a symbolic deterrent from further invasion.

    Anyway, I turn 180 degrees to face the river, and there passes a small German ferry flying a large French flag with the Eiffel Tower peace symbol that has gone viral since the attacks in Paris two weeks ago. How Europe has changed since Napoleon, and how it can never be allowed to revert back!
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  • Kaiserswerth

    November 29, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    I follow the Rhine out of Düsseldorf. The city quickly disintegrates and gives way to gentle agricultural land and small scale allotment plots. I'm riding into the wind, which slows my process and bits on my nose. The river plane is flat and expansive, and I'm afforded little protection until about half an hour later when I arrive at the small riverside town of Kaiserswerth.

    Some trivia with regards Kaiserwerth: Florence Nightingale worked here as an apprentice.
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  • Tiger & Turtle

    November 29, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    In Ruhrgebiet, Germany's heavy industrial heartland, there are many man made, alien looking hills, the by product of the industry there. On one such hill, sits Tiger & Turtle, an art work in the nucleus of a vast industrially scarred landscape.Read more

  • Duisburg

    November 29, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    I arrive in Duisburg, and park up at the Innen hafen in front of the gentrified factories. The tall, windowless building on the harbour is, I discover, where all the paperwork for the German federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen is stored. That makes sense. I couldn't earlier imagine what purpose such a peculiar, misshaped building could've served.Read more

    Trip end
    November 29, 2015