Düsseldorf again

After a gap of a few years, I've visited Düsseldorf twice in a few weeks. First with Mikey and then with Dolores.

 The upside of travelling with Dolores is that I can hang around in the brew houses as long as I like. Dolores liking Altbier almost as much as I do. And hanging around pubs was pretty much all I did.

Getting to Düsseldorf from Amsterdam is a piece of piss. 2.25 hours in a comfortable ICE train. Just enough time to down a few cans of Gulpener Gladiator any you're there. In the beating heart of Altbier land.

We kicked off with a few beers in Schlüssel. Very nicely they went down. Bitter enough to keep your attention, but drinkable enough to keep the waiter busy.

It was a very simple smash and grab visit. Just the two Alt places. There would have been one more, except Goldener Kessel. the Schumacher pub in the Altstadt, was close. I had to make do with just Schlüssel and Uerige. Not so catastrophic, then.

While Dolores did all the shopping stuff, I sat outside Uerige coughing into my Alt. Coughing is a real skill of mine. Years of asthma have left me a world champion in coughing up my guts. Sometimes literally. Where better to indulge my favourite pastime than outside my favourite Düsseldorf brewery?

Dolores is such a wonderful partner. She even picked up a bottle of my favoutiter impilse Scnapps - Chantré - for the ride home. Some beers, too. But for some reason I slept most of the ride home.