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It turns out this interrailing lark isn’t as simple as I thought. I assumed I could go to the station in the morning and get a ticket for that evening without hassle but when I asked to book from Cologne to Paris, I was told that they were booked out for the next three weeks. Three weeks! Apparently trains like that only have a limited number of tickets that interrail pass holders can buy. Even so, being booked out for three weeks is really unusual, the lady who was helping me book said that there were a lot of American backpackers who were travelling in groups and booking out trains. Stupid organised bastards. Anyway, lesson learned. I’ll figure out where I’m going after Paris as soon as possible and book it. The next problem was finding somewhere to sleep for the night, the whole of Düsseldorf was full. Again, pretty unusual. I looked around all the hotels and hostels in the area, and all I found was a depressingly scuzzy hostel offering a bed for €74. Thankfully Ciaran rescued me and let me sleep on his couch, otherwise… I don’t know. Maybe I would have had to sleep at the train station. It’s good to learn these lessons when you have somewhere to stay and someone to translate for you. I’ll have to be much more organised when I travel on my own next week.

After the shock of not being able to make it to Paris wore off, we decided to make the most of it. It wasn’t the sunniest of days but we rented some bikes to cycle around the town and parks, with a brief stop for some mini golf and giant chess. I was DESTROYED. Humiliated. On 3 of the 18 holes I had to give up altogether. Some really were crazy, like hitting the ball into a net some distance away o rthrough a loop-the-loop. The worst was one where when you missed the hole the ball slammed off a metal plate making a huge bang that made everyone look round. I hit it about 14 times in a row. Ciaran said it sounded like I was about to read the news.

We also went through a tunnel that has recently been decorated by local artists.

I’m on my way to Paris now, taking four separate trains. The first was from Düsseldorf to Aachen, which was supposed to leave at 8.40am. It then sat in the station for 20 minutes, when it was announced that the train wasn’t going to Aachen after all and we all had to get off the train and wait for another. This was announced in German however, so I had quite a job finding someone who could tell me what on earth was going on. I was running 30 minutes late at this point so I ran for the train to Liege, which luckily hadn’t turned up yet. When it did come it was very old and rickety, it was like a train from the 40′s. I was worried I might run into Poirot, the last thing I needed was to be accused of murder. He’d have to solve it pretty sharpish though, it was only 50 minutes to Liege. I’m now on the fourth train of the day and I’ve already exhausted my school-leaver pigeon French trying to figure out which train I was supposed to take. I really should have revised.

My second full day in Düsseldorf was much more respectable. Ciaran took me around all the tourist sites of the city. I should say that Ciaran is ridiculously in love with Düsseldorf. Every time he visits Ireland he will talk about nothing but how shit Dublin is in comparison. But having spent a few days here I finally understand. The city really is amazing, it had absolutely everything you could want, and it is small enough and with good and reliable enough transport to allow you to access every part of it. Not to mention how beautiful and clean everything is.

The first place we went was an art college, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, which is famous in the art world for producinging brilliant artists. It’s not actually a museum, and I don’t know if we were supposed to be in there but we looked scruffy enough to be students so nobody challenged us. The corridors are littered with amazing paintings and sculptures and we snuck around for a while, routing through stacks of canvasses. It was before noon on a Friday so we didn’t come across any real students.

Next was an old church called St Lambertus. Here’s Ciaran telling a story about it:

We saw the Aqua-zoo, because why not. It was nice, lots of weird fish and tiny turtles and a mini rainforest with crocodiles. It reaffirmed my decision never to go to the rainforest, I was in there just 5 minutes and I felt like I was going to suffocate. I’d rather spent a week in the freezing cold than a day in that sort of humidity. I understand now why they keep destroying it now. It smelled horrible and it didn’t even have the giant murdering insects the real one has.

The viewing tower, called the Rheinturm was really cool too. It reaches 240.5 metres and you can see for hundreds of kilometres in a complete panorama of the region.

Our final stop of the day was a forest. It’s an amazing hike covering a huge area right in the centre of Düsseldorf. There is a tram stop right outside but the moment you step into the forest you forget you’re in a city at all. It was late in the day at this stage so we only walked a small corner of it, but if I ever come back to Düsseldorf I would love to bring a picnic and spend a whole day there exploring. It was slightly disorientating to emerge back into the centre of a busy city.

That night was the city’s celebration of the end of the funfair. At sunset there was an incredible fireworks display. I’ve never seen anything like it . The whole thing was so beautiful it felt almost sarcastic. It was on the Rhine, the all night fair was lit up across the river in all different colours and the river was full of boats of people watching. The weather was clear and warm, and we were drinking beer on the pier. The fireworks themselves lasted 30 minutes and based on how spectacular I would guess they cost the same as Ireland’s national debt. I have some pictures and video but it doesn’t do it justice at all.

The Germans were laughing at me after over how amazed I was, but maybe if you live in Düsseldorf the beauty wears off after a while. You couldn’t go around being that impressed every day of your life, you’d do yourself an injury.