Headed On A Jet Plane

Last Thursday Rich and I grabbed our suitcases and got an Uber up to Tottenham Hale at 4am and jetted off in true London style to Stansted airport. After extensively browsing the duty free (where I decided to become a grown up and splashed out on some Chanel foundation and a Bobbi Brown eyebrow pencil - highly recommended by my friend Rosie) we hopped a plane to the German city of Düsseldorf. Despite having been to Hamburg, Berlin and Ibiza together this was Rich and I's first trip alone together, and the first where he's had to endure me on a plane. I wouldn't say I'm a nervous flyer, but having suffered from chronic travel sickness when I was younger, it definitely puts the fear in me. Thankfully Germanwings eased the situation with some classic sick bag humor: Keine Angst, wir nehmen es nicht persönlich.

After an incredibly short flight, only an hour and fifteen, we touched down at Düsseldorf International. Just a handy travel tip if any of you are per chance thinking of travelling to Düsseldorf - don't fly Ryanair, there is a second Düsseldorf airport which Ryanair exclusively fly to which is actually miles and miles from the city, hence why the fares they offer are so low.

We arrived at around 10:30 so after dropping our bags off at our hotel we headed straight out for some well earned breakfast. We stopped off on the edge of Karlstadt Square at a place called Bastians. It had a lush bakery at one end and a cafe at the other. It was rammed which I always take as a good sign so we settled down at a table in the corner and tucked in to a traditional German buffet.

After a quick explore around town we headed back to the hotel to check into our room. We stayed in the Hotel Sir Astor (ranked #7 out of 242 hotels in the city on tripadvisor) which was really, really nice and only a 10 minute walk away from the Altstadt. The staff were lovely and welcoming from the moment we stepped through the door. The lobby was cosy and festive and our room large and bright. Everything down to the last detail was perfect.

After a quick nap (not going to lie I don't cope well without my 8 hours any more) we headed out to explore the Christmas markets. We walked all the way down to the river and chose a traditionally German-looking pub to have our first round of schnitzel and sausages.