August 4th - Rest Day in Duesseldorf

Today was a rest day in Düsseldorf. I have visited Düsseldorf a number of times since this is where my dad was born and grandmother lived. Each time our family visited Germany, we would spend a week or more here. I also visited Düsseldorf a number of times while I was studying in Germany.

We wandered around down town and we were eventually able to find what we needed. I remember just enough to be a dangerous navigator in Düsseldorf.

"I'm sure the Altstadt is right down this street" I would say.

We would turn a corner and nothing looked familiar. Am I wrong or have the stores changed? Well it turns out I was right but I second guessed myself. We backtracked, asked for directions and eventually got headed in the right direction.

In the afternoon, we had a picnic with my relatives that live in the area. They choose a very nice spot in the town of Kaisers Werth. Kaisers Werth has an abandoned castle right on the river Rhine and the town itself is filled with old buildings. There was a picnic table in a shaded area along side the Rhine. I have attached a few pictures of the ruins of the castle.

Many people have asked why we didn't bring a GPS unit with us. Well I was thinking that the GPS would not be very useful since it would not be able to route us along the bike paths . I also thought that it would be require charging each night which would be yet another item that required charging. Even if I was right on these two accounts we should have brought one along. As we now have so much experience with being lost, I have determined that there are two types of lost. The first happens when you don't know how to get to where you want to go. Usually this happens when you don't have map or don't know the address of your destination. The second type of lost happens when you can't determine where you are in relation to your route. The GPS would not help with the first type of lost but it would help quite a bit with the second type of lost. We are seeking to purchase one now but it will be difficult to find one and ensure that it has the right features.

2009-08-04 Duesseldorf - Kaisers Werth