Saturday, July 2: Düsseldorf shopping and breweries

On Saturday, we slept in late since there were no little boys to wake us up early! Then we all decided to take the train into Düsseldorf to see the city, do some more shopping, and see some of the famous Alt-Bier breweries.

Charlotte and Maria on the train

 Of course with the big Germanny quarterfinal game tonight, soccer spirit was huge in the city! Lots of people were wearing fan jerseys and t-shirts. There were so many groups of guys in Germany jerseys drinking beer at every place we walked by. In the market place they were getting ready for a public viewing of the game on the big screen. Lots of apartments have flags hanging out of their windows and cars have Germany colors and flags on their mirrors, hoods, roofs, etc. They were partying all day even with the game not starting until 9 pm!!!

 One of the famous alt (dark) beer breweries is the Uerige. We stopped at their street-side stand and shared one glass... yes, even Alex and Ben got a sip each! The inside of the Uerige restaurant was really fancy. You could see the brewing room through an inside window, with the large copper brew kettle. We could have had a grand tour with a fancy dinner for a fat price tag, but we saw enough and were not that hungry!

We stopped at a bakery to buy some brötchen for later, and  in the front window there was a display of soccer players made of bread!

We walked by the famous Königsallee (the "Kö"), which is like the Fifth Avenue or Champs Elysee of Düsseldorrf.

 
Even the fancy men's suit store was into the soccer spirit!

After some shopping, walking around a lovely market (fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, flowers, etc.), where we ate a "Reibekuchen" (potato pancake) with apple sauce), we decided to go back to one of the famous breweries for lunch. We chose the brewery "Zum Schlüssel" (The Key), over 160 years old. It was a nice place, and of course, again, we had to try their home brewed beer, which in fact was cheaper than their soft drinks!

 The table we sat at was right next to the room with the brew kettle again and over the top of our table on the wall was a display of the houses "Bier-steine".

Schnitzel

 

We all wanted to eat something traditionally German. Maria wound up with Matjes Herring, which Alex even ate a piece of. Daryl ate the plate of the day,  Erbsensuppe (pea soup). Ben and Alex both chose Schnitzel (breaded park) with Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes) and a fried egg on top (which Daryl ate!). I had a Currywurst, one of the most common fast food choices I remember from my childhood in Germany.

Currywurst

After such a huge lunch, we decided to just eat the Brötchen and other bread from the bakery with cold cuts and cheeses and a lovely salad Maria made. Of course in the evening, we had to watch the big Germany vs. Italy game! What a game! Going into penalty kicks seems to be a pretty common occurrence in this competition, so the 1:1 tie was not a surprise, but the way this one ended had us on the edges of our seats and then jumping up and down screaming when Germany finally won on the 9th (yes, ninth!) penalty kick!! Go Germany!