16 to 23 of June

Dusseldorf is such an exciting city. On the "right side" (as they say it!) of the Rhine, the old village have so much to offer. In an area as big as 20 blocks you find 260 bars/pubs! Adding to that are the numerous restaurants, coffee shops, take away and 5 breweries that produce their famous beer "Alt"; very dark.

I can't remember seeing a city with so many trees! Sadly , the week before we arrived, they experienced such a big thunder that all the parks were closed and there were a big cleaning going on as we could see the trees being uprooted and laying on the streets

There is so much going on, the university is there too and relaxing on the river we see plenty of ships of different sizes coming and going. There is also the new area, near the other side of the port with the unusual buildings, all warehouses that now houses companies, hotels and art galleries.

Interesting architecture in Dusseldorf

We had a great time over there; particularly mixing with locals and cheering for Argentina during the football match. Again, the easiness of grabbing the bike to just go and visit the city is fantastic.

I found the people so helpful and engaging that it made us to consider staying in Germany for a little longer on our way back from Scandinavia.

We saw it in every place in Europe. Most of them are land rentals from government. People and their families get their parcels that in most cases is provided with water, electricity and a storage place. It is used for own consumption of veggies and we saw people not only taking a great care of their land but also using it as a place for quiet time and relaxation.

25 June

I thought I had seen plenty of; but until I got to "mediteranea" wellness centre and spa I don't think I have seen it all. The place was so big that we needed to carry a map in our robes!. It is located on near Cologne

We started the day at 10:30 am and left at 11:30 pm! By this stage we have been to more than 15 saunas all with different themes/temperatures. There were 6 indoor swimming pools, more than 8 spas and as many outdoor pools that we didn't have time to visit!!. We had a great sleep afterwards!

26 June

The first things we noticed when we crossed to The Netherlands was the beautiful gardens in the front of the houses, the lack of fences on them and of course the  amount of bikes and cycle paths. It is not an exaggeration to say that every street we crossed have 2 extra lines (both ways) for bikes and that there were so many different paths one can take with the bike that there is never a possibility of doing the same track twice. What we found very inspiring is the amount of older people going on in their bikes. We ask ourselves: can we do that? can we keep coming back to Europe and spent 3-4 months over here riding our bikes and discovering new places?

Amsterdam: bicycles, flowers and canals