The Dusseldorf Diaries: Day 3: Wednesday 6th May 2009

The weather is dull and overcast, but dry. Dusseldorf is the kind of city which gets up early - even at 8 am the trams are busy and all the business-types are on their way. The obvious impression I have is that Dusseldorf is very much a business city but it’s also built for fun!

Like every other country, Germany loves the movies. And Dusseldorf loves the movies so much that they’ve devoted a museum to it. The Film Museum, situated just behind the river, is spread over 4 floors and covers everything from a homage to famous directors, to costumes, awards, cinema designs, projectors, cameras and old-style film making techniques. Many of the exhibits are hands-on and my favourite interactive one was the ‘blue screen’ used in modern film-making where you can put yourself into any background...or make yourself disappear! The museum was perhaps a little too focused on the early days of film-making with little concession to the modern era, but its attention to detail was faultless. It’s a very good way to spend a couple of hours and I’d recommend it as one of the must-see visitor attractions in Dusseldorf.

A lovely lunch (and big portions) at the Libanon Restaurant - we’d never tried Lebanese cuisine before (I can’t remember anyway) and later in the afternoon we’d planned a two hour boat trip down the Rhine. The two hour trip wasn’t going ahead, but was cut to half an hour - I don't know if it was due to the overcast day or being out of season? It still managed to attract a few enthusiastic participants. I love taking these river cruises on holiday, but this was over all too soon. The trip went as far as the Media Harbour, that very trendy part of town with the distinctive architecture*/wonky buildings* delete where appropriate!!

Tonight ....oh you’ll never guess :) The answer is Bolker Strasse of course!! This time, the Santiago Restaurant was our destination. Tonight Barcelona put Chelsea out of the Champions League so needless to say the waiters were celebrating! (So were we, as we’re both Barca fans).

Have decided that in Dusseldorf, Wednesday night is possibly the new Friday or Saturday night, as the Altstadt is absolutely buzzing with life tonight. A brief word about the local lookers: faithful travelling companion’s head was swivelling for most of this week at the eye-candy, and your humble blogger had no complaints either about the guy-candy!! It was a particularly good night for "people watching" on Bolker Strasse tonight, need we say more :)

Bar-hopped for a while and didn't want to go home...but we had a big, busy day ahead on Thursday so it was back to the U-bahn just before midnight. Party animals hehe :))))