Düsseldorf
Germany
Düsseldorf
CVJM Hotel
Graf-Adolf-Str 102, 40210 Düsseldorf
02 11 17 285 0
for reservations and the Hotel's homepage, click here
Highly Recommended!
Back then, just 49 € a night, including excellent breakfast.
Loved the location, just a few
steps from the main station. Very clean with modern, bright and efficient rooms,
and an excellent breakfast. The close proximity to the main station, from where
I took the S-Bahn nearly every evening to Cologne (Köln) to work-out in
the 24 HR Fitness gym there, and the trains for day-trips to Aachen and Trier.
There is also a laundromat nearby, a post-office right across from the main
station, and a nice internet place diagonally across from the hotel at a corner
(toward the right). Nearly directly across is the Turkish restaurant Andalu
and for the money, the best thing around. They serve at least one hot vegetarian
dish every day. Going to the Kö (Königsallee), the premier shopping
street in Düsseldorf, one can find in the Gallerie mall, during the week,
an excellent stand-up restaurant (there's also a gym on the top floor - free
to members of 24HR Fitness), where outstanding and healthy hot foods are served
- you choose from the various dishes. Below is a Kaiser grocery store. Keep
in mind, for those who travel Germany, that virtually all stores, but a few
tourist places and restaurants, are closed from Saturday afternoon until Monday
morning, by law. It's always a Saturday afternoon race to stock up on food and
drink for the weekend. In a pinch one can buy at the main stations, which usually
have some fruit and food places open for the traveling population. Getting around
town is easy. Just buy a day's or week's pass for the public transportation
system in the main station, and use Trolleys, buses, U-Bahn, and S-Bahn at your
leisure.
You will find an inexpensive Internet place right out front.
Düsseldorf is a good place to use as a day-trip hub. Here you've got this excellent hotel right near the train station. From there it is just a 20 minute ride to Cologne, less than two hours to Aachen, where Charlemain's (Karl the Great's) bones are entombed. And a longer, but lovely ride to the Mosel valley to Trier, Germany's oldest city, well worth a visit. Also, the Köln-Düsseldorf tour boats leave from here, and take you on a nice dinner trip up the Rhine river. Lastly, there is a very nice old town, a number of museums, and some impressive modern architecture, the new City Gate, and the State House, next to the TV tower, from which you can have a stunning view of the city and the twisting Rhine.
If that hotel is full, this would be a suitable substitute, reached by taking the trolley to the Kö, and then just a short walk from the trolley stop.
In 2008 I will try to stay at the CVJM again. I'll be in town for a (for me the first) class reunion.
Hotel Bristol
Hotel.Bristol@web.de
It too was completely renovated in 2000. incl. breakfast.
Munich
Kurpfalz Hotel
reserve a room
at the Kurpfalz Hotel
Schwanthalerstrasse 121, 80339 München Tel: (49 0 89) 5 40 98 69
Highly recommended!
superb breakfast included.
Absolutely loved the place. It
is just two or three trolley stops from the railway station (depending if you
exit it from the front, or from the side). Buy a multi-day transportation ticket.
It's worth it and good for all busses, trams and subways. The place is bright,
clean, and has the best breakfast included anywhere. It has a small Iranian
run shop, to buy fruit and snacks, right next door, beyond that, a Laundromat,
and another fruit store around the corner. The cherries and grapes were delicious.
Small restaurants abound. I used the hotel as base for many day trips into the
amazingly beautiful Bavarian Alps and to view Ludwig's stunning fantasy castles.
Piece of cake. An Easy Everything Internet place (open 24/7) is right across
from the main entrance of the main railway station. München is a place
of great sights and tons of fun. Visit the BMW factory (make a reservation 2-3
months ahead - BMW website), or wander the city park, and act shocked at the
nudists there, or go to the over-the-top city hall and enjoy the largest icecream
dish you can imagine. Head for the Hofbräu Haus and Quaff a cool one or
let yourself be dazzled by the many historic places that can be found in abundance.
Berlin
Charlottenburger Hof
See
more of the Hotel and make reservations here
Stuttgarter Platz 14, 10627 Berlin
Tel: 32 90 70
$55-60, depending on season. Coffee or tea available in the community room at all times. Coin laundry in-house.
A very pleasant place to stay and
well recommended. Food stores abound all around and it is just across from a
S-Bahn station that takes you just about anywhere in Berlin and is just two,
maybe three stops from the main Railroad station. No breakfastincluded, though
a great bargain for Berlin. A restaurant is below and they do serve a nice breakfast.
As usual, I prefer to buy what I eat and not frequent restaurants a great deal.
From the hotel, it's a busride to the Egyptian Museum, where one can see the
one and only bust of Nefertiti. Also, using the convenient nearby subway connection
took me right to a huge rooftop 24HR Fitness gym in the heart of one of Berlin's
big districts. The S-Bahn station right across from the hotel is the best and
fasted way to get to nearly every major sight of Berlin. Make sure to go to
Museum Island, where unbelievable displays of Greek staturary and one of the
Babylonian gates are on display. The Pergamon Altar was purchased from the Turkish
government and rescued by German archeologists from the Turkish natives, who
were at that time buring the acient Greek statues as fuel. From there take a
walk down Unter den Linden toward the Brandenburg Gate, past the huge and delightfully
ugly former Soviet embassy. The US embassy is off a side street surrounded by
fences and German police for protection. From there it's just a hop and skip
to the renovated and glass-domed (thus totally open to the world) Reichstag
building. This all barely scratches the surface of what Berlin has to offer.
The extremely friendly hotel personnel has maps and advice to give out and there
are large wall-mounted maps for the guests to plan their excursions.
Lübeck
With a very nice breakfast included
For those of you who would venture
there, it is a place I recommend. The lady (day time manager) even provided
me with some sandwiches when I departed for Denmark. Nice old place, directly
across from the railroad station and perfect base from which to explore the interesting old city, built on a large river island.
I went there because of the old and famous Lübeck city gate and the reasonable
proximity (a very scenic commuter train ride) to Schleswig and the Haithabu
Viking museum.
