Rivalry

I am switching sides. As mentioned before I am now leaving Düsseldorf (partly) to have my new base in Cologne/Köln. The cities aren’t too different but for several reasons there is a strong rivalry between the two (perhaps because they are much alike?)

Köln is much bigger and older. It has more prestigious university and is the predominant Media-city of Germany. So when Düsseldorf became the regional Capital Köln started having a grudge. Trying to order a beer from Düsseldorf when you are in Köln is considered very rude. Strangely this attitude extents a bit further than the bar. Our teacher told us that for many years, if you were driving from the north along the highway there would not be any signs indicating the Düsseldorf exit, so many drivers ended up in Köln. I actually noticed something similar when riding the airport shuttle bus to Düsseldorf. There was only one sign, just before the exit, so if you aren’t paying attention you’ll still miss it.

How the Düsseldorfers wish that their road sign looked like
(Statt means "instead of" but is pronounced similarly to "Stadt",
which means City and is very common on road signs)