Overnight our ship sailed down the Rhine River and now we’re in a new town and even a new country. We’ve left the Netherlands behind and we’re going to see a bit of Germany, starting with Düsseldorf. We decided to go for a walk through the old town neighbourhood and see a few sites.
We came across an interesting fountain with two children doing cartwheels. We learned that this is called Radschlägerbrunnen, which means Wheel-Turner Fountain. It tells the story of a 1288 battle against a neighbouring city that was won and the children were doing cartwheels on the streets in celebration. Then later, into the 1800s, children discovered that they could get paid a penny by rich people for doing cartwheels for what they thought was a “local and patriotic” thing to do. Maybe we should give a cartwheel a try.
We saw a poster about a special art exhibit that was at the K20 museum so we stopped there to look. There was a display of modern minimalist art by Anne Truitt, and we hadn’t looked at something like that before. We saw lots of painted pillars and acrylic on canvas or paper. This piece is called ’Ojibwa’, we wonder what it means. It’s a really long canvas and if you look closely can you see the red stripe.
Well, that was interesting, but let’s get back to something old and more familiar. We decided to go to a local pub and try an Altbier (or old beer) which a type of traditional German beer that originated in Düsseldorf. This one is from Zum Schlüssel, a local brewery that been in business since the 1600s. We heard a story about how an inn closest to the city gates would hold the key, and that’s why there’s a key symbol on the beer glass.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 