Europe Day 8 – Neuss

Just before 1:00 pm everyone started waking up. Sebastian called me on the intercom and asked if I wanted to come up for breakfast (bread, coffee, etc). Vanessa wasn’t feeling too well, so she stayed in our room. She spent the rest of the day in bed. I sat through breakfast, but didn’t feel like participating in the conversation. I spent most of the time zoning out and occasionally laughing and nodding.

Sebastian and I decided to head to Dusseldorf for a while. Dusseldorf is a large town directly across the Rhine River from Neuss. We dove across the Rhine, parked the car, and walked around on the promenade. It was a nice area with cobblestone streets, a lot of restaurants, and bars. I stopped at a food stand and picked up some bratwurst and French fries. This is a common thing for Germans to pick up for a quick meal. Instead of catsup, most people in Europe use mayonnaise. Even though they offer catsup, I usually get mayonnaise when I am visiting here. You get used to it.

We walked over to Konigstrasse, which is kind of like the Rodeo Drive of Dusseldorf. We were mostly just walking around and catching up with each other. Until now we had always been around other people, so this was a chance for us to just talk. After a while we headed back to his parents house. When we got there is sister, her husband, and their three kids were there. Vanessa was sleeping, so I went to the living room where everyone was talking and the kids were playing. The oldest (8 years old) Phillip was a little crabby, since he stayed up until 2:00 am or so celebrating New Year’s. Sebastian said several tmes that we should visit his sister’s house over the last couple of days, so when they left we followed them back to their house. It was nice and they had the largest nativity scene I have ever scene in someone’s house. It must have been 3 feet by 5 feet.

The kids each took a turn playing Jingle Bells for us. The oldest boy used his new trumpet, the girl used a song flute, and the youngest, who is 3 years old just banged away on his drum. Afterward the 3 year old took my hand and wanted to show me his room. His bed was tiny. It was probably about half the size of the nativity scene, but it was big enough for him. He said I could take his bed if I wanted to sleep at their house. Afterward he came out with a suitcase and asked me to take him with him to America. Very cute.

While we were at their house, Stefan (my friend who fell and bit his tongue) called to see if we had time to come over. We stopped by for a little bit. I was watching the movie Truman Show in German while they talked. I just didn’t feel like trying to follow the conversation. We walked to a nearby pizza place. Yes, I had pizza AGAIN, but it was not my idea. When I ordered something strange happened. I ordered Pizza Hawaii (ham and pineapple), but the waiter didn’t understand me. I was pronouncing it Hawaii, but I guess the Germans pronounce it Havaii. Oh well.

Quick side note. German toilets. There appears to be two schools of thought when it comes to the German toilet. One is the same as American toilets, but with less water. I can accept that. There seems to be another school of thought that a toilet should be built with a flat shelf and only a small hole filled with water in the front of the toilet. This makes absolutely no since to me. Without getting too graphic, it’s like going on a plate, then when you flush, the water pushes everything forward into the front and down the drain. I asked Sebastian about this and he said he doesn’t like American toilets, because they splash.

Anyway, I said goodbye to Stefan and we headed back to the house. I sat upstairs with Sebastian, his parents, and his grandma. We sat in the living room and drank tea until almost midnight.