January 11, 2009: Duisburg on a Budget

Today I got up with the goal of either heading south to Köln with my climbing friends to check out the wall there, or if that fell through go and explore another city that I had not seen yet that was within my transit pass area; with my bus pass I can travel one fare zone in any direction from Düsseldorf. I packed up a salami sandwich on some bread that I had made that morning from pre-made dough, my laptop, camera and ipod and I was out the door. I caught the S-Bahn into Düsseldorf and headed to the source of my only reliable Internet, Starbucks. Here I got my coffee fix and planned my journey. Today I would head northeast to Duisburg.

 

I got to the train platform and boarded the nicest train that I had been on up to this point in Germany. It was an RE class train, usually I only ride the R-trains. This means that the train stops at fewer stops, runs faster and smoother. These are double-decker trains as well. I was very at peace as I sat in the much comfier seat of the RE train and scooted along the track. I arrived sooner then expected, got off the train and started my adventure.

 

As most of you know, I sometimes lack a plan of attack when it comes to traveling places and this was no exception, I got off the train with no game plan at all. I really had no idea what there was in Duisburg, I did not even know how big the city was. That aside I got out of the station and naturally headed down the most important looking road. This lead me to a bunch of neat historical buildings, for example the theater house and several parliament buildings. The theater/opera was 124 Euro a seat and slightly out of my price range so I continued on. I saw the Duisburg TV tower, a sort of 1970’s looking tower with a geodesic teal blue top on it. There was an epic German made steel gate blocking me from approaching too close to the tower so I took a picture and continued on.

 

I went down a road lined with semi-dilapidated/partially burnt looking buildings lining the sides. I was about to turn around when I saw a sign that would change my trip.

 

The LEGOLAND DISCOVERY CENTER! Heck yes, there was a road sign pointing the way. I immediately decided to go. A few kilometers of walking lead to the building. There was a giant LEGO giraffe and a LEGO man on a park bench outside. I went in and was thoroughly disappointed to find out that it was a center for kids, not engineers! Plus it cost 10.50 Euro, not for me, I am a big kid now. I went down the road to the Museum Küppersmühle. I had no idea what the museum was for but I went in anyways. I paid my 4 Euro student entrance fee with only a slight feeling that it was an art museum and headed in.

 

This museum had some of the largest pieces of art that I had ever seen. There were photo prints of everything from busy offices, to the inside of opulent churches, to houses that were do dilapidated that they even put the castle to shame, it is possible I found out. My favorite pieces were a painting of swirled colors on a large canvas, an enormous painting of a Myan temple (40’x16’) painted with extremely thick paint and gold flake. The staircase of all things was my favorite part of the museum it was dark red concrete and reminded my of pictures of Caribou Canyon Arizona.

 

I left the museum, ate my sandwich by the river on a park bench and headed home. On the way back I stopped by the LEGOLAND shop to look around. It was great, they had all the LEGO sets that I thought were only legend, like the Millennium Falcon. I almost bought Reston a LEGO corkscrew and bottle opener but decided it was too expensive. Finally the day was over and I headed home. All the train connections went smoothly and I was home to 19a in no time. I did some laundry, and tried to harvest some Internet with moderate success. I now have to pick up my laundry fold it then I am off to bed. It is time for another great week of work at Dynetek Europe.