Kirsty’s 30th

As you’ve probably guessed, we joined Kirsty’s posse in Düsseldorf last weekend to celebrate her 30th birthday. Note here, it was Kirsty’s birthday, not Kristy’s birthday. Lots of people seem to get them confused, though I have no idea why. For further visual clarity, I have included here a photo of the two of them – my wife, Kristy is on the left, so by a process of elimination, that makes the other bird on the right, the lady of the hour Kirsty:

Oh my, Düsseldorf was cold! We managed to leave the warm comfort of John’s apartment for a walk around the city on Saturday morning. I can see how it would be quite a nice place to be in summer; however we could barely stand still for more than a few seconds to enjoy the scenery! Instead, we mainly spent our time scurrying from restaurant, to cafe, to bar – basically, anywhere that was heated and indoors!

In the afternoon, we took a train to Köln (“Cologne”), to check out the Christmas markets under the magnificent Cathedral. With dusk settling in, the Christmas lights coming on, and the smell of mulled wine and roasting pork in the air, it was quite the feast for the senses! (Well, not so much for poor old “touch”, as Köln was even more freezing than Düsseldorf!).

Probably the best thing about the Christmas markets was that Kristy was finally reunited with Kartoffelpuffer – deep fried potato pancakes covered in apple sauce. She’s been raving to me about these things ever since I’ve known here, so I was pleased to finally see what all the fuss was about. Just look how happy she is!

I have to admit… they were gooooooood.

We hit up some of John’s recommended evening hang-outs when we got back to Düsseldorf. Well, not all of them – the bouncer wouldn’t let Roland or I in at the first club that we went to (Roland since he was wearing cargo-pants, and me because I wasn’t wearing dress shoes). Still, there were loads of places that were happy to take our money, so we went to them instead.

One thing I really noticed in Germany was how profuse smoking is. Worse still, you’re allowed to smoke inside certain restaurants, so when you come out, everything wreaks of smoke. When you’re not used to it, it’s amazing how annoying it is! Still, it didn’t tarnish our otherwise good night out.

Unfortunately for us, it snowed heavily overnight, and the snow continued for all of Sunday. Going by the beer-bottle index, we got about 6 to 8 inches.

And, as you’ve (possibly) read, this meant that all flights out of Düsseldorf were cancelled, so we were stuck there for one more night. I won’t go into the details about how terrible it is – frankly, it could have been a lot worse (like the people that got stuck on the Eurostar in the channel tunnel for 16 hours) – but suffice to say, we were pleased when our rescheduled flight at 7:30 AM the next morning had taken to the skies.

I think Kirsty enjoyed her 30th celebration, and it was great to be part of “the crew” that helped her celebrate!

A few more photos in the Dusseldorf album.