Winter has come early to Dusseldorf this year.....

We had our first snow on 27th November. Just for a couple of hours everything looked like it had been dusted with icing sugar and then it all melted away. We had our first serious snowfall on Monday, 29th Nov. I had gone to German class as usual and when I came out of class 4 hrs later there was snow all over my car. We get such little snow here (last year the car was always parked in an underground garage when Anand was at work and in our cellar while we were home), that we did not feel the need for a snow scraper at all. So when I saw the car covered in snow, the only thing easily available was the cover of my mobile which I used to scrape the snow off the four windows. I used the car’s heating and wipers to get the snow off the front and rear windows and drove off.

Since I had the car, I had to go pick up Anand after work – this normally would take me 15 mts, but that day it took me double the time to get there and of course it took twice as much time to get back home too. Since the snowfall had come so quickly the roads were not cleared at all and that makes for very slow driving….

Throughout last week the temperature stayed between 0 to -5C (between 23 -32 F), so the snow did not melt away. Then on Sunday it began raining which of course melted the top layer of the snow and then promptly overnight the temperature fell below freezing and of course now this has turned to a thin layer of ice – this is most apparent in the park where Socks and I have to go for our walk at least three times every day..

We make quite a ridiculous sight walking in the park as I am bent over and walking as low as Socks – as I have one arm under her belly in front of her back legs to support them as her back legs keep sliding apart in two directions when she encounters ice. We only have to take about 20 steps to cross the road in the park to get to the grassy area area. But we have to do this twice once on our way into the park and on our return.

Yesterday I had to return my library books – I normally take my bike and go across the park to the library and decided to do this as usual. I had not even travelled 500 ft into the park and saw the entire path covered in a nice sheet of ice and was congratulating myself on having taken the bicycle rather than attempting to walk when of course my bicycle slid and down I fell. Another bicyclist stopped and asked me in German if I was alright and I replied to him in English – Of course, except my pride. I attempted to do this a second time and promptly fell down again. Because I was taking the bicycle I had not put on my heavy snow walking shoes, but half boots like I would normally wear to the office and these were no help at all on the icy surface…

Finally I walked on the ground adjacent to the path till I got to a major road going through the park which they had salted in the middle. Since I was wearing my thick walking jacket and heavy pants with thermals – I did not get hurt much except for knocking my elbow hard when I fell. I also knocked off the rear warning light on the bike and one of the reflective strips on my rear tire.

While returning I stuck to center of the major road even though it was a more longer way of returning home. People use the park everyday to go to work, for their errands, mothers with children in buggies, school children going to and fro to school. School kids especially have a great time; they can skate across the park just using their normal shoes. I guess I am growing old and afraid of falling and it gives me the shivers just looking at the ice all across the paths or I am sympathizing too much with Socks….

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

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…

Changing to Winter time...

Europe changed to winter time one week before the US i.e. the last Sunday in October. Somehow Anand and I were not clued into it much at all. Maybe because we don’t know the language well, did not hear much comment on the radio or TV as we would have back in the US. Anand said he had not even been aware of it at work – (God I remember how paranoid we would be about our appointment calendars back in the US during the time change process).

So last Sunday – 25th Oct, we woke up at our usual time and did the morning routine, sit down breakfast with coffee etc., We wanted to visit a ceramic museum in town and we knew it opened at 11 am so took our bikes and reached there promptly @ 11.

The doors were of course shut – we looked at our watches and then decided to walk to the back of the building – thinking that we were at the wrong entrance. We did not have much luck when we got to the back of the building as well. Next door to the Ceramic museum was the Film museum and we saw some activity there – a lady was behind the ticket counter and there were a couple of other staff as well.

We went into the Film Museum to enquire what time the museum next door would open. The lady at ticket counter was getting ready for the day by counting notes and coins etc in her cash box. She took a break from counting and told us – elf uhr – which meant 11 o’clock. I showed her my watch and told her it was elf uhr and of course she went into an explanation in German – which I could not follow. She looked around and spotted a man having coffee and asked him to translate and he repeated what she had said in English. When we pointed out it was 11.10, he said no – it was only 10.10 as we had just turned back the clock by 1 hr.

We felt so stupid at our mistake and promptly changed our watches. We then wandered around the quiet streets of the old town or Altstadt till 11 am when we went back to the museum. It was more than worth our 1 hr wait to see the museum.

I guess the best thing about turning back the clock is that now when I walk Socks in the morning it is light at 7 am, but I hate it that it gets dark at 5.30 pm and I have to take her for her evening walk in the pitch dark. I guess the reason I hate the dark evenings is that there is no possibility of seeing light till the next morning….

Had a wonderful laugh early this morning....

I took Socks for a walk in the Hofgarten around 7.30 this morning. Met one of my friends returning from her morning walk with her two small dogs. As usual, the dogs always want to say HELLO to each other before moving on and the two of us started chit chatting. Just then another one of my neighbors’ joined us with her dog. I was introducing her to my friend in the park and told her that my neighbor had been here just ein monat. She asked us whether we were married to Germans. I told her no - my husband was Indian like me and my neighbor and her husband were Japanese.

She asked us what brought us to Dusseldorf and we told her our husband’s work. Next she asked how long we would be staying here and we told her about 2 – 3 years. She asked us if we didn’t mind that we had to move again in 2 – 3 years and we told her that we had been doing it for the last 20 – 30 years. She said that must be hard.

Her next comment was that our husbands should be paid well if they keep going to work in different parts of the world and that they should give us nice houses, pets to keep us company, waitresses (I think she meant maids) to help us adjust to moving around the world every 2 – 3 years.

I really laughed aloud at hearing her words. She thought it was only fair and asked us to pass on her compliments to our husbands. We wished her a schon tag and continued on our walk… I thought my early morning laugh was a wonderful way to begin the day..

Driving alongside trams in Dusseldorf

I grew up in Mumbai, India and am familiar with city trains but they always had their special tracks and the only time that vehicular traffic would interact with them is at railway crossings which have gates and lights and alarms which would open and close to allow the trains and road traffic to cross one another safely. This was similar to the other countries I lived in – US, Singapore and Japan.

However coming to live in Dusseldorf, I have had to learn to drive alongside trams on streets sometimes with scary results. My first experience of driving alongside them was my venture into Nordstrasse in the first week that I arrived here. I was in search of mundane things a dustban and brush, large towel for exercise etc.,

Parking along Nordstrasse is itself a nightmarish experience as I was re-learning to parallel park again after almost 4 years of never using this skill in the US. You also park seitenstreifen – which means half on the pavement half on the street. This is not helped by the fact that the street is only open for one way vehicular traffic but two way tram traffic. I had just managed to parallel park my car on the one available free space on the right side of the street, when the first tram came by. He patiently inched past my badly parked car. The second tram driver was not at all that polite. He came and stopped right beside my car and opened his window and rang his tinkling bell very much like a cycle bell.

I had to perforce roll down my window as well and he vociferously proceeded to tell me to tuck my car in further into the sidewalk all in German of course. Though I did not undertstand a word of what he said, his manner and demeanour was loud and clear. After another four attempts I managed to park my car with no inch of free space between the car tires on the right side and the sidewalk. I was so thrilled that when I returned home I posted on my FB page that I had successfully parallel parked my car.

On most streets which have tram traffic you see two sets of traffic lights at every signal. The first is the usual red, orange, green for vehicular traffic and the second is the same set of three lights but these light up with a white light - a horizontal line, a circle or vertical line. When we first arrived here we would notice these two sets of traffic lights at every junction. When my husband asked someone in the office they said we should not worry about the second set of lights just concentrate on the vehicular traffic lights.

But I learnt to my dismay that you very much had to pay attention to the tram traffic lights as well. When you drive beside trams on main streets – vehicular traffic is on the extreme right and left of the road while the tram traffic goes through the centre of the road. Often when there is a tram stop, there is a traffic light which lights up just behind the end of the tram with the words Linien verkherfrei (I guess literally means leave the road clear ahead for the tram stop) and this turns red and you stay behind this line so that the tram doors can safely open and take in or let out passengers who have been waiting on the sidewalk.

On one such occasion I found myself right beside the tram driver at the head of the tram both of us waiting for the traffic light to turn green. At this particular traffic light I had to make a left onto a main street and since there was no dedicated left turn signal as soon as the light turned green my usual practice was to go forward to the centre of the road and wait for a clearing in traffic from the opposite side before making the left turn. Most of the time I would only be able to complete the left turn when the lights were turning orange and the opposite traffic were slowing down in anticipation of the red light.

On this particular occasion on receiving the green light I made the usual move into the middle of the street to make a left turn. What I did not realize is that the tram driver had received the green light to move ahead as well in his case the vertical white light on the traffic signal and usually trams have the right of way in such situations. I unfortunately did not know this so was blocking the tram driver who needed to go straight across the main street to the opposite side. He was furious and kept ringing his little bell at me and I had no hopes of making a safe left turn until the last minute when the lights were turning orange and by then the tram driver had a stop signal as well.

My husband when I narrated this story had visions of getting summons in the mail for huge fines for having hindered tram traffic. I learnt a valuable lesson to look at the tram traffic lights as well when I am beside them at traffic junctions.

Navigating underground car parks in Dussseldorf....

I am very glad that living in Singapore taught me to reverse park. Almost every commercial building you went to in Singapore, you would find signs on pillars either saying reverse parking only or the aisle ways were so small that reverse parking was an easier way to get in and out of the car park – especially since we always had huge cars. And I think I got the hang of it over the 3 + 6 years we lived there… I did not want to forget this skill and all through the 4 years we lived in the US I would reverse park into my garage every day and try to do the same at car parks at work etc., I am glad I did because now I have to use the same skill on a daily basis.

Here are my adventures of getting into the two residential car parks on a daily basis since we arrived in Dusseldorf more than two months ago. We had picked up our rental car at the airport and drove to our service apartment in Felix-Klein-Strasse. Our instructions were that the keys to the apartment were in a lockbox right next to the apartment main door and we were given a code to open the lockbox and get our keys. The apartment key also opened the entrance door to the apartment complex. There was another key which was to enter the garage.

The entrance way to the garage was right beside the apartment complex a tight single lane, which had a wire fence on one side and huge concrete planters on the apartment block side. At any point of time only one car could go into or come out of the car park. This is quite common in residential car parks. You drove straight for about 150 ft and on the driver side you found a post with a keyhole in it. You put in the garage key and turned the lock and you would see the lights outside the garage come on. Basically traffic lights but only red and green.

As soon as you turned the key to open the garage door, the red light would come on both outside & inside the garage. This signaled to someone inside the garage that a car was on the driveway outside and to you that the garage door was not fully open. The entrance into the garage was a curved 90 degree ramp into the underground car park. We would inch forward down the curved ramp and as soon as the doors were fully open would enter and park inside one of the marked car parks. Again we had a huge car, so I would try to reverse park my car every day, unless I had to take Socks somewhere. Since she had to get into the trunk, I would park forward and have to go back and forth at least a couple of times to stay within the marked lines.

While coming out of the carpark, we would turn the key at the beginning of the up ramp and wait till the signal light turned green before turning out as you had no visibility of any cars trying to enter the garage. The rule was that if there was anyone driving into the car park on the straight entryway as another car was exiting the underground parking – the entering car had to back out all the way into the street so that you could exit the car park as it was more difficult to reverse back into the car park on a curve.

I have had this happen to me twice as I was driving into the car park and had not yet reached the key pole. It is scary backing out into the main road especially because there was a high school on the other side of the wire fence and restaurant delivery trucks parked on the street. Many of the students would be hanging out in the driveway and I would inch my way backwards hoping that I would not run over anyone’s shoes or get hit by some vehicle on the street. Anyway got the hang of doing this at least twice a day over the two months we lived in the service apartment and then we moved to the rental apt. And I have had to relearn the process of getting into the underground parking at the rental apt…

The entrance to the new apartment car park is from the street behind our apartment building. I have to make a sharp 45 degree right turn to enter the car park driveway and there are always cars parked on the street up to the entrance to the carpark and just beyond the entrance, so that at any point of time only one car can go in or out. Again there is a green hedge separating our car park driveway from the street and the key post on the driver’s side.

We put our garage key into the key post and here we have just one light outside the garage door which lights up orange to indicate to someone inside and outside that the garage door is opening. Once we enter the car park, we make one right angle turn and immediately another right angle turn to our car park which is numbered and allotted to an apt. Ours is number 21. I have become an expert in reverse parking with about 6 inches to spare on either side of the marked lines.

Getting out of the car park is a whole new process. We make the first right turn and the key post is right in the middle of the second straight stretch on the extreme left and your car is in a curve, so we almost drive up to the garage entrance and then back up and straighten the car and drive forward till we reach the key hole, put in the key and wait for the garage door to open before exiting the car park. This was really getting on our nerves and we asked if there was a solution. The house meister said yes, we could order a remote which we did. It took two weeks to arrive, but now we don’t have to back up and get close to the key post inside the garage, just point and aim as we are approaching the garage door to go in or out…..