Düsseldorf
— — a river city that dresses for dinner.
Not only on a wall.
“Düsseldorf sits on the right bank of the Rhine, halfway between Cologne and the Dutch border. The Altstadt is a half-mile of cobblestone with more than 260 bars in it, which the locals call the longest bar in the world. A Kölsch is a fighting word here; the drink is Altbier, served from copper taps in small straight glasses. Along the river, the Rheinuferpromenade runs past the bent towers of the Gehry Neuer Zollhof. The city is quieter than its Carnival reputation, most of the year. from the studio
Düsseldorf, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Düsseldorf is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, with a city population of about 620,000 and a metropolitan reach of more than 11 million across the Rhine-Ruhr region. It sits on the right bank of the Rhine, roughly 40 kilometres north of Cologne. The city is a centre for fashion, advertising, and Japanese business in Europe — Little Tokyo runs along Immermannstrasse and is home to one of the largest Japanese communities on the continent. The Königsallee, a shopping boulevard built around a moat from the old city wall, anchors the centre.
The Altstadt was almost entirely rebuilt after 1945 in its old footprint, which is why the cobblestone lanes still feel pre-war while almost no building is. Three landmarks anchor the skyline: the Schlossturm on the riverfront, surviving from the 13th-century castle; the leaning copper spire of St. Lambertus, twisted since 1815; and Frank Gehry's Neuer Zollhof at the Medienhafen, completed in 1999, three buildings of stainless steel, white plaster, and red brick that lean against each other along the old harbour basin.
Düsseldorf Airport sits seven kilometres north of the centre and is connected by S-Bahn in twelve minutes. From Köln Hauptbahnhof, the ICE reaches Düsseldorf in about 25 minutes. The walkable core runs from the Hauptbahnhof west to the river along the Königsallee and into the Altstadt. The peak season is Carnival, the week before Lent, when the city closes streets for the Rosenmontag parade. The Christmas markets run the four weeks before Christmas across seven squares in the centre.