Düsseldorf

Geography

51N 6E, Altitude 40 m ;-)
Düsseldorf is the capital of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North-Rhein-Westphalia), one of the states (Bundesland) of Germany. It lies on both sides of the Rhine, where the Düssel flows into the rhine (Düsseldorf=Düssel town). To the north is Duisburg, an industrial city and the beginning of the Ruhrgebiet. To the south lies Cologne (the inhabitants of Cologne and Düsseldorf hated each other for the last two hundred years. This originated in some battle somewhere, but is now reduced to "who has the better city" and "the better beer". Of course it is Düsseldorf). Not so far to the east is the Neander Valley Neandertal or in old style Neanderthal where those relatives of homo sapiens were found. To the west is the Border to the netherlands, Venlo is very near.

Traffic
Düsseldorf has an international airport and a harbour on the rhine. You can get everywhere with a system of public transportation or expensive taxis.

Places to see:
The Altstadt (old town) with a lack of old houses since WW2. The inhabitants call the Altstadt the longest bar of the world (there are even songs about it) because of the amount of pubs (about 260) sitting next to each other in the Altstadt (about a square kilometer). Here you can drink Altbier, a special kind of dark Beer only brewed in the larger area around Düsseldorf. In the Altstadt you can eat and drink anything, from German over Mexican, Turkish, Greek to Asian. Düsseldorf has a football team (Fortuna) (yeah, real football ;-) which is only funny watching because they keep loosing all the time. The american Football team (Rhinefire or perhaps Rheinfire) plays in the World League (or what it is called).
In Düsseldorf are over Eighteen museums (i.e. the Heinrich Heine-museum, Goethe-museum), the German Opera House and countless theatres large and small.
The Königsallee or Kö One of the world's most expensive shopping boulevards. Only Porsche and Ferraris standing there and security searches for anyone who is not rich.

History:

Düsseldorf was first mentioned around 1200 as a fishertown. Actually the battle of Worringen was back in 1288 (june, sixth) when the inhabitants of Düsseldorf and Cologne won against the troops of the arch-bishop of Cologne. On August 14, 1288 Düsseldorf got the City-Right from Graf Adolf V. von Berg, one of the winners of the battle.
There is much capital in Düsseldorf today (its the largest japanese colony outside japan) and so it was in WW2, so the allies gave a good effort to bomb it to pieces.

official page: www.duesseldorf.de