Unusual Bridal Mannequin

I think in one of my very first blogs I had written about the numerous bridal shops within a couple of blocks of our apartment. I see their window displays almost on a daily basis either when I am going up and down on the strassenbahn or jus t going about my daily activities – like buying bread or water from the nearest supermarkets.

The mannequins display beautiful gowns and sometimes really unusual ones like a floor sweeping gown cut away too knee length in the front and unusual colour schemes like red and black, bright yellow etc.,

But the other day I noticed something which made me turn around and have a second look and a third and finally the next time I went on my errands I carried my camera and took a picture of the same.

One of the bridal mannequins in the display window had a baby bump and was wearing a beautiful strapless bridal gown and here are the pictures that I took….…


And a close up

One German conversation I have mastered so far..

Since I have Socks with me, it is taken for granted that I need to walk her at least twice a day, these days given her advancing age it is more like 3 or 4 times a day. Almost from the very first day I have had this conversation with other people who walk their dogs at the same time…you would think that after all these months I would meet the same people walking their dogs but no, I have this conversation if not once a day, definitely once in two days and it goes like this…

Somebody will be walking their dog in the park and of course as the dogs come close they are always straining at their leashes as they have seen one another.

The owner will then ask me:

Junge oder Mädchen (Boy or girl)

And I say: Alte frau (Old lady)

Na ja (not so), wie alt? (how old)

Last year I replied: Vierzen jahre (14 yrs old), this year I say Funfzen jahre (15 years)

Aber schön na…(but she looks good doesn’t she for her age…)

And then I say:

Sieht nicht gut, hört, nicht gut und hat arthritis…(Can’t see very well, cannot hear very well and she has arthritis)…

Aber schön hund….(And they still insist that she looks good for her age….)

Different kinds of rads (cycle) we have seen in Dusseldorf

I think I have been living in an insular world, but I didn’t realize there were so many different kinds of cycles which people use for getting from one place to another as I have seen ever since we got here…

Sure who has not seen the two wheeled bicycle – children start with trainer wheels and then you move on to 16”, 20”, 24” 26 or even 28” wheels.

But the children here start learning on yet another bicycle called the ‘laufrad’ or literally translated a running bicycle. This looks just like a bicycle you have seen except that the wheel diameters are no more than 6 or 8” and they don’t have any pedals. The kids move them forward by pushing their leg against the ground and propelling the bike forward and they will be wearing their helmet and all. Looks like watching their parents’ bike all the time, they want regular bicycles and hence a miniature one just for them…

You must have of course seen the scooters we used to propel ourselves along as a child and these days it has become popular with adults too with the Razor brand introducing it as a cool gadget…


But I had not seen adult scooter with almost 10” or more wheel diameters, till I saw someone going to work on one of these one morning during my usual walk in the park with Socks..

But my biggest shock came one day while I was driving and waiting at a traffic signal for the light to turn green. Someone crossed the road on the pedestrian crossing in front of my car on a unicycle. He reached the end of the road and then grabbed the traffic light pole and stood parallel to my car. When my light turned green, he began riding his unicycle parallel to me on the bike path beside the road…


We found unicycles are very popular here, when we went to watch the METRO sponsored Marathon in Duesseldorf this year. 30 mts before the start of the Marathon, bicyclists were allowed to begin, then 15 mts later unicyclists were allowed to begin and then finally the runners…Hats off to the unicyclists for sitting upright in the saddle – a virtual balancing act and riding for 42 kms…

Frustrating time on a weekend....

A couple of Sundays ago, Anand and I had this bright idea of taking our bikes on the car and driving off to Bonn and then riding our bikes along the Rhine to Linz or as far as we could go. First we tried putting the bikes in our Audi station wagon. This involved putting down the back seats, removing the bar holding the back shade, but we found to our dismay that the bikes were too big to fit into the car. So we reversed the process, put back the seats and reattached the bar.

Next we put the same bike rack that we used all the time in Cincinnati on our present car. The bike rack went on OK, but when we put both bikes on the rack we found that the bike wheels were covering the tail lights and this was not allowed when driving on main roads, highways etc.,

All this took 45 mts and we were still in our cellar car park. Finally we decided to just start riding our bikes south along the Rhine and ended up having a good ride. We rode all the way past Benrath and took the car ferry to Fest Zons. Had a lovely lunch in an old inn and then rode the bike path on the other side of the Rhine river north towards home. I think we had a good 60 km ride – about 2 hrs each way…Weather was perfect too, cloudy and just cool enough…