We are visiting two ports today! First we go to Duisburg and then to Düsseldorf. We are supposed to meet for an excursion at 9am, but we’re still moving. We find out that there was a lot of traffic last night so the time for the first tour is postponed.
We begin the day with breakfast. It’s in the main dining room and is a buffet. The buffet is nicely tucked into the back of the dining room and is hidden from the main dining room. We sit for awhile expecting someone to take our order. We then notice it’s a buffet and grab our own food. I eat potatoes, bacon, fruit, and a pastry for my breakfast. After breakfast, we have a little time before we dock so we take a nap.
Disembarking on a river cruise is so easy. A Riverside rep asks for our cabin numbers as we walk off. Passports aren’t needed despite crossing into a new country. We’re in Germany! The first thing we notice is the smell. It smells exactly like what you’d expect: sausages. I think the smell is coming from our ship, but it smells like Germany nonetheless.
We had a choice of two tours today: a city tour or a visit to an industrial landscape park which is an adventure park. We do the second one. It’s a relatively short bus ride over to the park. Here we are greeted by our local guide. The park is a large steel making campus that stopped operating years ago and was converted to this park. At home, there is that steel company off of I-77 that has the fire. It reminded me a lot of that. Our guide is a bit dry. At one point, someone excused themselves for the restroom and he asked if she would be coming back. She said yes then he told the rest of the group that they don’t all come back. This should have been my first clue on the excitement level of this tour. The guy is really nice and I try really hard to find the words coming out of his mouth fascinating. There are a couple of things that excite me. One is that there is a large tank that was used in the steel making process and it has been cleaned and filled with water. It’s now a scuba diving center! Are we going to see inside? No. Next, there is a very cool ropes course high into one of the industrial buildings. Are we going to get a chance to do it? No. So we visited an adventure park, but couldn’t do any of the adventures.
Meanwhile, the city tour was happening. It was supposed to be a longer tour, but due to the late arrival was cut short. They did have an adventure on their tour. Their bus was hit by a car. Everyone was okay and I’ll take my tour over one that involves a collision.
Lunch back on the ship is also a buffet, but there is also a pasta station. The steak, pork, and chicken all looked delicious, but because they were all cooked with peppers, I cannot have any of it. I am able to get a cream pasta with bacon, parsley, and cheese. It was very good. The pastry chef on this ship is amazing so every meal also comes with dessert. I had a fluffy bread thing with chocolate drizzled on top.
Dinner tonight is also a buffet due to our late tour to come. They have steak I can eat on this buffet so I have it with salad, green beans, potatoes, and of course dessert. Many of the desserts have these pellets of chocolate on top. They have become my favorite.
We arrive to Düsseldorf at 8pm which is the same time we were planned to arrive. I had never heard of this town before the trip, and I’m surprised to learn it’s not a town at all. It’s a decent sized city. We’re here for a brewery tour which was the only option for tonight. I had nicer shoes for dinner and planned to change into sneakers. I decide, I just need to walk to the bus and then to the brewery so I’ll be fine in my shoes. The tour ends up being a two hour walking tour to five bars where we get a glass of beer at each one. Also, it’s mostly a standing-only situation at the bars. I definitely should have changed my shoes. Furthermore, the roads are cobblestone. I’ve had these shoes for a long time so they are relatively comfortable, but the heal makes them difficult to walk on cobblestone. I walk with the mantra: “Don’t sprain my ankle. Don’t sprain my ankle.” Our guide was much better than the one earlier in the day and told us a lot about beer. In college, we used to buy Old German beer from the Pennsylvania Brewing Company. It had a little thing on the cap we liked and was cheap. It turns out we were being cultural. Most of the beer we tried tasted like this Old German beer we had in college.
A small buffet awaits when we get back with German classics. There is schnitzel and sausage. It was the best and even though my dinner was good, I wish I had waited and just eaten this. I had a small sampling of each. It has been a very foodie day.
One very exciting thing happened today. Brian’s luggage was delivered!! The crew were just as excited to tell us that the luggage was in our cabin.
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