Day 164 to Day 165 - Why book?

Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Dusseldorf (Germany) - V.I.P. Hotel

Day 164 - We took the train to Dusseldorf in the morning - a nice easy trip over the border i.e. no border at all from what we could tell, that's the European Union for you.

On arrival we dragged our luggage the kilometre or so to our hotel, checked in, then went for a walk through town and along the banks of the Rhine where there were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine.

Day 165 - The next day (with more lovely weather) we walked around town to visit the main sites, the Alte Stadt, cathedrals (including St. Lambertus with its famous crooked spire), some interesting sculptures, nice gardens, etc. On the Rhine there were plenty of cruise boats, including a couple of very large ones that seemed to be inhabited mainly by elderly tourists. In retrospect, even though Dusseldorf was nice enough, we could have skipped it and headed for somewhere a little more interesting as our first stop in Germany, but as we currently seem to planning at most only two or so days in advance, and our access to the internet hasn't been as good as we'd hoped, there are bound to be some missteps along the way.