Fair in Dusseldorf

Today was the last day of orientation week. We worked on posters and programming, getting materials ready for the kiddos on Monday. After we had worked for the day, we decided we wanted to go to Dusseldorf for the fair that was on the Rhine river. We took the bus from post to, which is the closest town with a train station (about a 30 minute bus ride). I took my first train in Germany to go to Dusseldorf (no shock...just like Italy, although much cleaner). When we got to Dusseldorf, some of the girls needed to get Eurorails for traveling, so while they were in line, I did a little shopping and got Kelsey a present :) She is going to love it, but I won't say what it is in case she reads it...hint: it is purple :)

We took the underground towards the Rhine, or at least we thought we were, Monchengladbach but we went the wrong way...no biggie though, because we just got off, and got back on :) We were able to see the fair on the banks as soon as we got to the bridge to cross it. It looked amazing! In reality, it was just like a normal fair with rides, stands, food, etc. but it had rides that are not approved in the U.S., so we were excited for the chance to ride something new :) We walked along the bridge to get pictures of the Rhine river as well as the fair and Dusseldorf itself, which was beautiful.

the architecture of the bridge was really cool...this would be a picture dad would take

at the rhine river :)

dusseldorf along the rhine

a view of the fair from the bridge

We walked around the fair for hours, just looking and trying the rides, people, food, and authentic German beer! It was fun to wander around and just take pictures of things that were American, or influenced by American things...which was about half of the pop culture things at the fair! We saw paintings on rides of people like Eddie Murphy, Gwen Stefani, Jessica Alba, Whoopi Goldberg, and many others....it was entertaining and fun to find new faces that had been warped by the artist. My main food for supper was a pretzel sandwich. It was absolutely delicious! It was a pretzel that had been cut in half and filled with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce. Mmmmm....just makes me hungry thinking about it...here are some pictures of funny things at the fair as well as what I ate, because it was just that good :)

who doesn't love a good german brew house?

hawaii!

the golden 50's and 60's :) it also had marilyn and elvis on it

i love my may, and this made me think of her :)

ferris wheel :)

my DELICIOUS meal :)

this beer was surprisingly good :)

fireworks!

fireworks!

white chocolate dipped apple...cancels out it being healthy, but it was worth it :)

nicole, mary and kayla crammed on the underground!

jenna, anne and me...i have never been that crammed before :)

We made it back in one piece and with all six of us together, which was fortunate, because we were basically pushed onto the underground like the photos I have seen of men in China. We took a taxi to post because it was past the time the train was running, which ended up being 30.50 Euro...about 45 American dollars...definitely taking the bus next time :)

Sidenote: After going to the fair, we found out on Monday that someone died the weekend we were at the fair on one of the rides. Apparently they just kept running the ride irregardless, which makes me glad that I didn't ride any of the roller coasters :)