I learnt a valuable lesson last weekend: you can’t park in Düsseldorf on a Sunday.
Well, maybe that’s not entirely true, but it’s definitely not easy.
Last Sunday I wanted to hear Cathy Dobson’s public reading from her book “Planet Germany“. I left in plenty of time. Driving to Düsseldorf is usually a matter of about 2½ hours. A bit more if I hit Cologne around the rush hour, but not on a Sunday. Not on a public holiday.
But I decided to allow myself plenty of time anyway, and left home 4 hours before the reading was due to start.
The only trouble was, that the motorway to the east of Cologne was closed to allow a bridge to be removed!
I ended up going along the motorway to Aachen and then to the west of Cologne to get there, as did quite a few other motorists, and so it was that my journey took me the exact 4 hours that I had planned.
Arriving in the Düsseldorf Altstadt at exactly 5pm, I was glad that I had been given a tip as to the nearest car park. Instead of driving to the reading, I set the satnav to go to the car park instead. It was closed.
But luckily I had seen signs to two other car parks. Unluckily, they were closed as well.
I proceeded to spend the next half hour driving around the streets of Düsseldorf looking for a parking space, but I didn’t find one. Not one!
I was on the verge of giving up, when I eventually – after widening the search – found a car park that was open and had only 5 spaces left in it. Not surprising, if the rest were shut. Only I calculated the walk back to be a good 30 minutes. So I’d be arriving at least an hour late, that’s assuming that I found one of the 5 spaces straight away.
So I gave up and drove home, which entailed another detour via Gießen to avoid the closed part of the A3 motorway.
What I do not understand, is the way the car parks in Düsseldorf are signed. Perhaps the city council has a strange sense of humour, but I find it annoying that outside they show spaces available, only to greet you with a message at the ticket barrier that the car park is closed.
More to the point, where do you park if you are visiting Düsseldorf on a Sunday?
About Graham
I was really sorry to miss you, Graham. I did manage to find somewhere to park, right outside the venue. OK… it wasn’t exactly a legal parking space, but it didn’t obstruct anything… and I was pretty sure that no wardens would be working on a Sunday, which was also a public holiday!
@eumel_8 wrote: “If no events are scheduled in Esprit Arena you can park in the area of ? Duesseldorf Fair. 10 min with U78 inner city.”