Düsseldorf – Germany

April 2019

How do you write a blog on one of the best weekends of your life. When I was around 7 years old I used to live in Düsseldorf and have the most amazing childhood memories. I know the city quite well, which made it a little bit easier to get around. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how me and my friend survived the weekend. Way too much German beer was consumed.

We booked our trip through Expedia for a reasonable price and we flew Eurowings from Manchester direct to Düsseldorf. The flight only takes around an hour and by the time you know it, you’ve landed. I’ve also started collecting air miles (Miles and More) which is run through Lufthansa and I collected a few flying with Eurowings…result!

The weather was amazing on the weekend we went and is it usually around 14 degrees in April.

It costs around €20 to catch a taxi from DUSS airport to the Radisson Blu hotel in the Golzheim area of Düsseldorf. The Radisson Blu is amazing. The hotel rooms are big, clean and modern. There’s also a swimming pool, gym and sauna. Ohhh and don’t forget to get your welcome juice at reception. This is the fourth time I’ve stayed in this hotel and it won’t be the last.

It’s very easy to get around the city on the Ubahn. The transport links are very efficient. We bought a D-Card online which enables you to catch trams, busses and trains in the central area of the city using your pre-bought card. Our card was for 72 hours at a cost of £21. Bargain! You can also get discount prices to visit attractions in the city.

The tram stop is directly outside the hotel on the other side of the road. We caught the tram into town and had a mooch around. The tram stop to get off at is Heinrich-Heine-Alle. Have a walk past the Rathaus, where you’ll see old renaissance buildings. You’ll soon end up in the beautiful Burgplatz next to the river Rhine. If you walk down the steps onto the front you’ll see a line of German bars and pubs. It was Easter when we went and it was crammed full of people having a fantastic time.

We walked down the river front and headed towards the Rheinturm. On our walk we spotted this crazy piece of art…

The Rheinturm was so much fun! However, my friend who is scared of heights wasn’t too impressed. The glass windows at the top are slanted outwards and brave people were learning against the glass, to my friend’s horror. The Rheinturm is 174.5 meteres high and costs €9 to go to the observation deck. It’s well worth the visit and it gives great views over the city.

There’s a bar at the top of the Rheinturm, which turned out to be quite expensive for one drink. However, that one drink got us very tipsy at the top on the tower!

On our tipsy walk back into the centre we stopped off at a authentic German pub in Burgplatz. We ordered two Alt Beers and sat in the sun. If your in Düsseldorf you just have to try their local beer. You’ll end up having too many. Hiccup.

It was a very busy bank holiday weekend and we did struggle to find somewhere to eat for tea. We walked up into a busy street and found a nice Italian. You can’t beat a bit of pasta…although we really really wanted some flammkuchen. Will we ever get our flammkuchen on this trip?

Our first night on the tiles was absolutely fantastic. We got ready at the hotel and caught the Ubahn into town to hit Bolkerstrasse. Bolkerstrasse is a row of bars and pubs with people stood inside and outside at tables, drinking and having a great night. As always, we ended up in Irish bars and met some really funny people. We even met a stag do from where I live back home. We also ended up talking to an American guy who lives in Düsseldorf and headed to a shot bar. It’s no surprise that when we woke up, we felt poorly.

In the morning we headed out and off to find breakfast and go to Nord Park. We caught the Ubahn to Nord Park and walked down the street and found a bakery. We got a selection of pastries and headed to the park for an alfresco breakfast. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and we had coffee and croissant sat by a large fountain. BLISS.

Nord Park is beautiful and well worth the visit for a nice walk. We walked into the park to the Japanese garden. It’s a beautiful garden. However, when we went it was slightly weird because loads of local people were dressed up as fantasy characters having a photoshoot in the middle of the garden? We also saw Darth Vader! After our walk we headed back into town to find the K21 museum.

We had researched things to do before we went and my friend found a YouTube video of a couple who went on an art exhibition called ‘In Orbit’ at the K21 museum. ‘In Orbit’ is a piece of art where you can walk on what looks like large chicken wire suspended many feet above the ground. It’s hard to describe so have a look at the picture below.

The museum is a modern art museum in a very beautiful old building. It was about a 15 minute walk from Heinrich-Heine-Alle and costs around €12. This price also covers the cost to go on ‘In Orbit’ if you wish. The exhibitions in the museum at the time we went were very dark and emotional. They really did make you feel slightly weird, which I never thought modern art would have that impact. However, our purpose of the visit was to go on ‘In Orbit’.

On ‘In Orbit’ you are asked to wear a boiler suit and change into some sweaty walking shoes. You go on the exhibit for around 15-20 minutes and all I can say is…I don’t think I like heights. One man on the exhibit fell over and the whole chicken wire shook. I thought we were going to fall through to the ground. My friend was finding it difficult and I’d had enough after ten minutes and decided to get off. Although it was terrifying it was well worth a go!

So after the weird and wonderful K21 museum we walked back into the centre…aching and went to find food. We still couldn’t find anywhere that sold flammkuchen and ended up in a bar by the river Rhine and had a burger which was nice. The sun was shining and everyone was out having a great time. One thing you’ll notice in Germany is how everyone has a great time and there is no trouble. People were sat on the grass in the sun with their friends drinking beer and having a laugh. You wouldn’t see that back in the UK.

We decided to hit the town again on our second night and we’ll, this night was a good night. We went to some bars again down Bolkerstrasse and met some German, Belgium and English lads. It was such a funny night and we still talk about the night we had on that Saturday. I won’t go into the details of the night but it did consist of a lot of drinking and funny moments we will remember forever.

On the Sunday we were planning on going to a spa but we didn’t get in till 5am and we could not bring ourselves to try and find it. Instead we headed into town and found a place that sold flammkuchen. Ohhh my goodness, it was the best flammkuchen I have ever tasted. Finally, we found flammkuchen! We had a very chilled out day and headed back to the hotel to have an early night, ready for our flight home in the morning.

Düsseldorf was amazing. It’s a beautiful, fun and chilled out city. The sun shined all weekend and the drinks flowed. Everyone was having a great time in this incredible city. It really has lots to see and do. Even if your going for a boozy weekend, you will not be disappointed.

Until next time Düsseldorf…