{"id":6444,"date":"2017-09-12T09:28:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T13:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hiddenmesa.com\/?p=6444"},"modified":"2020-05-17T06:59:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T10:59:48","slug":"dusseldorf-at-a-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hiddenmesa.com\/index.php\/dusseldorf-at-a-glance\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00fcsseldorf at a Glance"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\u00fcsseldorf is one of the larger cities in Germany. Located in the western portion of the country, it’s the capital of the German Republic State of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders Belgium and The Netherlands on Germany’s western boundary. Since 1949, D\u00fcsseldorf has been considered the fashion capital of Germany, which explains all the seriously high fashion clothing stores we saw when walking through the ultra-modern downtown districts, looking for coffee. There are a little over 500,000 people living in the city limits, with about 100,000 of them transplants from other than Germany, but mostly from around the European Union.<\/p>\n

\"Outdoor<\/a>

In the Altstadt, old town, there are many outdoor cafes along the Rhine River. Photo by Donald Fink.<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s a vibrant Old Town along the Rhine River, where we spent some time wandering the shops and cafes. We found a great American style steak house called Block Steak House<\/a>. It turns out that they’re a relatively large chain of restaurants with locations throughout Europe. <\/p>\n

There was one Starbucks in town that we found. The Starbucks app lists one in Old Town, but it turns out that it’s closed, permanently. Interesting that the Starbucks app lists it as an open restaurant, but Google Maps lists it as closed.. Hmm. Still, we found another one that was open in a shopping mall in the Konigsallee fashion district, near the park, and less than a mile’s walk from our hotel.<\/p>\n

\"Melia<\/a>

Melia D\u00fcsseldorf is a very modern hotel, conviently located about 15 minute’s walking time to the Konigsallee shopping area or a 15 minute walk to Altstadt, Old Town, through the Hofgarten, Park. Photo by Bonnie Fink.<\/p><\/div>\n

While in D\u00fcsseldorf, we stayed in a Melia Hotel<\/a>. Melia is a European hotel chain that we’ve used before with good results. We use them for the same reasons we use Holiday Inn Express in the States. We get loyalty points, which leads to free nights and therefore reduced overall costs, and we also have an expectation of quality. At Melia in Dusseldorf, we found a relatively modern building with clean, large rooms. There was good internet in the rooms that was included with the price of the room. The restaurant served buffet style breakfast that was not automatically included in the room price, but available for a nominal fee. They also served dinner, but we didn’t sample evening meals, preferring instead to find our meals outside in one of the many close-by restaurants. Parking was an additional \u20ac25.00 per day. We would normally be annoyed at the parking price, but having just left New York City where the price to park (assuming you could live through a car ride to the hotel) was a staggering $70.00 per night! It made Dusseldorf seem like a bargain.<\/p>\n