Day 5-6 24-25/6/19 Dusseldorf

Day 5-6 24-25/6/19 Dusseldorf

Have put these two days together because when we visited the bridge on the 24/6, dopey Dale had left the memory card for the camera in the computer (from copying the photo’s yesterday), so after dropping Maritta of at work, I re-visited the bridge to take photo’s. (I’ll describe yesterday, but the photo’s are from today.)

Left our accommodation and made our way to the Mungsten Bridge Park. The road to the park was quite tortuous as you drop quite abruptly into the valley. The bridge (a railway bridge) was built between 1894 and 1897 and is 500M long and 107M above the valley floor.

Mungsten Bridge

Foundation stone

It’s a popular spot and a number of people were paddling in the river when I visited on 25/6.

At the moment the bridge is being re-furbished (obviously, see photo’s) but is still a spectacular site.

A number of birds of prey frequent the valley.

Valley predator

 

 
 

Somewhat ungainly landing

Prey, perhaps?

Rather odd conveince across the river, to hot today so it wasn't running. (this is an advertising picture)

The beast itself

The cables across the river

Pavilion in the distance, not sure what it is

During my visit on the 25/6 I made the 850M trek (yes it was a trek) up to the railway station on top of the valley, but I couldn’t find the walkway that appears to be under the bridge. I did find a magnificent old station building (at least I think that’s what it was) which is now a hotel. The path is 850M long and rises about 90M, quite a challenge in the heat, had to stop several times, obviously need more exercise. The trip back down took only a fraction of the time.

There is a short cut equipped with ropes and nets, but I didn’t try that in either direction

"Jungle Jim" up the valley wall, I'll blame the heat for not trying it

Looking down, its a lot steeper than it looks and it looks steep enough

Not sure what these are measuring (see picture below)

The pillars are mounted on a sort of roller arrangement so perhaps they are measuring lateral force?

Impressive Station House now a hotel

A very big horse

sculpture depicting the valley and bridge

 After visiting the bridge (24/6) we went to the Wusthof factory, a 7^th generation knife making company which currently has two family members actively involved in the company. The company roots can be traced back to 1714 when Solingen, with a population of 3,200 and 16,000 in the surrounding area, boasted 4,000 people involved in the knife grinding industry. Every generation of Wusthoff since that time has been involved in the various management roles of the company. The original factory survived the ravages of World War 2 and continued to produce quality knives whilst the opposition struggled to rebuild. This was both a burden and a blessing, whilst the company continued to make good profits with little opposition, the competitors where able to modernise their equipment under the Marshall Plan. This eventually lead to the Wusthoff company coming close to bankruptcy, and being turned into an industrial Museum like the one we visited a few days ago. With some major changes in the 1970’s and a thrust towards controlled modernisation, Wolfgang Wusthoff was able to turn around the company fortunes by retirement of older workers and retraining of younger ones, no-one was forcibly retrenched. By re-investing 10% of the company turnover in rebuilding factories and new equipment, a trend that continues, Wolfgang was able to rebuild the company fortunes to what they are today.