After having spent the last two and a half days in London
and Paris, I was a little ambivalent about returning to school… I kind of like
this vacation thing. I also kind of like the not having to get up agonizingly
early to get to class on time thing. To make it to class on time I have to get
up at 6:30 AM, and if we are late to class we are required to memorize and
rehearse a German poem. Anyways, I was
able to navigate to school fairly easily using the bus and U-Bahn, and I made
it to class in plenty of time. We are studying at the Heinrich Heine Universität-Düsseldorf,
and as far as I can tell the campus is about as large as that of Georgia Tech,
but most of the buildings look as if they were built in the 80’s. For the first
day of class Dr. Cothran was somewhat lenient students arriving to class on
time, but she warned that if tomorrow anybody was even one minute late that
they would be reciting a poem. (Needless to say I will attempt to refrain from
tardiness).
After a
quick introduction and welcome we moved straight into a discussion about
Heinrich Heine. (FYI-Heine’s best known work in America is likely “The
Lorelei”.) After being inundated with dates and facts I suddenly found the
topic had changed to something a little more captivating – Bier! In Düsseldorf
the amply named “Altstadt” is the historic district, which also contains “Die längste
Theke Deutschlands” or the longest street of Bierbrauerien (beer brewereies) in
Germany. While there are more breweries on this street than any other in
Germany, they is only one type of beer being brewed- the Düsseldorfer
Alt or just “Alt”. A traditional Alt is served in a short and slender glass, and
like all beers brewed in Germany there are only 4 ingredients allowed by law;
Wasser, Hefe, Hopfen und Malt (water, yeast, hops and malt). Before I knew it
class was out, and we were on our way to grab some lunch at the Mensa.
The
LBAT program provides us with tutors not only to help us with our German, but
also to help us get accommodated to the city, and so after lunch our tutors
Cornelius and Hannah gave us a tour around the Altstadt. However, before
beginning the tour we went to Saturn, which is similar to an American Best Buy
to get cell phones. Now we can all more easily communicate with each other. From
Saturn we walked a little ways down Heinrich Heine Allee, which is the richest
shopping district in Germany, and to an Ice cream stand before entering the
Altstadt. Cornelius claimed that this particulat ice cream stand was the best
in Düsseldorf,
and as of right now, I would have to agree with him. I got Pistachio and
Amaretto, and it was scrumptious. While enjoying our ice cream we walked to
Heinrich Heine’s birth house – (see poem). I was able to tell why Heinrich Heine so loved
his birth house straightaway… there was a Dönner kiosk right next door!
Continuing
on our tour, we passed several of the Alt Bierbrauerien; including zum
Schlussel, zum Schiffchen. When then came to a small very Spanish looking
catholic church and went inside. A jazz band was practicing inside of the
church and we took a minute to sit down and listen to them. They paused to
discuss how the song should go and we promptly left. We then visited several
memorials including the Jan Willem (Johann Wilhelm) memorial and the memorial
commemorating the establishment of Düsseldorf’s cityhood. We also visited a
more traditional Catholic church, but mass was about to begin so we were unable
to stay long. After the tour we had about 45 minutes before our reception
dinner at “Brauerei im Goldenen Ring”, so a few of us decided to go to another
Brauerei nearby and have our first taste of Alt while we tried to set up
phones.
The
Brauerei that we went to was Schumacher Alt, and upon entering we were greeted
by the barkeeper. We told her that we would like to order some beers and asked
what they offered. She replied that they only offered one beer and it was
Schumacher Alt, and they brewed it onsite. (In Düsseldorf Alt is king.) That
was enough explanation for us and we all ordered a round. Per tradition, it was
served in a short and slender glass, and thankfully it was cold! We had a quick
Prost “zum Bier proberien” (to trying beers) and then G’suffa! Alt is an amber
colored beer, and I was quite surprised to find that it was rather uehrig und
hopfig (bitter and hoppy) - like an IPA. While the beer was bitter and hoppy it
was not very floral, but rather it had a malty smell, which I found to be
unique. I think the best part about the beer though was that it only cost 1,80
Euro. We finished up at Schumacher and headed back over to im Goldenen Ring for
our complimentary greeting dinner.
I had
Bratwurstchen and Kartoffel puree’ and my second variety of Alt – Frankenheim.
This Alt was quite different from the first the Schumacher. The Frankenheim was
very mellow and smooth, kind of malty and more like an amber or Dunkel beer in
flavor. This brought about a quandary… how is Alt actually supposed to taste? I
figured there was only one way to find out- Bier Probieren! But that would come
later. Anyways, dinner was good, and after dinner it was time to work my way
back home knock out some homework and call it a night. Oh yeah, I forgot to
mention that since my dinner was not very expensive I was allowed to order a
dessert. For dessert I had a half litre of König Ludwig Weissbier –
delicious! The weissbier was smooth and refreshing, and had a bouquet similar
to bananas.
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