5:00 AM.
Twelve hours until we leave for the Düsseldorf airport, to begin our trip home.
Another bike ride with Ralph to fetch up the fresh rolls, another good meat, cheese, bread and coffee breakfast, and then we set out on foot to walk into Neuss and see their city.
Neuss is just across the Rhine from Düsseldorf, and has about 150,000 residents. It is just a normal German city, not a tourist destination, nor particularly famous for anything.
Think about that as you read some of the following things.
Neuss was founded about 16BC by the Romans, and some of the remains have been uncovered and are in the Bonn museum.
It was a walled city, the important hub on this part of the Rhine. They grew so prosperous that they tore down the walls to make room for expansion. You can still walk on the raised paths which follow the course of the walls. Some parts remain.
So Neuss has a great series of parks, linked together. We walk from the outskirts all the way to the center crossing only one road.
Napoleon was here, and during his short rule he changed the economy from farming to industrialized. He also built a series of canals that still deliver water around the parks and city.
Neuss has one of the most important harbors on the Rhine. Parrots stowed away on a ship, now they live here (we saw one) and in Düsseldorf (we heard a lot).
Inside one of the modern buildings downtown, they have preserved the foundations and remains of buildings from the 1300s. They just changed the plans and built around them.
Neuss was allowed to mint its own money, and there is a street called Money Street (to the locals) that has metal imprints showing the various coins minted. The most common coin was a Taler. Say it: dollar.
They also had the pfennig.
Neuss is closer to Amsterdam and Brussels than it is to Munich or Berlin. You can see it in the architecture. In fact, you could jump on a bike in the morning, ride fifty flat kilometers to the Belgium border, and come home on the train for dinner.
Neuss has a nice downtown shopping and café area, closed to traffic but served by a tram that glides quietly by. We sat at a cafe and spent one last pleasant hour eating ice cream.
This all sounds pretty nice doesn't it? Kind of like... a tourist destination.
But it is just a regular city in a nice area of Germany.
We walked back to Ralph and Angelika's home. Their third daughter, Eva, showed up so we got to meet the entire family. Judith made a delicious raspberry cheesecake, and then all too soon we finished packing up and headed to the airport.
After they dropped us at the airport, it was a short hour thirty to Oslo. The flight on SAS was fine except for one thing: out of control kids.
Seriously.
There is just no consideration anymore.
One girl two rows up is turned, facing back, jumping up and down on her seat screaming. Two boys are in the aisle, playing cars. The stewardess could not get them to move at first for the coffee service. Another kid up front is screaming, one behind is kicking my seat. And through it all the oblivious parents smile and read or listen to their earbuds.
And when everybody had to buckle in for the landing... Every one of the brats started arguing and crying.
Other than that, great flight. Thank god it was short.
Side note to all my friends at home in California: I found the water. It's in Norway.
We have a room right at the airport, at the Park Inn by Raddison. We chose to stay there since it is a one night layover, and shuttle busses to even close hotels add another 140NOK each to the cost, not to mention the extra time.
This way, if I get bored, I can wander the airport.
After we checked into our room, we ate dinner at the bar downstairs. I had the buffet which was good, and Gail had a vegetarian burger. We walked around and looked at the brightly decorated hotel before going up to our room and turning in for the night.