Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Discovering Düsseldorf – part I

Most who don’t know much about D’dorf (until recenty this very much included myself) think it is in Ruhr-area (it isn’t) and thus in the middle of coal mines or huge petrochemical industries. What most Germans however point out is that this city has little industry but more corporate headquarters than any other German city. The one word everyone uses to describe D'dorf is "Rich". This means that there is no lacking of luxury and fashion stores, but also plenty of culture. The city is full of art (many galleries, museums, installations in public spaces, etc). Which comes in handy, because on Sundays everything else is closed

Düsseldorf also offers unexpected cosmopolitan touches. For instance, one of the city’s central streets is completely taken over by the Japanese (people, businesses & restaurants) since they for some reason have chosen D’dorf as a European base. There is even a Japanese festival in June. The reason for all these German and international headquarters is because this place can rightly claim to be in the heart of Europe (especially in terms of GDP). Take a quick glance at the map below: Almost every major European city (except, of course, Stockholm ;-)) is easily reached from D’dorf.

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