Duesseldorf (Germany): One Night

~ youkyong

May 2025

The good looking residences along the Rhine River bank in Duesseldorf

Duesseldorf was a nice surprise. We ended up there purely for logistical reasons. We wanted to rent a car in Germany because we were to end our trip 20 days later in Berlin & wanted to avoid paying a cross border return fee, which could be hefty. Conveniently, Tunis Air flew direct from Tunis to Duesseldorf (2.5 hours/$80 one way), which is just a 90 minute drive from our destination, Riel, a small town in southern Netherlands.

We arrived there, checked into a hotel near the airport, had dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we took a quick tour of the city. The photo of the colorful building shown above had caught my eye, thus, we found a parking lot in this area and started walking from there.

Following the river, you could reach the Old Town in under 30 minutes – it’s a little over 2 Km – and you could see the old and new of the city in a nutshell.

Media Harbor (Mediahafen) is a redeveloped area that used to be an abandoned warehouse district off the Rhine River. Now it boasts buildings designed by star architects & occupied by numerous high tech and design companies.

One thing lacking on a Sunday morning was a place to eat breakfast. We thought we would be able to find a wonderful cafe here! But people don’t work on Sundays after all.

Yes, Frank Ghery was involved, too.

Duesseldorf is a city of 650,000 people on the east bank of the Rhine. We expected people to be strolling along the river, but I didn’t expect the crowds in the photo below!

Turned out, there was an emergency medical training demonstration set up along the river and families came out to participate.
Google Maps showed this place was open in the morning, and we abandoned the river walk and headed there as we were about to enter the Old Town.
Heimwerk was a Bavarian restaurant, and I had a pretzel and sausage combo which was delicious!
Around the corner from the restaurant was Carlsplatz Market where, it seemed, half the city had come.
Healthy looking fruits and vegetables
and cheese and meat
a great variety of food stalls selling delicious stuff! We wished we hadn’t eaten.
We did manage to add some gelato

We meandered through the Old Town (Altstadt) which is known as the “longest bar in the world” due to the fact that over 300 bars and pubs fill up this area selling their signature beer called Altbier (Old Beer). The City Hall, Old Market Square, and the Castle Tower are here, too.

There were several beautiful churches in the Old Town area.
Walking a few blocks inland (west), we came to a museum area and the Hofgarten park.
Libeskind is another star architect represented in Duesseldorf

Then we came to the canals of Konigsallee and the ever famous tree lined street packed with shops and restaurants.

Duesseldorf is supposed to be a fashion center in Germany, but we didn’t get to witness that during our short visit.

We took Uber back to the parking lot in the Media Harbor to conclude our tour.

Duesseldorf seemed to be a livable city where we could have easily spent at least 2-3 days. Now we know.