Düsseldorf 3 / Kling Klang

Doesn't look like much, does it? Indeed, it's just a workshop in a courtyard off Mintropsraße in Düsseldorf.

In my youth, though, this place was the stuff of legend, for this was the location of Kling Klang studios, where Kraftwerk wrote and recorded all of their albums.

An intensely private band, there were never any photos of the studios, and so my concepts of it existed entirely in my imagination. I had read that there was a telephone inside Kling Klang, but it had no ringer. If an interview had been arranged, Ralf Hütter would simply lift the receiver at the appointed time. Apocryphal or not, that was all I knew about Kling Klang. (And I loved that story.)

The story goes that the band would meet for coffee late morning, spend the afternoon and evening at Kling Klang, and then go clubbing in the evenings. The line "Sekt? Korrekt" from 'Das Model' is apparently what the doorman at their favoured nightclub would ask them.

It's over forty years since I fell in love with Kraftwerk, and today the Minx and I walked around to visit the site after breakfast at Nooji*. This was a pilgrimage for me, and it didn't matter at all that Kraftwerk moved out of there in 2009; it was the history that I was after. It was quite extraordinary to stand there imagining those four young men coming and going through that door, in and out of the studio, and everything they created within.

I stayed for just a few minutes. I think that was enough, and I was aware of the residents of the courtyard, who I guess were wondering what on earth I was doing there. Maybe I would come back another time, though.

And after that we visited six stops on the U-Bahn where each one had been given over to an artist to create a work. My favourites were the ones that incorporated audio but you can read about all of them here.

PS Although the space is now leased by another company, I enjoyed their little nod to Kraftwerk on the platform outside the front door.

*It turns out that you need to book. We only got in because of a cancellation. And I can see why; it was fantastic. Another of her great finds.