It was another one of those "spur of the moment" trips...well, we booked it spur of the moment and we were off 2 weeks later. We'd been to Dusseldorf last summer for another weekend with friends and had a great time. Dusseldorf is a city, but a small one; not quite so vertical or spread out. Airport is 15 minutes away from city center and there is a "sky train" that brings you right to the main rail station in town and plenty of taxis waiting at the arrivals area. We took a 10 minute taxi ride from the airport to the Hilton Dusseldorf (http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/north-rhine-westphalia/hilton-dusseldorf-DUSHITW/index.html), cost 15 euros (excellent). The Hilton is a 5 minute walk to the tram that takes you right to the center of town in a matter of minutes (1o minutes). Less than 10 minutes walk from the hotel is Rhine...a splendid walking/biking/jogging path along the river, shaded by old old trees. The walk into town is about 15-20 minutes (to the south) or a bike ride to Kaiserswerth (to the north) is 6 miles away long fields of gold wheat and hay. It is said that Dusseldorf has the longest bar in the world: it is one continuous pub after another for the longest stretch of bar hopping along the river's edge. Behind the "longest bar" is the old town (Alstadt) with beautiful old buildings along pedestrian-only streets and lanes. Shops of all sorts, restaurants offering German, Spanish, Italian, Lebanese, steaks and seafood abound...and of course, those delicious pretzels - my "walk and nibble" food! And of course, there are still more places to have a beer, or two, or three or....thanks goodness for those criss-crossing trams! Better yet, thank goodness for those public toilets that cost only 50cents...I was amazed to know that after every use, the entire toilet room gets a "shower" and a "blow dry" before the next customer. It takes a few minutes for the wash and dry, but it is clean!
We set out to visit Dusseldorf this time with an eye towards real estate. Sensing a 7-year itch to move, we decided to look at the city with different eyes. Transportation: airport serves several US cities non-stop, hundreds more within Europe, Asia, and beyond. Excellent transportation within the city limits (buses and trams), reaching out to suburbia and an incredible network of high-speed trains throughout not only Germany, but Europe as well. Language: English is widely spoken, and spoken very well! Affordability: There is something in every price level, a "neighborhood" for varying lifestyles, and architecture from old to new. Weather: Summers appear to be very comfortable (rarely a 90F degree day), delightful springs and autumns but a cold and chilly winter. (Since we don't plan to be living here during the winters, it was not a consideration.) So far, it was all adding up rather nicely. Dusseldorf is on the very short list of possible places to relocation in the near future....
Having travelled a bit through Germany, experienced the airports, trains and trams and walked along numerous streets and neighborhoods, I can safely say it is clean....I just mentioned how the public toilets are washed down after each use! Again, having visited a few cities, towns and villages, we come across very friendly and welcoming German people. Case in point - just this weekend we had two instances of this: We were walking through the shopping mall (yep, there's a big one in the city center) and decided to stop for a glass of wine before lunch and while it was raining. There were no tabletops for 4 (we were with friends) and were about to leave when a gentlemen offered his table to us, despite not having finished his beer. He said he'd finish his beer at the bar....how nice was that? Later than afternoon we were standing at one of the outdoor beer stands drinking beers. We sort of made contact with one man who was watching us pose for pictures and giving us the "thumbs up" as we grew tired of smiling while our "photographer" friend kept shooting more pictures....finally, we could not hold it any longer and we just burst out laughing! Oblivious to what was going on, our "photographer" kept snapping away. The gentleman just kept giving the "thumbs up" all the while. Afterwards, as he and his family were departing he asked if we wanted the table they were at - tables are hard to come by and he must have noticed how long we'd been standing and drinking! We declined since there was a (much) older couple looking to sit. Overall, it was a most pleasant afternoon.
During the weekend, we had lunch at a place called Eat Italy, then dinner at LaCastagnas (http://www.lacastagnas.de/). One dinner was at the hotel (Max Restaurant) and another at Cafe Florian (http://www.gastronomie-mansour.de). Each restaurant was in a different neighborhood of the city - we either walked or took a tram. Easy, easy, easy - and very tasty, tasty, tasty! (check out the tab "Hotels-Restaurants-Helpful Hints" for more)
We plan to come back to Dusseldorf next summer, stay at the Hilton and investigate a few more neighborhoods we could possibly call home in the future. TOURIST INFO http://www.duesseldorf-tourismus.de/en/
And by the way, Lufthansa is one of the best airlines we've flown in a long time; for a 90 minute flight we were served a half sandwich and all the beverages, including beer, were free. The checkin service was efficient, security was a breeze, and we always have landed on time, if not early. Oh, and you get to check one bag for free! What a pleasure to be treated so nicely. At any opportunity, we will book Lufthansa because we know the service will be spot on! http://www.lufthansa.com/fr/en/Homepage
If you are interested in just snooping around the real estate market in Germany, they have a fantastic that includes all the listings by all the real estate companies. If you pull it up on your laptop, it is in German, however, on my phone the "app" give the info in English! http://www.immobilienscout24.de/de/finden/wohnen/index.jsp In the left hand box, enter the city (Dusseldorf, Berlin, Munich etc) in the box Ort, PLATZ etc. In the drop down menu box, under the middle column "Kaufen" select Eigentumswohnungen. This will give you apartments for sale in the city you selected. "Meiten" on the left column is for rentals (meitwohnungen = apartments). Go have some fun!
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