Die Düsseldorfer Doppelt-Stopover

Europe » Germany » North Rhine-Westphalia » Dusseldorf
January 3rd 2014

Published: January 19th 2014

Edit Blog Post

Delek Delek

Flossies

One of the buildings in Mediahafen has these strange, colourful figures clambering all over it. Cool.

For most people, a long stopover at an airport en route to your final destination elicits a long groan, followed by a grudgingly accepting sigh.
I however, see stopovers as opportunities, and my brief adventures in Singapore, Segovia, and Seoul, show that one can make the most of a stopover by filling it with exploration and experience.

This time I had the best part of five hours to kill in Düsseldorf en route to Berlin, and about three hours on the way back from Berlin to London.
While my other stopovers were well-planned in advance, I actually hadn't even entertained the thought of doing anything this time around. I knew that I had a long-ish connection but had kind of forgotten all about it until I was on my way to Stansted Airport for my ridiculously early morning flight to Düsseldorf - which explains why I have unexpectedly written another blog entry so soon after saying I wouldn't for some time. Reading my trusty German Lonely Planet, I realised that I just about had enough time to see a city I'd never been to before - and perhaps even enjoy a local alt beer.

I was flying Air Berlin

Rheinturm & Rheinkniebrücke

The tallest building in Düsseldorf next to one of the bridges crossing the River Rhine. The Rheinuferpromenade in the foreground provides a pleasant riverside walk.

for the first time and I have to say that while the service was excellent - it is essentially a low-cost carrier but still provided you with a free drink, tea/coffee, and a snack - the plane was like an oven inside. It was probably also the smallest plane I have ever been on for an international flight, with only four seats across the width of the cabin and nothing covering the propellers just outside my window. It meant the plane was liable to being buffeted around by the wind a bit, but I made it to Düsseldorf safely enough.

Now in order to make the most of your stopover, it helps if you can get into the city quickly. Luckily, this is Germany, so of course you could in Düsseldorf - it took just ten minutes to get from the flughafen to the hauptbahnhof on the train, which had a relatively frequent service.
There were two things that stood out in my first impressions of the city - homeless men and graffiti. So not exactly the best first impressions. With Düsseldorf's renown as a hub for finance and international business, this surprised me somewhat as I would've thought

Koningsallee

Canal going down the middle of the main shopping street in Düsseldorf.

the city to be fairly affluent. In the area around the main train station, there also seemed to be a disproportionately high number of Japanese restaurants - the fact that Düsseldorf has the third-largest Japanese population in Europe outside of London and Paris probably has something to do with it. Strange, you might think, but it is a legacy of the high Japanese demand for machinery after the World War II; and the fact that Düsseldorf and the surrounding Ruhr region was an industrial hotbed at the time. As a result, there are over 300 Japanese companies based in Düsseldorf.

After grabbing a map from the tourist office, so began what was essentially a three-hour walking tour of the city's main sights.
First port of call was the rococo Schloss Jaegerhof before a walk through the pleasant greenery of the Hofgarten and its lakes. Next I arrived at Burgplatz, right next to the River Rhine and where the Christmas market was being packed up. The massive ferris wheel was still going, right next to the Schlossturm and St Lambertus Church right behind it.
I then went for a stroll around the pedestrianised Aldstadt within which is the disappointing Rathaus.

Schlossturm

The only structure that remains of the old Düsseldorf Castle was destroyed in the 19th century. The twisted spire of St Lambertus Church is in the background.

The old town is packed full of restaurants, shops and bars and apparently gets quite raucous in the summertime. I had heard that the nightlife in Düsseldorf is pretty good and from what I saw, it certainly looks like it has the right ingredients in the Aldstadt. I wouldn't have the chance to test it out unfortunately, which is the downside of a stopover. One day, perhaps.
A long and pleasant stroll along the river (apart from the bitingly cold wind) takes you underneath the landmark Rheinkniebrücke and the 240m-tall Rheinturm before you arrive at a marina surrounded by some surreal-looking buildings. The area is known as Medienhafen and is very similar to the HafenCity project in Hamburg but on a smaller scale - the regeneration of an area of old docks by replacing the old, disused warehouses with modern, flashy, architecturally-imaginative buildings.
From Medienhafen I then walked to Koningsallee, Düsseldorf's main shopping street with a lovely canal running down the middle of it. The footpaths here were packed.

I then had to quickly hobble back to the hauptbahnhof to catch my train back to the airport - I say hobble because in yet another sad sign of getting

Neuer Zollhof 2

The second warped building of an ensemble of three by Frank Gehry in the Medienhafen area.

old, I had somehow contrived to pull my right calf from all the walking I was doing. I hadn't worked for a couple of months by this stage so the amount of walking I was doing in London was minimal, meaning my legs were suddenly not used to walking so much. It also meant that I was limping all around Berlin for four days.
Another frustration was not having my DSLR on me. I felt I didn't want to risk bringing it as I had already seen Berlin before and I didn't know that I was going to go in to Düsseldorf. It meant that I couldn't quite take the photos I wanted and was further hampered by the angle of the sun and the inordinate amount of scaffoldings around the city.

I won't tell you about the events in Berlin as it is a city I have visited four times already and one which I have already written about previously. I do love the city though, which is why I've been back so often - possibly my favourite in Europe.
I will tell you about events four days later however.

With three hours to kill in Düsseldorf en route back to London from

St Lambertus Church

Düsseldorf's largest church.

Berlin it was just enough time for me to head into town to complete a final quintessential Düsseldorf experience - a hearty German lunch washed down with a glass of local alt beer.
The place I chose was probably as far away from the train station as I could've gone but I chose it as Lonely Planet had promised it was about as authentic a German beer hall as you were going to get - and ol' Lonely Planet didn't let me down.
Im Füchschen was huge, wooden, and full of patrons of an older generation. With each glass of alt that I drank, the waiter would chalk a mark on my beer mat. There was no English on the menu and the waiter had returned very quickly, but it didn't matter because I knew exactly what I wanted; "Ein schweinhaxn bitte!"

Being an lone Asian tourist in the midst of a whole lot of locals, I did feel a bit out of place and I was getting a few looks. The looks soon turned into laughs when my pork knuckle came out as the locals looked at me, then looked at the size of

Schweinhaxn

Lunch - a massive pork knuckle served with a knife sticking out of it along with potatoes and red sauerkraut.

my plate, before looking back at me again. The meal was huge but delicious and I think I surprised a few of the locals by finishing it.
About halfway through my lunch, another lone, young, male Asian tourist walks through the pub doors and sits down next to me. The locals now had a new person to fix their gaze on, which I appreciated, as it took some of the heat off me.

Examining his surroundings, the tourist's eyes were wide with curiosity and wonder. It reminded me of myself all those years ago when I first started travelling and seeing all the things that I had only heard and read about, for the first time. That sense of awe and giddiness.
Whereas I know a few words in German, the Asian tourist knew not a single one. He simply pointed at something on the menu - I'm not sure he had a clue what he was ordering. When the waiter asks him if he wants a beer, he simply nods. As an adventurous eater I am not averse to ordering something without knowing what it is - it is all part of the adventure and having an authentic

Altbier

A glass of the local "alt" beer.

experience of where you are. The Asian tourist I don't think, had much choice - but he didn't seemed fazed.
"Do you speak English?" I ask him.
"A little bit...", he says softly.
"Are you on holiday?"
"Yes."
"Where are you from?"
"Korea", he replies.
"Where have you been?"
He shows me a guide book which reveals that he is on a tour of the Rhine, similar to a trip I did myself a few years ago.
"How long is your holiday?" I ask him.
"Seven days" he replies. It's a long way to come from Korea for just seven days. Good on him for doing it though and I wouldn't be surprised if this is his first major trip out of Korea as he looked like a university student.
His beer comes out and he has a taste of it - he slowly nods in approval before guzzling the rest of it down. That's my boy. Like kölsch, the special, locally brewed beer of Cologne (not far from Düsseldorf in fact), Düsseldorf alt is served in tiny 200ml glasses so tends to go down fairly quick. Altbier is quite dark and quite bitter and has a strong, slightly sweet taste to it. I still prefer kölsch, which

Aldstadt

Part of the pedestrianised old town packed with restaurants and bars.

is one of my favourite beers.
It turns out the Korean tourist has ordered roast pork which has been nicely sliced up for him as opposed to my pork knuckle which came served with my knife sticking out the top of it. It comes with apple sauce which he puzzlingly examines before asking the two German ladies next to him what it is. They don't speak English but he seems to understand what they mean by "apfel" which is pretty close to its English equivalent. He tastes a spoonful of it, and his body movements slow as he looks upwards, trying to work out what it is. He then turns to the to German ladies and nods his head.
"Gut?" asks one of the German ladies.
The Korean tourist nods, as the German ladies smile.
By now I have finished my meal and paid for it so I wish him well for the rest of his trip as I turn to leave.
The whole episode was amusing yet warming - a microcosm of the curiosities and discoveries of the wide-eyed wanderer, and a reminder of why I travel. A reminder of what I was and what it was like when

Schloss Jaegerhof

Once a royal hunting palace, Napoleon also once stayed here for four days. It now houses the Goethe Museum

I first travelled, all those years ago.

I feel that I almost shouldn't be judging Düsseldorf based upon such a short stay here but my overall impression of Düsseldorf was that it is a lot like Frankfurt, but much smaller and with less skyscrapers. Both are business, transport and finance hubs, Düsseldorf's Rhine is Frankfurt's Main, Düsseldorf's Aldstadt is Frankfurt's Sachsenhausen. Walking around the streets, both cities have a similar feel.
I also got a few more looks than usual and felt a little out of place, perhaps surprising given the Japanese population here - mind you I was wearing my extremely skinny jeans and beanie. Normal in Berlin perhaps, but not here? I've always thought I'd like to live in Germany but perhaps not Düsseldorf. Again though, I probably need to spend a bit more time here before passing a final judgement.

So I lied in my last blog entry about not travelling anywhere for a while, but only because I wasn't expecting to have a look around Düsseldorf and thus have something to write about. As in the last blog entry, the same still applies this time - I don't expect to travel for a while