As I had an early afternoon flight I for once was able to head to the airport from home, rather than having to stay overnight at the airport.

I had a smooth journey through the airport and onto the flight which arrived pretty much on time in Düsseldorf and with an incredibly smooth journey through the empty immigration hall, I was able to catch a train from the Airport Terminal station within 15 minutes of landing. It also meant that I could catch the train to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof to pick up my train to Münster from there, rather than trying to pick it up at the Airport main station.

This turned out to be a very good idea as the train was over 15 minutes late leaving Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof and was already full and standing at that point. If I’d boarded at the airport I would have had a long wait on the platform for the train to arrive and rather than having a seat I would have had to stand most of the 90 minute journey.

By the time we got to Münster the train had lost even more time, in part due to the train being so full that it took ages to stop at each station as people tried to get on and off, so I was glad it was only a very short walk through the station underpass to my hotel where I was able to checkin, drop my bags off and then head back out into town.

The railway station, and my hotel, sit on the southeastern corner of the city, outside the former city walls which were demolished in the 17th century, but the land was retained as a path, which today has been developed into a path and cycle track, creating a green fortress style ring around the city.

I headed straight for the centre of the city and the Domplatz to take in the cathedral, expecting to find one of the city’s Christmas markets there, but it turns out the domplatz is the main weekly market square and consequently doesn’t host the Christmas market, however a short walk away was the Überwasserkirche and that did have one of the main markets located in it’s grounds so I spent a bit of time wandering around that, stopping for some Glühwein and bratwurst before heading back in towards the centre of the city and exploring more of the old town and discovering several more of the city’s Christmas markets, though all in the process of closing at it was gone 9pm.

I took that as a hint to start making my way back to the station and my hotel room, stopping off in the bar for a quick nightcap before turning in.

I took that as a hint to start making my way back to the station and my hotel room, stopping off in the bar for a quick nightcap before turning in.

After breakfast I headed out of the hotel and over to the Promenade, the former fortifications of the city which now form a pleasant 4.5Km walk around the edge of the old town, and went for a walk along them, stopping off at the Zwinger – a former bulwark tower which was converted into a prison, and during the dark days at the end of the Second World War into a place of torture and execution of Polish and Russian PoWs by the Gestapo.

From the Zwinger I walked on past the only other surviving tower of the old city walls the Buddenturm and then round past the Schloß Münster, the former city palace, now part of the city’s University. A short walk on from there and the promenade meets the site of the Old Zoo, the Alter Zoo, where some of the original structures that would have housed the animals have been retained, after the zoo moved out to better facilities on the edge of the city.

It was then a short walk further round the ramparts to where they meet the Aasee, the city’s lake and forming the southern border of the old city. After taking in the lake it was only a short walk to be back to where I’d started my walk. Having completed the promenade I turned into the old town and back across to the Cathedral to have a look around the St.-Paulus-Dom.

I spent quite a bit of time looking round the cathedral before heading over to the nearby St. Lamberti Church. The church is much smaller than the cathedral, and also has a more grizzly past. Following the defeat of the Münster Rebellion of 1534-1535 the three leaders of the uprising were executed and their bodies hung up in three cages placed on the spire of the church as a warning to others. Whilst the bodies may have long gone (and much of the original fabric of the building during the bombing raids of WWII), three replica cages still hang from the spire of the church.

From the Churches I had a long wander through the streets of the old town, stopping off at a couple of the markets, including a pause for a sausage based lunch, before making my way over to the Botanical Gardens located in the grounds of the Schloß Münster.

I arrived at the gardens with about an hour to look round them, which would have been sufficient time if both British Airways and the weather hadn’t conspired to cut my visit short. Part way round the gardens I got an alert of my phone to say that my flight back home the following evening had just been cancelled due to air traffic restrictions because of forecast high winds, so I had to spend a little while getting myself rebooked in the end onto a flight on the Monday morning as there was no space on the Sunday afternoon flights – which was probably for the best at that would have meant cutting my trip short and losing most of the Sunday to get back to Düsseldorf in time.

Just as I’d finished sorting that out the first drops of rain started to fall, which rapidly deteriorated into a particularly heavy downpour which meant I spent most of the rest of the time before closing time sheltering in one of the greenhouses. Thankfully the rain decreased before it was time to kick everyone out so I didn’t get so wet heading back into town.

I headed back to the hotel just to check that the replacement eTicket from British Airways had come through, and to book myself a night at an airport hotel near Düsseldorf before heading back into town to explore more of the Christmas Markets, including dinner.

My visits to the Christmas Markets complete, I returned back to the hotel with the last of my Christmas presents purchased and after a quick nightcap turned in for the night.

I though I’d learnt my lesson from the previous day and got up a bit earlier for breakfast, but it turned out everyone else had also had the same idea, and I ended up having to wait even longer to get somewhere to sit down and have breakfast.

Breakfast finally completed I checked out of the hotel and headed back into town to visit the Stadtmuseum, or City Museum, which charts the history of the city from the pre-historic era through to the modern day including it’s rise to be an Hansiatic city that was bigger and more important than Cologne, and it’s fall back from those heights. Throughout the museum there are models of how the city looked at different stages throughout history with the model from 1945 showing just how much of the ancient heart of the city was destroyed.

Having looked round the museum I went for a wander through the city, arriving in the domplatz at the same time as the hop-on-hop-off bus tour was pulling in at the end of it’s tour and preparing for it’s next one so I hopped on that to have a tour of the city before getting back off again at the cathedral and hour later.

By now it was time to start making a move from Münster so I headed back to the hotel to pick up my bags and catch the train back to Düsseldorf Airport and my additional night in Germany.

The RE2 train was already pretty packed when it pulled in and I decided there was no way I was going to get a seat on it, but thankfully on the opposite side of the platform was the RE42 service which was due to leave a couple of minutes later and, despite having to change in Duisburg, would get me to the airport only 20 minutes later, and that had plenty of seats, so I had a comfortable if slightly slower journey back.

Back in Düsseldorf airport I walked over to my hotel for the night – having booked the Sheraton (BA were paying so I wasn’t going cheap), located within the terminal, to check-in.

I headed back down into the terminal to visit the supermarket located at the very far end of the building to grab some stuff for dinner and after dinner and a drink in the hotel bar I had an early night as I needed to get up early to put a couple of hours work in before my flight, given I was supposed to be at work on the Monday!

I got up early to get some work done before heading down for breakfast and then back to my room to pack, finish off some work and, only once the inbound plane from London was actually airborne, checkout and head over to the terminal to go through security and head to the gate.

It was a smooth flight, and only a few minutes late landing – though we pulled up on the gate closest to immigration at Terminal 5, so that probably saved us more time than we were late.

I was also able to get an Uber in record quick time, with the driver already entering the short stay carpark as I exited customs so I had to walk quickly to make sure I made it to the pickup point just as he arrived. It thankfully meant I was back home before lunch and with the early start and the afternoon managed to do a full days work, despite BA’s best efforts!