We visited Düsseldorf for a city break during one of the best times of the year: Christmas.
After a three hour drive with Flixbus from Antwerp we were in Düsseldorf which means “the village on the Dussel river”. It was a very easy trip not having to worry about the drive or stressing about traffic jams.
We arrived at our hotel Holiday Inn Express Dusseldorf City and checked in as our room was ready.
We left immediately and went to discover the city. We went all the way straight to downtown from the hotel which took us about 20 minutes by foot. It is very easy and we felt safe at all times.
After a few blocks you will find the shopping street and the first Christmas market. There are 7 markets in total each with a different theme, scattered all around the city center. They are not far from each other and they are all great.
We booked a Christmas Tour directly with the tour office and our tour guide was a super friendly Norwegian lady who guided us around the markets.
The tour around the historical center was very informative and we learned so much about Düsseldorf and discovered a lot thanks to our tour guide Annie. We had the opportunity to taste an exquisite cookie at the Bakery Hinkel. The owner himself offered us the cookies and gave an explanation about the history of his bakery and answered any questions you might have at the moment.
By the way we discovered along the way that Annie is the wife of the owner of Brewery Schumacher and she recommended us to go there for dinner. We went but it is very popular and there was no place available. In case you we highly recommend you to book in advance.
In the end we finished eating paella in the Spanish street but it was nothing special and very dry.
There is just one last detail I would like to share with you… Have you seen the movie Inglorious Basterds? Well, there is a scene where Shoshana (the main character) is offered an amazing piece of apfelstrudel with fresh cream. I have always dreamed to have that same piece of kuchen and it has been my obsession when traveling to Germany. I finally had something similar which was a warm apfelkuchen and it was delicious! This is an old fashioned cafe called Heinemann where famous people used to go, you can still see their photos on the wall in the staircase.
It was a great weekend away from home and we cannot wait till the next trip!
