Düsseldorf 🇩🇪

In December 2020 we had planned a festive mini break to Frankfurt – but covid had other ideas. We then planned the trip again for December 2021, but Frankfurt decided to massively scale back their market due to covid. So this year came, and we thought sod it – let’s do a trip around Germany and visit multiple markets! Over the next 8 days we will be starting in Düsseldorf and finishing in Munich, with a cheeky nip over the border into Austria.

As our flight was a late one from Manchester, we decided to kill time by going to the Trafford Centre first. We had totally forgotten that the Black Friday sales were on, so parking was an absolute nightmare! It was a treat however to see Troy from ‘The Greeters Guild’ getting everyone into the festive spirit. We arrived at Manchester Airport far too early (see Steve.. I’m learning!) but being an evening flight the check in area and security was absolutely dead. That was until we got into the pub on the other side where all the fans from Wales were sat having a drink before their flight to Doha.

The flight to Düsseldorf was super speedy, and from landing to getting bags was only 20 minutes! It was far too late to explore so it was straight to bed ready to see the city the following day.

We are both lovers of a good breakfast and online recommendations suggested 7 Sundays – a recommendation we will also now give as it was absolutely delicious. It became apparent that Düsseldorf is a very quiet city as there was hardly anybody about! We also very quickly learnt the etiquette of waiting for the green man at a crossing, even if there is no traffic at all.

Towering above the city is the Rhine Tower, which gives fantastic views for miles. We could clearly make out the skyline of Cologne- our next destination. Another bonus is the cafe at the top, so it would be rude to not try one of the cakes on offer. Mark being the big football fan he is meant we had to make time for the England game, so we found an Irish pub (we’ve found that they’re usually the best atmosphere for sporting events) and settled in with a beer, gin and watched the boys win. Lovely assist from Callum Wilson 😉

It was then time to try out what we had come for – the markets! At the end of all the blogs we will rate the markets in order. Like the rest of the city, the markets were really quiet, but this meant no queues! Every cloud.. The plan is to try as much different foods as possible, so we started with reibekuchen with apple sauce. It was absolutely delicious 😋 and I 100% recommend getting one of these at a German market. We also had that German classic, Thai chicken soup 🤣 washed down with Glühwein (which we plan on drinking plenty of this trip). After watching the ice skaters and a few more beers it was time for the next course – crepes, smothered in Nutella obvs.

After a ridiculously long day it was time to catch the train to Cologne. Armed with our valid tickets we were confident that there was no reason for a telling off as we travelled on the U-Bahn.. wrong! A very angry policeman banged on the window with an aggressive finger wag as we hadn’t even noted that the rest of the train were all wearing masks 😷Research suggested that German trains are easy to navigate and always on time.. also wrong! After delays and platform changes we eventually got on the right train to Cologne.