The town of Neuss – just across the river from Düsseldorf – had one or two nice pieces of neon on offer; the finest was this former furniture retailer. Note the clever Umlaut and the even cleverer 'dmg' logo.

The town of Neuss – just across the river from Düsseldorf – had one or two nice pieces of neon on offer; the finest was this former furniture retailer. Note the clever Umlaut and the even cleverer 'dmg' logo.

Things got colourful in Düsseldorf.

Your weekend Umlaut also comes from Essen.

The next stop on our journey was Essen, where we found this cinema sign glowing in the night. Note the swoosh.

Continuing the beer theme from yesterday, here is a delightful sign for an old (but still active) brewery in Münster.

The giant neon glass of beer posted earlier is located on the side of a post-war residential block in Hamm. The full sign also features a mounted cavalier with beer in hand.

A sublime meeting of neon and beer.

Here is the front of the Skala building.

We’re back from our most recent Neon excursion … and we’re looking forward to sharing some of our best discoveries. The first stop was Bielefeld, where we found this amazing cinema sign on the side of a building. Although the tubes were intact, the sign no longer appeared to work.

Once again we’re off in search of neon. If you know of any good signs in Bielefeld, Münster, Düsseldorf or any of the cities of the Ruhr, please let us know.

The Cafe Cortina sign was burning brightly in the late-summer evening.

Your weekend Umlaut: There is no shortage of great Umlauts in Köln, but this lightning stroke is especially worthy of your attention.

For those confused by the eight-pointed yellow thing, the name of the hotel also appears in full.

Just outside Bonn is the town of Siegburg, where we found this sign attached to a mid-century hotel.

It was only half an hour from Koblenz to Bonn, where we found this old Fleurop sign … there was, of course, no longer a flower shop beneath it.

We travelled up the Rhine from Wiesbaden to Koblenz … where we found a building with neon signs for rival dance schools. This is one of them:

From Frankfurt we travelled West to Wiesbaden, where we discovered that one of its most prominent neon signs still works. By day the tubes and background are white, but at night the whole thing glows in a glorious neon green.

In the town of Gießen, we found this wonderful cursive neon sign for a (now closed) flower shop at the edge of a park.

One for the music lovers: a few miles up the road from Friedberg is the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where we found this sign that once (presumably) belonged to a Hi-Fi shop.

A closer view of today’s sign reveals that it was made by a company called Nordlicht, based in Offenbach.

Another great neon sign from Friedberg, this one for a (still extant) leather-goods shop.

Today’s sign is also a good candidate for the Weekend Umlaut…

Half an hour north of Frankfurt is the town of Friedberg, which has several well-preserved neon signs on its high street … including this one:

At the edge of a park in a residential neighbourhood of Frankfurt we stumbled upon this sign for an electrician who no longer appears to be in business.

We’re just now back from a trip that took us from Frankfurt to Köln (via Wiesbaden, Koblenz and Bonn) and we can’t wait to share some of the signs we found. First up, this wonderful Apotheke sign glowing in the early evening of late summer.

We’re back … and we brought some neon with us.

Time for a summer break. But don’t worry: we’ll be back soon … and with more neon.

One of the more popular ice-cream café names…

Your weekend Umlaut: …does whatever a Münster kann.

Something is missing from our summer…

Always nice to see a neon blackletter 'k' in the wild…

Filling the available space.

Even parking is more fun with neon.

A humble house of beds.

Golden biscuit neon.

Your precariously-balanced weekend Umlaut.

The F is silent.

The Tempest.

A strange script.

Your weekend Umlaut: Always get your plywood from the shop with the best neon sign.

Have been mildly obsessed with the cursive p lately.

Beautiful cursive neon, featuring an unusual capital F.

On the coast.

Cursive and non-cursive.

Your weekend Umlaut: two suspended dots.

Note the subtle use of single, double, and even triple neon tubes on this wonderful piece of mid-century cursive.

The blue light district.

Your weekend Umlaut: Möbel in München.

Perfekta.