derms.biz

I reached Frankfurt at 5:30am on the 30th and stayed there for about 5 hours. The contrast between Singapore was stark - I went from drenching humidity to drenching rain. After walking around a few hotels/hostels (and balking at their excessive prices) I soon realised that there was a convention in town and accommodation was twice the price. Given that I will be meeting Bartek at Frankfurt later this month, I decided to go to Dusseldorf instead (mainly because it's next to the Nederlands border - my next port of call).

The train journey to Dusseldorf was interesting - it snowed! I haven't seen snow since I was about seven. Along the way the we passed a number of "hill towns" that had their names at the top of the hill (ala Hollywood). Strange.

Dusseldorf is a pretty cool place (both literally and colloquially). I spent my time wandering around the centre and took in a modern art museum called K21. Some of the artwork was quite intriguing and some of it was just so crap. One of the "art works" was a large steel tool box placed in the centre of a room - I thought it was a seat and almost sat on it before I realised (courtesy of an appropiately timed "AH-HEM" from a security guard) that it was "art". Anyway, the most interesting piece I saw was an animated recreation of an old painting (you didn't realise that it was animated unless you looked very closely).

At night I went out to the local entertainment district. I walked into one bar and was supprised to see Germans in lederhosen shouting prost and swaying from side to side. I thought they only did that for tourists.