Parks in Düsseldorf – Nordpark

On Saturday I went to the park with a friend and her little son where we lay in the shade on my huge picknick blanket (finally it gets used a bit more often). As I’m still trying to see more parks in Düsseldorf, we opted for the Nordpark where I had only been once before. We had been there some years back when we did our bike tour around Düsseldorf, starting at the city center, crossing the Rhine to the Oberkassel side then riding North along the Rhine, which is most of the time possible and very beautiful and then taking the ferry at Kaiserswerth to cross the Rhine. On the way back to the city center you then pass the Nordpark where we stopped for a picknick back then. This is by the way a very recommendable trip!The Nordpark is not as big as I remembered it to be. what you can definitive see is from when the park originates. It looks very much like from the late 1930 from which it is: many very structured areas with big geometric ponts, lots of things made of typical red bricks and lots of sunny greens but very few shadow.Where the park has flowers they are very beautiful and well groomed but unfortunately there are not that many places. And there is the well known Japanese garden, gifted to the people of Düsseldorf by the big Japanese communitiy that lives here. When we entered I was expecting… well more. The map made it look big but in reality it is tiny and it was full of cosplayers and other a bit weird people. All in all a nice park and maybe worth a visit if you are in the area (it borders the trade fair premise) but nothing compared to the Volksgarten.