This is the last part of our journey through northwest Europe. On this last part Roman and I wind our way through Luxembourg and the Rhine Valley in Germany to end up in Düsseldorf for our flight home. Because we were using our award miles, Düsseldorf became the easiest option to fly out of.
Getting through Luxembourg and Germany is generally very easy, as long as the trains are on time. Throughout my whole life, I’ve always been told that the German trains were notorious for being on-time and always kept schedule. So I wasn’t worried when we booked our tickets online that the connections were only 2 minutes at some of the train stations. The reality was that in Germany we had the worst connections and barely made most of them.
From Luxembourg City, the train winds its was east over one of the many beautiful viaducts. The train ride is worth the scenery and within 15 minutes we were already half way to the German border, stopping in towns such as Sandweiler, Betzdorf, Wecker, and Mertert. The last stop on the Luxembourg side is a city named Wasserbillig, and this is where we had to change trains for a bus since they were working on tracks in Germany.
This area of Luxembourg and Germany is mountainous and gorgeous. I couldn’t get enough of the rivers, steep cliffs, valleys and the little homes that dotted the immense landscape. I’ve always known that the Rhine region of Germany was supposed to be beautiful but it’s different when you see it for your own.
Luckily we got on an earlier bus than we had originally planned and that’s because we chose a 15 minute earlier train. This made all the difference since the earlier bus only made it to across the German side to the next connecting city of Trier within 5 minutes of our next train to Koblenz.
We left Wasserbillig and immediately entered Germany by climbing up steep roads to a bridge connecting the two countries. The total time on the bus was a mere 30 minutes but we almost cut it too close for our next connection.
On our way from Trier to Koblenz, we passed ever-changing landscape mostly dominated by mountains, trees and the few cities that lined the Mosel River. We never stayed too far from this river the entire way to Koblenz, and I’m assuming this area is very popular with climbers, hikers, and campers because there were many German vacationers. The Mosel River actually is one of the rivers that feeds into the Rhein River.
Keep your camera charged and out for the entire train ride and make sure you get access to both sides of the train. The route curves down the river and stops at nearly 50 train stations making the pace seem pretty slow. At least there is wide windows and plenty of opportunity to snap some amazing shots. The train was mostly packed in the beginning but with every stop closer to Koblenz, the train thinned out until there was almost nobody on the train. I highly recommend traveling in this region as its beautiful and not as many foreign travelers make their way through there. I did see it’s possible to come by River Cruising as companies like Viking River Cruises stop in cities like Trier.
Once in Koblenz, we were at the city where the Mosel and Rhein river meet. To complete our journey we had to head north now and follow the Rhine River to Düsseldorf. Because this is a well-traveled route this train ride is on a bigger train that is much faster. In fact we were going to cover a further distance from Koblenz to Düsseldorf, then we had just completed from Luxembourg City.
We boarded the train late yet again and I was beginning to believe that German trains really didn’t have it together. Throughout out our travels in Belgium, Netherlands, and France we never had one train late and so this was shocking to see that the German trains weren’t on time!
This train is quick and whizzed through some cities at blazing speed. This train was designed in the way that Harry Potter trains are designed, with one hallway and 6 seats in a compartment. It was comfy but did look a little outdated.
The train passes through the city of Cologne were it seems the rest of German trains also passed through. We ended up being in the Cologne area for a total of 30 minutes because of train traffic, further delaying our time until we arrived in Düsseldorf. At almost 6 hours this was definitely the longest part of any of our train travels throughout Europe and I was quite ready to be at our hotel.
In Düsseldorf we first had to figure out if we needed to taxi to our hotel or if we could save and take public transportation. It became pretty clear that we weren’t going to be able to find our way on public transportation being that we didn’t know German that well and Germans didn’t speak English that well either. And then we needed to figure out if we had to draw some Euros or just ask taxis if they took card. Luckily Roman knew some German to ask one of the taxi drivers if they took a credit card and they did. But beware that many taxis in Germany won’t take credit cards and Euros are always preferred.
Our hotel was on the outskirts of the town and far from downtown Düsseldorf. We decided to not even attempt to go back to the city after we checked in since it was nearly 7 at night. Our American Airlines flight was at 9:45 in the morning and we didn’t have the energy to hit the town.
The hotel we stayed out was one of the better hotels fir entire trip and that is saying a lot since we never stayed at any bad hotels. The Van Der Valk Airporthotel Düsseldorf is located within 5 minutes of the airport and we could see airplanes take off from our room.
First off, the hotel was gorgeous, modern and relatively inexpensive. However the major drawback is that it’s far from downtown Düsseldorf, so that is probably why it’s so inexpensive. With no restaurants around they do charge a lot for food.
I enjoyed, the gym, sauna, and the very large rooms with the ultra large windows for great viewing of planes taking off and landing. Truly a great hotel and a great way to end our time in Europe. I also recommend Düsseldorf to fly in and out of or even connect through since the airport is modern and not as well-traveled as other European cities. Expect less delays and an easier experience.
Our flight left on-time and was full. Another benefit that Düsseldorf had, was American flies direct to Chicago O’Hare, making this a really great option. The drawback of this flight was that it was on an American 767 which are old and lack the amenities of my favorite 777 plane. However Roman and I had seats to ourselves with a window view that did help the situation.
A feature I learned on this trip was that iPhone Google Maps App lets you still track where you are even if you turn cellular data off. So while flying I was able to pull up my app and track where we were. We ended up flying over the Faroe Islands, into Iceland, over Greenland, into northern Canada and then into the Chicago area. I have the pictures from my iPhone and camera to prove it!
Overall this trip was another amazing European experience and really there was no downsides. Each city we visited was unique in its own right and for majority of the trip I was experiencing something new. The trip was expensive and a little more than I budgeted but we did go during the summer where prices are usually double of that in the winter. It’s hard to budget for a trip in Europe but if you don’t like to stay in hostels you’re going to have a hard time when you start realizing how much everything costs. Another thing I wish for next time is to be in Europe for a longer period and to not rush to so many cities while there. This trip was 13 days and we visited 4 countries. Although we never felt rushed it still is a lot of traveling and not always ideal. It’s hard to not over plan but my recommendation is to stick to a small region and really get to experience it.
Well feel free to go back to my past blogs and read more about my travels through Europe. I will be posting on YouTube all of my videos so make sure to keep checking back! This time I decided to talk about each city more in-depth and offer some insights into the different places I traveled to. Also make sure to like me on Google+ and Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Thanks for reading!
images by: shawnvoyage
