After enjoying my trip to Gdańsk with my old school friends, we decided round 2 would be on the cards, and fancied a football match whilst touring second time around. This was my second time visiting Düsseldorf, but my first time in Mönchengladbach and Duisburg. I visited this time with a different group of friends, but both trips were organised on the purpose of visiting a Bundesliga game. I had visited Köln last time I was in Düsseldorf, however this time we opted for some sightseeing in a nearby city rather than a second night of football.
We arrived very early on the Friday, before the hostel accepted check ins, and before it was acceptable to start drinking, so we opted for Dritan Alsela’s Coffee Shop. Dritan is a famous latte artist (Instagram verified and everything), and the food was pretty great too. The coffee shop was located on the outskirts of the city in the same complex as cash and carry chain Metro. Whilst some of the boys opted for adventurous meals like Bavarian sausage (it’s white btw) and pretzels, I got a standard English breakfast.
After filling up and grabbing some much needed caffeine to wake us up, we grabbed an Uber back to the Altstadt (or old town to non-German speakers… okay I can’t speak German either but I want to show off the few phrases I do know).
In the Altstadt I had explained the lax drinking laws to the German first timers Conor and Maks. We cracked open a beer, and a walked along the picturesque promenade cradling the river Rhine.
The cold was beginning to get the better of us, so we sought refuge in an Aldstadt bar, where I got my first taste of the locally brewed beer type altbier, a darker, strong tasting beer. It was drinkable, but Weissbier is much nicer, so I decided to try and stick to it for the remainder of the trip – unless I spotted something I had not tried before for ‘swall review‘ purposes.
After a few beers in the Altstadt, we returned to the hostel for a well needed nap before heading out that night! Sadly all the 4 bed rooms in the hostel had sold out, so we were bunking with 2 strangers, a Slovenian taking a detour on his way home from London, and an older German gentleman who had called to Düsseldorf for a boat show. As we awoke from our disco nap, we quickly got ready and descended on the old town, ready for debauchery.
When we were exploring the area around the Altstadt, we stumbled across some Stolperstein. (I have previously written a guide explaining Stolperstein here).
We embarked on a bit of a pub crawl through the strip in the old town, before heading to Cube, a nightclub which I visited the last time I was in Düsseldorf and had a great time.
I had been speaking to a local in one of the bars we visited and enquires about the shots they were taking, she explained that the bar offered a row of shots called Korn, which come with flavoured packets. These flavoured packages are pretty much packets of flavoured sugar (like something you’d get as a child filled with E numbers). I had never seen anything like it before.
A stereotypical good night out ensued, although we originally planned to cap it at 3am as we were travelling to Mönchengladbach the following day for football… we stayed out until 5…
The next morning we awoke, freshened up and headed for the Hauptbanhof (central station, and a very fun word to say). Here we quickly grabbed a bite to eat, and alcohol for the train – next stop Mönchengladbach! In Mönchengladbach we enquired about how best to reach the stadium to which we were told about shuttle buses, we decided we’d get a taxi rather than try figure out how the shuttle buses worked.
We had googled what time kick off was prior to departing for Germany, and saw it was 2:30pm, as it was closing in on 1:00pm when we got off our train, we thought it would be best to depart imminently for the stadium to allow us to have a look around the club shop and buy some merchandise. After a look around, grabbing some food/drinks and taking our seats we felt the stadium was quite dull and quiet. Then we realised we did not account for the time difference, kick off was 3:30 German time, so we had another hour to kill. It was time for a photoshoot.
The game itself was a very exciting affair, Mainz went ahead before Mönchengladbach pulled back 3 goals to win 3-1, and two of them goals were incredible. Full highlights can be seen here.
Our seats were directly behind the goal, where we got a very peachy view of Swiss international keeper Yann Sommer.
After the game we tried hopping on a shuttle bus back to Mönchengladbach, but the crowd waiting was massive and we were quite cold, so we walked and decided we would venture into the first bar we stumbled across (which turned out to actually be a Greek restaurant).
After a beer here, the barman kindly rang a taxi for us to bring us back near the Hauptbanhof, and we opted for a doner meat pizza for food before the return journey to Düsseldorf. The pizza was fantastic, and our hunger was squashed. We picked up beer for the train and before long we were back in Düsseldorf.
The beer I had picked up for the journey was an altbier; and I did not feel well after drinking it – I called it an early night whilst the rest of the group explored a different part of the Altstadt, I keep telling myself that I didn’t miss anything noteworthy.
The final day was based around sightseeing. We got up early with a three pronged itinerary; Kaiserswerth Castle, Tiger & Turtle Walking Roller Coaster, and Landshaftspark, an old industrial complex that has been turned into an open park with a light where you can venture around unaccompanied.
We left early and hopped on a regional train to Duisburg, and first up was Kaiserswerth, an old town with a castle on the Northern outskirts of Düsseldorf. We stopped at a bar near the train stop, where we met an Irishman who was working in the airport doing train repairs. After our quick refuelling session, we left for the castle, it was about a 10 minute walk from the station.
There wasn’t much to do at the castle as entry inside was closed, and after admiring some of the scenery from the riverbank, we decided onwards to Duisburg. To get to Tiger & Turtle, we needed to get off at a stop, and get a taxi to the park where the walking rollercoaster was situated.
Here we walked up the steps to find out how unfit we collectively were (some, well, myself more than others). There were some great views from the rollercoaster, including what looked like a nearby nuclear facility. The loop, however, was closed off to the public. I was getting ready to try and run very fast around it, but unfortunately it wasn’t an option for me.
After this, we caught the tram from the nearby tram stop all the way into Duisburg, and onwards to the Landschaftspark tram stop.
Landschaftspark is like nowhere else I’ve ever been before – I’m going to write another piece dedicated solely to Landschaftspark, but first I’ll give a quick run through of what it is: an old industrial complex which has been converted into a public park, with a light show installed. The intent of the park was to preserve some of the old industrial works, to highlight the regions industrial past, whilst allowing the area to return to nature.
There was a viewing deck at the top of one of the old furnaces allowing great views of the park and further afield. I’ll show some highlights from our collective photo reels.
As we returned to the tram spot to catch the returning tram to Duisburg, we saw one just pull off – missed by a minute tops. We spotted a pizzeria the far side of the street, and thought surely a takeaway pizza shouldn’t take more than 30 mins to prepare. We ordered, and had them ready just as we saw the next tram approaching. Perfect timing we had thought as we ran off with our pizzas to head back. “HEY, HEY, YOU DID NOT PAY!” we heard him shouting after us. We had paid, but as we returned to sort out the misunderstanding we missed the second tram.
When we FINALLY got back to Düsseldorf, most of the bars were closed, so our last night ended up being fairly subdued. We came across a 24/7 bar in the strip, and sought refuge there for a while before calling it a night.
Our last day involved viewing the city from atop the TV tower, grabbing a few relaxing drinks, and returning to Dublin. A timid way to end a fantastic trip.
As I end this piece, I want to stress that Düsseldorf is a great city to visit and it is a shame it is often overlooked in favour of other German cities. Düsseldorf has a lot to offer though a lot of shops/bars need to begin accepting card. Who carries cash anymore?
