Question: How long can you listen to Jimi Hendrix's "All along the
Watchtower" before it drives you totally nuts?

     Answer: 45 minutes

     It was about 10PM Sunday night and we thought it was time to try a
German bar, we knew of one open because we saw it when we were at the
cash machine. We walked the couple of blocks from the Hostel to the bar
with a park and then the Rhein river on our right and some of the nicest
apartments and/or houses on our left. It really was a nice neiborhood.
It was Oberkassel, Dusseldorf. The bar had a bunch of customers so we
sat at a table. A guy came to serve us and luckily he spoke some
English, his name was Cully.

     We started with the Alt. It was dispensed from a cask on the bar.
It was pretty good, had a nice balance, amber color, just your nice
smooth ale. Did I mention that "All along the Watchtower" was playing on
the sound system. The glasses for the Alt were a little small, we
noticed that the Weisen came in big glasses, so we tried that, Helles,
then Dunkle. The light was the better, then I tried a Pils, eeeh, so
back to the wheat. We were hungry but they weren't serving food. We
asked for some pretzels (we were in Germany, right). No pretzels, nuts.
So, we ate the nuts.

     By this time we noticed that the song hadn't changed for a while,
but it's a pretty good song, so what the hell. A middle-aged German
woman with a big dog was sitting at the bar giving all the young guys
the big eye. Cully was keeping track of all our drinks by making marks
on the beer coaster, we later discovered they do that all over Germany.
Well the song was real old by now so we mentioned it to Cully, who
hadn't noticed, neither had anyone else apparently, so he changed the
CD. It and all the subsequent ones skipped as well.

     Eventually we went to the Hostel and crashed. Got up early, had
breakfast (cereal and rolls and lunchmeat), got out of the room by 9 so
they can clean and do the linens. Then you check back in after 3. Went
to the park and watched them cut the grass. Did I mention what a nice
neiborhood this was? So we hung out in the park for a bit just relaxing
watching the barge and boat traffic on the river. Eventually we got the
energy to go visit the Altstadt (Old town) searching for the Alt
brewpubs in Michael Jackson's pocket guide to world beers.

     Next time, downtown...
 

Pictures - the 'hood, cutting the grass