Dusseldorf

Location: Dusseldorf, Germany

Upon arriving at Frankfurt Hahn airport, which is actually 70km outside of the city of Frankfurt, we hopped on a bus going to the city of Cologne. From there, we took a train to Dusseldorf. After checking into our room, the concierge told us that this week was the week of a huge summer carnival in Dusseldorf. We made our way over there that night. It was a lot of fun, with all kinds of carnival rides, booths, and food stands. It was pretty much like an amusement park in the United States, with one obvious difference: there was a lot of bratwurst being sold, and more importantly, plenty of beer being sold. We walked around, and had some drinks:

In one area, there was a boxing match taking place, with volunteers from the crowd. We decided we had to see this:

In the third match, the "volunteer" knocked out the professional. It was pretty clear that both of them were professional boxers. Some more photos:

This man standing next to us is a German man named Andy. Why is Andy wearing such a ridiculous getup? Because he's getting married next week, and he's enjoying his bachelor party (the costume is a British tradition, that has made its way to Germany, and that should, in my opinion, be adopted in the States as well). I saw a lot of people having bachelor and bachelorette parties as I walked through the city and carnival; at least 10. Andy explained to me that a lot of people in Germany had chosen the weekends of 07/07/07 and 20/07/2007 (written with the date first) as lucky weekends to get married. An interesting idea as well.

After enjoying the carnival, the food, and the beer, we made our way back to the hotel, and went to sleep.