Hey guys,

today finally comes my promised post about Düsseldorf, after I already told you about the handmade Ice rolls with waffles and the castle Benrath. But Düsseldorf has many more beautiful corners, and one that you absolutely can not miss when you are there is the Medienhafen. Inaugurated in 1896, the Media Harbor was one of the most modern ports in the world and facilitated the transport of goods on the Rhine. A friend and I took the streetcar from the main train station in Düsseldorf to the Medienhafen stop, which took a good half hour, I guess. But maybe it was because there were a lot of roadblocks at the time because there were demonstrations going on in the city. When we got off, we first had to orient ourselves, but after a few questions to walkers we finally found the harbor, it was not far from the stop.

This is the streetcar we first took back from Benrath Palace.

This beautiful view offered us as we found the media port, we arrived at the other end of the port opposite the old town, which I will show you in more detail in the next post.

The view of the Rhine Tower and its revolving restaurant

The Media Harbor is especially known for its architectural buildings, where architects such as David Chipperfield and Frank O. Gehry have immortalized themselves with their buildings. But there are also many buildings by regional architects here. My favorites are definitely the Gehry buildings, which you will see later in the photos. They are a landmark of Düsseldorf and very characteristic because of their shape. But first we crossed the bridge to the other side and had a nice view of the Rhine Tower. He is a whole 240.5m high and has in about 175m height a restaurant, which rotates every hour once around its own axis. Crazy or?

In the other direction, the sun seemed to be gradually setting and we continued to walk along the harbor, where a number of restaurants and cafes snaked up to each other.

The original statue of Hans Albers in Düsseldorf instead of Hamburg

And on the way, a figure caught our eye: The Hans Albers figure, respectively the monument. But we wondered what Hans Albers had to do with Düsseldorf? After all, he was an actor and singer who came from Hamburg, from a completely different direction.... As I found out, the sculpture was originally a donation to the city of Hamburg in 1986, but after a dispute with the Hamburg Senate, the art professor Jörg Immendorff had the sculpture dismantled in Hamburg and transported to Düsseldorf. The pedestal was now empty in Hamburg, so the Hamburg Senate ordered a copy from Immendorf without further ado - the copy is now in Hamburg and the original in Düsseldorf.

The view from the view of the statue, at the other end opposite the old town.

The eye-catching Gehry buildings at the Media Harbor

We continued to stroll along the harbor until we came upon the Ghery buildings. US architect Frank O. Gehry created three sculptural, organically shaped buildings that are difficult to grasp geometrically. I had not seen anything like them before and was impressed by the form and height. The three facades are completely different: Clinker, stainless steel and white plaster. And directly at the new Zollhof you can drink a cafe or have something nice to eat, because there is the Meerbar and the Rocca 800 °C, two restaurants directly on the first floor of the Gehry buildings.

The building complex of the "Neuer Zollhof" was swallowed up in 1999 and probably cost a whole 120 million deutschmarks (at that time there was no euro). What struck us immediately was the surface, which appears flowing and makes the transitions appear smooth. The reason for building three structures and leaving spaces between them was to keep a path to the harbor for the adjacent residential neighborhood. Officially, the building belongs to a Luxembourg fund, but journalists report that the owner is probably the son of Indonesian palm oil magnate Sukanto Tanoto.

Here you can see the view of the harbor once again, it was getting a bit chilly and we continued towards the old town to buy some food.

I have already heard from various friends and people in Cologne that the people in Düsseldorf and Cologne are always a bit in the clinch, why I don't know, but it is probably in the air. Maybe you just have to visit each other more often haha, then some prejudices are perhaps directly cleared out of the way before new ones can arise, I find the idea anyway quite good.

What did you think of the little trip to the Medienhafen? Although I live so close to it (from Cologne you do not drive long to Düsseldorf) I have only been there twice in the summer, where a few more people were out and about. But every time it's nice to visit the city, it's a different flair than in Cologne, both cities are beautiful in their own way.
Have you ever been to Düsseldorf? Feel free to write it in the comments, I'm curious:)