Hauptbahnhof just after Christmas
On my 11th meet-up I travel with Anna-Isabel to Düsseldorf. I picked her up with my car at the train station in Terborg. That’s more than halfway from my house to the Emmerich train station where we will take the train straight to Düsseldorf. We should arrive there at 14:56 and we were there very pünktlich! But we did not see anyone we knew. So hurry to our hotel and check in. This was quit fast and back to the train station. We knew already from Lieke’s SMS that most of them were there. Just Brett and James were parking the car.
But now I heart a new strategy to get people to meet-ups. I saw Ket there and was surprised. Then I heart the story from Erin. They just drove by Ket’s house and they kidnapped him in the back of brett’s car. This is not made up by me. IT REALLY HAPPENED. Waaw… travbuddies, if there is a meet-up coming: Lock your doors! J
After welcoming everybody we start walking through Düsseldorf.
Altstadt
We were heading to der Altstadt. We did not stop too much because it was freezing cold. In der Altstadt we found der Weisser Bär. While we were there in the back, a few of us start shopping for memory cards, batteries and cash money! All the stuff a travbuddy need! After a few drinks we had to go if we want to do some more sightseeing. We walked a little bit and I got a déjà vu ! We walked in the old town and I saw on the market square the statue of Jan Wellem. Didn’t I see him almost 378 times J. Oké, a lot of us didn’t. We walked to the rhine river and after discussing we decided to have something to eat, because our diner is planned just after 9pm. We walked back and had some Bratwurst or Pommes to eat. Next place was Lauro’s favourite: Das Schaukel stühlchen.
There Ket got a big surprise: Thy (pronounce “tea”) arrived.
To proof we were on time!
She’s a local so she’s now our guide. After finishing our drinks we followed her and Thomas (he is so big and walking in front ??). You can imagine that we could not follow them that fast. We had to take some pictures whilst walking to the restaurant “the mongolian place”. But there wasn’t enough place for us. We looked around and found enough place at ‘Tucans’. We had 2 tables and a lot of fun and more then enough to eat. For €25,- eat all you can, and no time limit. I saw the napkin’s there and thought about making a hat, but didn’t… That’s Maike’s speciality! Oh I remember something…. Maike, if you read this, on NYE you HAVE to speak to James (pearcetoyou). He will explain why J
We left there at almost midnight (they wanted us to leave…) Most of us said goodbye, because the US-people did fly in just this morning and hadn’t had any sleep for the last 30 hours.
Church - Martin Luther Platz
4 Die-hards kept on going: Anna-Isabel, Lieke, Tom and I. We walked again back to the Altstadt and stayed again at the “weissen Bär” After problems with ordering drinks we stayed there till almost 3am. There were not that many people but the music was quiet alright. Although the DJ made some mistakes by shutting down the music and the people should continue to sing. It stayed quiet …… I think nobody knew the song. Also were there some interrupts between 2 numbers. He must be new there J
We walked to the hotels and halfway we said goodbye to Lieke and Tom. Anna-Isabel and I found our hotel easily (thank you Lieke) and we slept till 9:30.
After showering, having breakfast and checking out, we were just in time at the train station to catch our train back to Emmerich. I drove her to Doetinchem because we thought she could catch an earlier train, but is wasn’t successful. I stayed with her till her train came and we said goodbye. 25 minutes later I was home after another successful meet-up in Düsseldorf!
