Düsseldorf is a City I have a big affinity for. I first travelled with some colleagues to catch a Bundesliga game and fell in love with Germany, and Düsseldorf in particular. I then returned a few years later with some old school friends to catch another Bundesliga game and explore the surrounding area. This third time, I travelled with my girlfriend Amy to show her why I like the city so much, let her experience German football (and to propose).
Our first morning there, we travelled to Dritan Alsela’s café for some of his world famous coffee, and breakfast. I had Bavarian Weißwurst, which is a boiled sausage that comes with a pretzel and sweet mustard. The whole time we remained in his café, we could see him filming content for his channels in the background.
After this we visited the Altstadt to sample some varieties of the local Altbier, first up was Schlössel (key in German).
Our first day was largely low-key, exploring the Altstadt, finding our bearings around our hotel, and having a few drinks. The weather was very rainy so our experience was rather time that first day.
We did however do something I’d wanted to do on my previous visits to Düsseldorf but didn’t get around to: visit Little Tokyo.
Düsseldorf is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan anywhere in the world, so it has a thriving Japanese cuisine district, and dual-language street signs, so it was a must hit.
We tried a few different restaurants but some were full/fully booked, but we found one willing to take us in after 3 or 4 tries elsewhere.
We ordered dumplings as a starter to share, and I had ramen as my main. The food was delicious, and after a handful of embarrassing attempts, we managed to get the hang of chopsticks.
After our dinner in Little Tokyo, we decided to sample the night life in the Altstadt. However given our trip was still during COVID restrictions, some venues were strict about entry, demanding vaccinations and testing. We’re both triple vaccinated but needed a test as well to enter, we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of finding a test centre, and just opted for a bar rather than a night club.
We ended up in Sutton’s Irish bar, which had a lovely international staff – and befriended the bar staff, and a Scottish Stag party.
The Friday was D-Day, where I’d go up the Rheinturm and propose. I had managed to get the ring to Düsseldorf without it being spotted. Now I just needed to act cool. We got up that morning and went to Königsallee, which is home to all the upmarket stores in Düsseldorf: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex etc all are homed alongside this scenic street. After exploring shops we can’t afford to breathe in, we visited the Carlstadt district along the river to visit their open market for breakfast. Here we found a sushi stand, and although sushi for breakfast isn’t exactly an authentic German breakfast, modern society is a melting pot of culture, and given the fact Düsseldorf has such a large Japanese population, it’s kind of authentic right?
We ate our sushi alongside the Rhein river, and walked along the Rheinpromenade before going up the Rheinturm TV tower.
We got into the lift up alongside a group of English speaking girls, so I was content I’d be able to get them to capture the moment on camera. We walked around the viewing deck, looking at nearby cities and the sites nearby before getting a drink from the bar.
This is when the nerves set in and I wanted to immediately approach someone from that group to take a photo of us. I had learned how to ask someone in broken German “can you take a photo of us, I have a question for her involving a ring”, however being able to ask in English out of ear shot was preferable.
Amy suggested leaving them alone to enjoy their hot chocolate/coffee, however my nerves were going crazy and I just wanted to get it out of my system – so I sat patiently until one from the group got up and was looking out the viewing deck, and asked her to capture the moment. I had planned on taking my mask off for the moment the photo was taken, but the adrenaline made me forgot. I got down on one knee and even forgot to say “will you marry me?”, Amy had to prompt me by saying “are you going to ask?”. She obviously said yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it.
Celebration time begun, we went to the Altstadt again and embarked on a little pub crawl, stopping in Frittenwerk, a chain that does fries topped with different meats/toppings. Amy got Mexican fries, and I got poutine here, and then the pub crawl resumed – where we went to Sutton’s again (Irish people in an Irish bar?)
Saturday, we got up to travel to Leverkusen, to watch Bayer Leverkusen vs. Hertha Berlin. It was my 4th German football game, and it paled in comparison to the others.
The Hertha Fans beside us were very passionate though, and sang for the entirety of the match, setting off flares and getting behind their team.
We returned to Düsseldorf after the game, and headed to our home away from home away from home (Sutton’s) for the night.
Our last day, the Sunday remained quite low-key, we ate at a traditional German restaurant, walked along the promenade and just largely relaxed, taking in the city before we travelled home.
Düsseldorf is also home to numerous Stolperstein memorials, which are worth keeping an eye out for.
